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Tips for reading webpages

When you're reading a book, you might start at the top of the page and read every word until you get to the bottom. But with a webpage, this usually isn't the best way to read. Because webpages have a lot of information you don't need, your job is to find the relevant information without getting distracted by all of the other information.

Watch the video to learn some basic strategies for reading a webpage.

Basic tips for reading a webpage

You can use the following tips on almost any webpage to help you find what you're looking for.

• Locate the main content. This is usually the most relevant part of the page. On most pages it's easy to find, although you may sometimes have to scroll down to find it.
• Make sure you're on the right webpage. If you don't see any relevant information, use the navigation bar or search box to find the page you're looking for. You can also conduct a Google search to find other websites.
• Don't read every word. With most websites, you can skim the page to find what you're looking for. To read faster, you can just read the first sentence of each paragraph.
• Use headings to help you skim the page. Many online articles have a heading at the beginning of each section. If the heading doesn't seem to be relevant, you can simply scroll down to the next heading.
• Ignore ads. Ads are often embedded in an article or disguised as links. They may look like they're relevant, but they usually won't help you find what you're looking for.
• Use the Back button. If you've clicked on a link that isn't helpful, you can go back to the previous page by clicking your browser's Back button. If the link was opened in a new window or tab, you may need to close it instead of using the Back button.

Finding a specific word on a page

If you know exactly what you're looking for, you may not have to skim the page. Just hold down Ctrl (or Command if you're using a Mac) and then press F to open up the Find toolbar. You can then type the word or phrase you're looking for to skip to that part of the page. This is especially helpful for long articles.

Finding a word on a webpage

If the word appears more than once, you can press Enter to skip to each place where the word appears.

Finding more matches on a webpage