How much thought have you put into the fonts used in your website copy? Too often this little feature gets overlooked to make way for the more important aspects such as writing content, meta tags, keywords, etc. But don’t be fooled; the right font could make a big difference to the people visiting your pages.
Some of us with artistic tendencies like to experiment with fonts. We try to match the tone of a piece or page with a corresponding letter type. Surely most of us have run across a humorous website that uses Comic Sans or a serious type of site that incorporates the no-nonsense Arial in one of its many forms.
But there is more to selecting a font than merely visual impact. Let’s take a look at some further considerations regarding fonts within your website copy.
Website Copy – Font Size
Perhaps the number one mistake that many internet marketers make is using the wrong font size. There is a place for big, and a place for small.
The page title, article headline, or blog post title is where you want the largest sized font, the H1. Search engine crawlers give the most weight to the biggest text. So this is where you want keywords. In addition to SEO benefit, the larger headline or title creates skimable content that gives the visitor an indication of what type of content to expect.
The text beneath the headline or title should be of moderate size. Stick with an 11 or 12 point for the best readability. Any smaller than this and it can strain the eyes, any bigger than this and it takes attention away from the more important words on the page. Bold is a good way to make the lines of each letter a bit thicker – and draw the eye to particular parts of the text you want to receive attention as long as you don’t overdo it. If every third sentence has a bold word, it’ll lose its impact.
Finally, save the smallest font sizes for text that needs to be incorporated in the page but you don’t want to make stand out, such as the copyright information.
Website Copy – Font Colour
The human eye can best read words printed in black against a white background. When you open a new document in a word processing program, this is the default colour scheme for good reason.
On a web page, black text against a white background can look boring, but if it is something you truly want your visitors to read, you will stick with tried-and-true colours. How many times have you visited a site that had a very nice template with a dark background and lighter text? Was it easy to read? Maybe, if the front was bright white and of a reasonable size. But less contrast than that, for instance using gray letters on top of black, makes the readability factor go way down.
There are some good colour combinations you can use to jazz up your pages if you remember to provide adequate contrast. But this should be used sparingly. A sales letter that is a full page long is best presented in classic black text on top of a white or very light background due to its length and importance.
Serif Or Sans Serif
A serif font is one that uses base lines. For instance, Times New Roman is a serif font. You might never have noticed the little horizontal lines along the bottom of each part of a letter, but they are there.
On a website, a sans serif font, or one with no serif, is preferable. It appears cleaner, and it is easier to read. Plus, this gives your pages a more modern look.
There are many options when it comes to choosing fonts for website copy. Use these tips to make sure your text is easily readable and gains the attention it deserves.
See you at the top of Google!
Sean Rasmussen
SEO Australia Pacific
AussieSEO.com © 2007 - 2010
Yes! Such a fundamental and critical issue. Agree with all your points. My preferred web font is Verdana. I am also a big fan of allowing a variable text sizes. This allows the user to increase and decrease the size of the font simply by scrolling the mouse button.
.-= David Moloney´s last blog ..Positioning: The Brand Personality For Your Small Business =-.
Hi Sean
You are right that website copy is such an important aspect of page design. I once read that serif fonts are preferable 0n a printed page and sans serif fonts are preferable on screen and this does seem to be the case. I’ve just done a quick sample of some books I have here and all but one use a serif font. The book with the sans serif font is perfectly readable but looks strange. Perhaps it all just comes down to what we are used to.
Cheers
Karen
.-= Karen´s last blog ..Continuing Adult Education – Distance or Face-to-Face Learning? =-.
Sometimes it’s the little things that can make all the difference
Thanks for this Sean,
It’s exactly what I’ve been looking for. Just a straight to the point explanation of font use for SEO, excellent stuff. A site I was working on had reverse type and the points you make here are exactly what I needed to read.
I’m curious though, what in your opinion is the best font to use for a page that is focused on readability. I know many people like Arial, but do you think Calibri is ok too?
Thanks!
As long as it’s on a white background, you should have no problems with Calibri Iboga. Great to hear the article was useful to you.
Hi Sean,
I hadn’t even considered the impact of the font. I’ve been using Times New Roman on my blog so I’m going to have to go and change it. Also, what size should the H1 and H2 tags be?
.-= Jazz Salinger´s last blog ..Learn and Earn – It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint =-.
I’m pretty sure the H1 and H2 tags are automatic Jazz. You can access them in your kitchen sink as heading 1 and heading 2. Please correct me though anyone if I am wrong.
.-= Jackie Stenhouse´s last blog ..Anxiety Separation in Children =-.
Spot on there Jackie. The H1 will be automatically done using your title, you can select H2 (heading 2) from the “paragraph” drop down box in your WordPress editor, I suggest you use H2 for your sub-headings
I have been to quite a few websites which are hard to read. I especially find black backgrounds tricky although they do look stylish. Thanks for teaching us about serif and sans serif fonts. I had no idea what they were and took no notice. It’s great to pick up all these finer details which could make the difference of someone reading or not reading your blog.
.-= Jackie Stenhouse´s last blog ..Anxiety Separation in Children =-.
I think grey and dark blue backgrounds look very smart too but they are not practicle if they have a really light font because they are really difficult to read.
This should be considered when designing a blog as the aesthetics should be both pleasing and practical.
Fonts are something I have tended to leave alone. I tend to stick to things if it is easy for me to read then all will be everywhere else. Thank you for these tips it is certainly something to be added to my to do list when writing articles.
Readability is definitely an issue online, so I agree – on a website copy the fonts do matter.
Nobody would put a really brilliant product into a shabby, hard to open packaging and expect to get the best possible price for it. The same counts for websites. Provide good content and make it easy for your readers to take it in. Why put up extra hurdles?
.-= Renee´s last blog ..Sean Rasmussen – Australian Internet Marketer =-.