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Every few months, Jakob Nielsen releases new usability findings that enlighten writers. At the same time, his research painfully reminds us that our carefully-crafted content is rarely read.

His past studies revealed that users scan pages in an F-shaped pattern. Most users read only the first two words of a paragraph – and they read 28% of the words (at most) during an average visit.

Last week, Nielsen summarized his latest research: a study of how well users understood the first 11 characters of links and headlines.

Why 11 characters? As users scan a page, they read the beginning words of product choices, headlines, search engine results and other lists. If the first 11 characters effectively guide users, the site will ultimately be more successful at supporting user goals.

The most effective 11-character link snippets were descriptive and simple. The least effective conveyed few clues regarding their destination.

Through Nielsen’s various studies, several online writing fundamentals are reinforced:

• Effective headers and subheaders are critical.
• Long paragraphs are rarely read.
• Lead with the most important keywords and information.
• Use plain language and minimize jargon.
• Minimize or eliminate marketing fluff.

Fortunately, as Nielsen points out, there’s more to user experience than the first 11 characters of a link. At the same time, we must always remember that the strategic placement of our online content matters as much as the words.