The TL;DR – Too Long Didn’t Read – Viewer Syndrome

by Aaron Harris Web Traffic Expert

Are you one of those “lazy readers” that suffers from TL;DR syndrome? How does it affect your marketing strategy? Click here to know how!

If you are an “uber” internet savvy just like me, then you most probably know what the letter combination TL;DR mean. It is usually at the end of super lengthy contents that, most likely, looked like blocks and blocks of text. TL;DR (Too Long Didn’t Read, if you are still clueless) are inserted in posts or comments that are too lengthy to read. Sometimes, your website traffic use this to “summarize” posts or to mock people who posts blocks (and even walls) of text.

As we all know, our website viewers tend to have shorter and shorter attention span as years go by. Because of this phenomenon, your content strategy should be able to suffice your viewer’s wants without sacrificing the length of your content. In this matter, you need to relay the message faster without using too much space in text. This may sound pretty hard, since we online marketers tend to relay message as complete as possible so that our readers will be well-informed with our brand’s products and services. But how will be able to meet those settings if our viewers already have the what we call : “The TL;DR Viewer Syndrome”?

What is TL;DR Viewer Syndrome?

This is the characteristics of website viewers where they read less and less until their perception and standards of “short contents” becomes harder and harder to meet.

Since more and more people are inclined in reading brevities rather than knowing the whole information about a certain topic, content marketers are having harder and harder times cooking up the best contents that could fit on the bill.

The thing that we should be concerned when it comes to this syndrome is the mere fact that viewers are slowly lacking interest in reading and in analyzing longer website contents.

Who suffers from TL;DR Viewer Syndrome?

For those who usually settle for targeted traffic, have no fear!

Most of the time, the TL;DR syndrome is eminent to those website viewers who are not familiar with the said content. Since they cannot relate that much, they mostly rely on information snippets that could somehow give a gist on what the content is all about.

Viewers who have this syndrome usually produce bounce rates to websites since they are not contented with the given information that is presented to them.

How to avoid the TL;DR Viewer Syndrome?

Here are 5 simple tricks to fix this occurring syndrome from your website traffic:

1. Choose the perfect color for your website’s background – One thing that contributes to this syndrome is the website’s background color. Relaxing colors usually help your viewers ease up, increasing the chances of finishing your contents before being bored.

2. Avoid very long contents – Simply put it, do not let users, viewers (or even yourself) posting super long contents. Encourage them to be as simple but short as possible.

3. Don’t just stick to texts – You can also use images, links and other mediums in relaying message.

So fellow marketers, are you one of those people who are too lazy to read? The TL;DR – Too Long Didn’t Read – Viewer Syndrome should be something to ponder on, especially when you’re an online marketer and a website owner.

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