Less is Most Definitely More

I guess we’ve all seen websites that just go on, and on, and on, and on….

They are full of information we don’t need to know and certainly don’t want to know. Things like Our company was formed in 1890….We have 35 members of staff….Our MD drives a Smartcar…

What were they thinking of when they wrote it?

It’s rather like a kid in a sweet shop. Do you remember that feeling? You are stood in the shop, peeking over the counter at the rows of jars containing delicious sweets in all shapes and sizes. You can’t decide what you want so you buy everything you possibly can. When your mum sees you she tells you not to eat them all at once because you’ll be sick.

‘OK mum,’ you shout as you disappear up to your room.

What’s the first thing you do? Scoff all the sweets as fast as possible. You don’t known when to stop. The result? One very sick child.

It’s the same scenario with the website. The sweets in this case is the information. When you write your own website copy you just want to include everything because you believe it is important. You’re proud of your company’s achievments, and quite rightly so. But your reader only wants to know what you will do for them. They couldn’t care less about anything else.

If you overload your website with material it won’t take long for your reader to get rather sick of it, hit the back browser and look elsewhere.

So, the moral of the story is to be economical with your information. As the title of this post says, less is most definitely more. Tell your reader simply what you’ll do for them i.e. the benefits of your service (you’ll save them time, money etc.). Take a step back and resist the urge to fill your website with information that only you want to read.

Be ruthless – your readers will love you for it.