Loads and Loads and Loads and Loads of Text...

...I don't like it (from experience, I know quite a lot of "people" don't like it). 

I've been looking at a few service providers for various things today e.g. office, a PPC supplier etc and I've noticed on a few occassions 2,000 word essays describing the service. 

Now, I can be a bit of a waffler, and in some instances I go into a lot of detail (blog posts), however (and unless I'm involved in a forum conversation ;)), I typically go for brevity, particularly when it comes to selling online i.e. landing pages. 

Even if I do go into more detail on a landing page I will still emphasise main selling points on the page, so a user doesn't have to scroll/scan through tons of content to get to what they want to read. 

#justsaying

I think it's always best to give a small teaser/introduction online rather than everything and the kitchen sink, especially if your conversions usually happen on the phone or person to person.

Presenting information quickly and in a concise manner is ultimately going to get more sales through a website and I posit that nobody ever is going to read pages upon pages of content, the only thing it's (probably) good for is SEO.

Once upon a time, many, many years ago, I was taught that the best example of communication in the U.K. is The Sun newspaper. They are extremely successful at communicationg the written word and I try to emulate them. The Sun pitches the text at a level that
 a) the average seven year old can understand,
 b) does not use more than three syllables in any word,
 c) does not use more than fifteen words in a sentence.
As with all newspapers, the editor then wields the knife on the length of article.
So to get the point across to the readership, The Sun journalists have to be clear and concise otherwise it just won't get printed.

We could all learn a lesson from them. Conversely, I once received a letter from my solicitor regarding my Will. It comprised two paragraphs each containing just the one sentence. One sentence was 54 words long whilst the other 57 words. There were spelling, grammar and punctuation mistakes. The content was full of jargon and, to this day, I am not sure what it said but it did mention my execution.

Gary

Lots of text has it's place - the web is very similar to direct mail in that respect but the text has to be interesting and relevant.

People read stuff in different ways: some skim (so headings need to tell the story), others will read the whole page (not many admit this).

Especially on the web, long text generally needs to be broken up. Images, testimonials, probably a video. One of the best long text sales pages I've seen had the complete transcript of the video that was at the top of the page. But back in the heights of direct mail 16 page letters were common (hint - because they work) and Gary Halbert even used a complete paperback as his lead-in.

Look up people like Joe Sugarman, Dan Kennedy, etc for examples of how to do this well without boring people.

And remember that Google "reads" the text even if humans don't

It's something I have to fight against, my natural urge to elaborate further and further until anybody looking at what I've written gets scared off.

I've certainly heard the Google argument before.  Much easier to get lots of keywords in a few times in a 1,000 word article than a 20 word summary.

I think it depends on your audience.  If you're selling something designed to be a time saver for busy people, then lots of waffly text isn't the way to go.

KISS

Keep It Simple Stupid

Of course, with a good design, you can do both:

Have the short version above the fold and the longer, detailed, version for those who want to scroll down.

 I regularly get e-newsletter content from clients which through no fault of their own is too long. The most common issue is superfluous words which add nothing.  For example, verbose calls to action. "We would just like to remind you that you can place order here" instead of "Order here", "Book now" etc.  "Less is more" definitely applies in the emai marketing world.

I agree. I mentioned it in a positive way. The Sun journalists know this and they are ace at conciseness. We should all be.

Gary

I don't really go in for the "before/after the fold business" - the first thing most people do when they initially load a page is scroll down immediately. Also, the fold could be anywhere as everyone has different monitor sizes and resolutions, so you can't always use this as a safe bet.

I would however agree that having taster/introductory information at the top and then the meatier stuff further down is best if you really do need lots of text.

Andy, I agree that the fold is different but generally not that different.

I disagree that everyone scrolls to down a page - I know I certainly don't do that on every page I come across. Amazon's home page is a good example - my bet is that most people use the search box rather than scrolling through the 8 or 9 different sections of content.

And definitely a call to action somewhere immediately visible. And if it's a long page, at intervals throughout.

I tend to agree - rather than a wall of text I prefer a picture, a summary of the key points/benefits and an easy way to get in contact if I'm interested.

Not keen on scrolling myself, unless something grabs me. Like this thread. In fact Gary's first post I enjoyed enough to think of including it in a 4sight, and claiming it as my own. Worth it just for the punchline. But I suppose word gets around in Scotland.

Anyway, thanks everyone so far, for a good list of tips. Happy to see more eg anyone know much on "line of sight?" You know, where the face pic eyes are looking where you want the punter to look?

Feel free to use it or scour the web for similar examples. There must be loads of examples on "how not to" web sites.

My one regret was that I didnt keep the original or even a copy. It was donated as course material for a post graduate course in Communications. Don't tell anyone, but the author is now a leading solicitor in Bond Street, London.

Gary

Ha! Even better!