Making or Breaking An Article – 5 Tips On Publishing Content

When reading content, regardless if published in an e-book or on the internet, as a blog or an company website, our unconscious brain scans it and decides very quickly if we like what we read or not.
Not only WHAT we read makes our unconscious brain decide if we enjoy it or not, but its READABILITY influences us as well with aspects such as font, font size and text color, just to name a few samples.

This sounds very logical, but there are still countless websites which make rookie mistakes.

Processing Fluency is the ease with which information is processed and basically means how easily the brain processes information.

Research has revealed that it is vital that a text can be processed easily and quickly. Subconscious levels in our brain influence our behavior based on how we experience reading content. The easier it is for us to read it, the more positive we feel about it. When something is familiar, it is easy to process, and it is given a higher value.

Therefore, stick to the following rules when publishing web content:

1. Select an easily readable font, for example Arial or Verdana.  Bear in mind that website visitors often scan texts. To make these texts easily readable, stick to these fonts with font size 12
2. Keep in mind your target audience; if they are seniors, increase the font size or at least enable them to increase it
3. Verify that the text color has adequate contrast with the background. Make sure that the text can be read easily on the background of your site
4. Be gentle using various colors in the same text, underlining and capitalizing words. If used excessively, it can have quite a disturbing effect
5. Use bullets and ensure that there is ample spacing between words and paragraphs. It contributes to the readability of a text as well

Good luck and keep it simple!