How to Make Your Content Easier to Skim.
People skim. And no, I don’t need statistics to prove that.
The days are gone when jam-packed content gets read.
It might get engagement, but not reads.
In the end, it all depends on context and we’ll explore that in a bit but for now, you must understand why people skim.
A day has 24 hours. That is 1440 minutes.
And most people wish they had more time, more minutes.
If someone spends 15–20 minutes reading your content, it means you’ve made it worth their time.
Today that’s incredibly hard to do and is only going to get worse.
I want to show you how to write skimmable content so you can:
- keep your audience engaged,
- keep them reading your content,
- have them following you and wanting more.
The Problem with Dense Content
Dense content was the default before anyone cared about online writing and attention spans.
Today? Totally different world.
People log onto social media platforms for entertainment.
Chunks of text are not entertaining.
Chunks of insanely technical long pieces of text are NOT entertaining.
People even complain about reading a whole paragraph of text online.
That means people are not willing to read a paragraph made of more than a hundred words on a page simply because they can’t seem to follow through with all the sentences and since their attention spans are so short, and even if they aren’t too short, they can’t focus till the end because it’s a chunky paragraph.
See what I mean? If you didn’t experience that, let me know in the comments.
Dense content is boring.
It might be valuable, but it’s boring and people don’t want boring.
This is exactly why you’ll write top-level content and it goes nowhere.
(Always leaves you questioning with every fiber of your being if this is for you)
Dense content loses leads.
Dense content has low engagement.
The Benefits of Skimmable Content
Skimmable content is fun.
It’s faster to read, hopefully to understand too.
People want information quick & easy.
Most people say it’s dumbing down your content.
It’s not dumbing down, it’s opening up.
You’re not showing how smart you are, you are optimizing for reading speed.
If you’re on LinkedIn, you’ve seen a sexy, well-formatted short post.
Although people are taking it ridiculously far, it proves a point.
Skimmable content gets read.
It’s easier to remember the content you skimmed through, primarily because you skimmed through it.
It increases engagement and also increases time spent on a post.
Noone’s going to read a chunky piece of content so yes, it increases the time spent on your content.
How to Make Your Content Skimmable.
I’ll show you 6 ways.
1. Use Subheadings
Subheadings create divisions.
They say “you’re almost done, just a little bit more, " which keeps a reader engaged.
It might not work like that for platforms like LinkedIn or X.
Take a look at this piece of content you’re reading.
I separated it under different subheadings to make it easier for you to read and easier for me to write.
It brings all your focus into this section because you know when you’ll be done, which helps you become even more concentrated.
Basically, subheadings are roadmaps for readers.
Listicles
The lists. God, everyone uses lists.
Listicles are items listed in bullet form.
This is an example of a listicle(what you’ll learn here):
- how to keep your audience engaged,
- how to keep them reading your content,
- how to have them following you and wanting more.
There’s a tendency to make it flow.
Each sentence is longer than the last to create a slope or shorter than the last to create a hill.
Just log onto LinkedIn and you’ll find these everywhere.
Short Paragraphs
Do this using parataxis(stay with me here).
This is parataxis.
It’s a short sentence.
Like this.
Not too long, not too short either.
It’s just phrase after phrase.
And no, you don’t need to use just periods(full stops); you could use any punctuation, in fact — the goal is to make the reader pause.
Bold Key Phrases
You barely use these on social media platforms.
But on places like Medium? Pure gold.
I don’t personally use them but they do work.
They create more emphasis and signal, “Look at ME!!!!”
Visuals
I could talk about this all day.
For your sake, I’ll make this snappy. Visuals get you more attention. More attention than usual in fact.
If your hook doesn’t move the needle, you can be sure a well-designed visual will.
And most content creators think design is about looking good but it’s actually about guiding action.
I’ll add a link to that article at the end using “Design is About Guiding Action.”
That’s it. Visuals are important. You need them.
Now, you’ll meet some people saying you don’t need visuals and it might be true.
It all comes down to what works for you but I would argue visuals can work for all.
White Space
Use space between lines and paragraphs to give the content room to breathe.
You’ve seen this here.
I’ve shown you what effective use of whitespace feels like.
Just scroll through this, you don’t even have to read. It’s skimmable.
This is the default spacing for Medium though. It’s different for all platforms.
You have to find what works. For you.
Hooks and CTAs
Hooks
Without a hook, a strong hook, no one will read your content.
This is not negative energy, it’s more of tough love.
Strong hooks pull people in immediately (the first sentence matters)
Call-to-Actions
I don’t think these should be reserved for the end.
Clearly visible CTAs help direct skimmers to take action without having to search through your content.
I mean, they understand it while reading the content.
You just say it at the end to fulfill some sort of law ;)
Now, dear reader, I implore you to go into the world and create skimmable content.
Write your stories. Share your stories. Just do something with stories.
Ohh, and if you’re not already, please give me a follow.
You’re in for a journey you didn’t see coming.
Article I talked about: Design is About Guiding Action.
