There's more to writing for a website than just the content. Today, I'm talking to Laura Barr of Barr Web Services. We are discussing accessibility, usability,  SEO, and Analytics for authors.  With the rise of online fiction and more people flocking to their phones and tablets to read their favorite stories, we need to be conscientious of making our stories accessible for everyone.

Laura is also an avid fantasy reader who reads 3-4 books a week! So writers, listen to a reader and website designers ideas of what you need on your author website and blog.

Most of the research is from Nielsen Norman Group (NNG) or Laura's own user research that we discuss in the episode.

NNG: In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word. (Update: a newer study found that users read email newsletters even more abruptly than they read websites.) (Study first done in 1997, but 2020 results still support this)

NNG: Users will decide if your content is “good” or “bad” within ten seconds. (Article)

Personal Research: Need to meet user expectations. In a usability testing group of about 10 people, I asked them to try and apply to a position at the organization. No one got there through the navigation despite it being a top navigation item. Users are trained to look for specific types of content in specific locations and it’s important to meet these expectations.

NNG: People scan websites in different ways: F scanning and zigzag are popular

NNG: Ad blindness: people completely skip ads or ad like items on a webpage without realizing it.

Are you interested in getting your website refreshed? Contact Laura @ https://barrwebservices.com/