Website traffic is very valuable. That’s why you need to pay attention to things that keeps those valuable visitors on your site until they take the action you want them to take.
If you want people who have found your site stay there longer than a split second, there are a bunch of elements that can be used to lengthen the visiting time.
One of the easiest is to use a font type and size is easily readable. Keep in mind that it’s more strenuous on the eyes to read from a computer screen than to read the printed page. Here you can learn a lot from those who do direct marketing by email. They seldom divert from the 12-pt. courier font because it is easy to read.
Using one of the general and common font styles (such as Arial, Verdana or Tahoma) on your website is important because if you choose something exotic, and the viewer doesn’t have that font style on their computer, then the default font for the browser will be substituted and the text will look very different from what you intended it to look like.
A common online practice is to use a script font for signatures, but this can easily backfire if the font is not available to the website visitor. A better method is to use a scanned image of your actual signature.
You should also break up long passages of text into shorter paragraphs and sentences. Long paragraphs without much ‘white space’ are discouraging to read.
Leave that for the sections of your website that the law requires but you hope no one reads.
Another point to keep in mind is that your background image should not compete with your foreground material. In most cases a plain white text background would serve you best. Make sure that your background image or ‘water marks’ are not competing with the text. If you have gray colored fonts against a black background this will create unnecessary strain on the eyes.
