How can I make my Confluence pages more engaging? Should I improve the content itself, work more on its structure, insert more macros? Well, the answer is all of the above.
Combining well written content, layout techniques, and the large array of macros should and will help you create pages that are easy to navigate and engage with.
In this article, we’ll walk through what makes Confluence pages effective from top to bottom. By breaking down each element, you’ll see how to build pages that guide readers naturally and keep them engaged.
Start Strong with Clear Top-of-Page Elements
What should readers notice right away?
The very top of your Confluence pages sets the tone and helps your readers decide whether and how to engage. A clear title, a header image and cute emoji communicate what the content is about.
But do these three elements convey the whole picture? NO. You might want to include the page status macro to indicate whether the page is still a draft, in progress, or done.
Not only that, but panels or an AI-generated summary section provides a concise overview, ensuring that readers know what to expect before scrolling.
Structure Content with Headings
How to signal the structure of content?
Once readers move past the top, structure becomes crucial. They know what the page is about, now they want to find exactly what they need especially if the page is long. It is time for the initial skimming.
Headings establish hierarchy and are the building blocks of a comprehensive Table of Contents. From there, your readers can quickly jump to the specific section they’re more interested in.
For instance, as a product marketer, I often find myself in sprint planning pages. Obviously I am not interested in any advanced tech stuff. So what I do is scan the ToC or links at the top to quickly access the sections that matter most to me.
Use Visual Cues to Enhance Readability
How to enhance readability and make content easy on the eye?
Once your headings and sections are in place, consider how micro-structure and visual spacing affect readability.
- Dividers separate distinct sections, making it clear when one idea ends and another begins. Use them between H2 headings or to break apart different ideas or content types. Although they’re quite useful, avoid overusing them as they can act as a distraction.
- Page Width: Confluence lets you toggle between fixed (narrow) and full page widths, and this choice directly impacts readability. A narrow width works best for text-heavy pages, such as documentation or guides, since shorter lines reduce eye strain. A wide width is often used when you need much more space to portray everything. Think visual layouts, dashboards, or pages that use multiple columns, since it gives content more room to breathe.
- Å´hite space: Sometimes you don’t need macros to enhance your text. White space around headings and in between paragraphs gives the eye room to rest. Proper spacing naturally guides readers down the page.
Optimize Navigation with Layout and Interactive Macros
How to help readers move through content efficiently?
Beyond hierarchy, layout and navigation shape how readers experience a page. You shouldn’t only include text but also elements that can host that text and create specific flow and navigation patterns. The latter change depending on the nature of content and the target audience.
When deciding where to place information, consider natural reading patterns and try to build on them.
For text-heavy pages like in Confluence, readers often follow the F-shape scanning pattern. They read horizontally across the top, scanning statutes, links, panels or TLDR sections. Then they move down slightly and read across again, forming the two horizontal lines of the “F.” After that, their eyes travel down the left side of the page, forming the vertical line, scanning section headers that guide navigation.
This pattern is particularly apparent within some native templates like Content Design Glossary, where you have a horizontal table of Contents at the top, terms arranged vertically, and metadata horizontally.
But the question here is: Should I design my page following how readers usually scan or try moving them away so they don’t miss out on important information?
It’s a combination of both! You should design for natural scanning behaviors because fighting against them usually means important information might be missed. At the same time, you can use navigational elements to gently guide readers beyond their habits, ensuring they encounter the details that matter most.
That’s where navigational macros come into play:
- Layouts & columns break content into distinct blocks horizontally. A space homepage, for example, might contain a horizontal column layout: the left column could host frequently accessed resources, the center could highlight recently updated content, and the right could surface content organized by labels.
- Tabs disrupt passive scanning by encouraging active choice. When a reader clicks a tab, they’re signaling interest in a specific stream of content. This both reduces clutter on the page and helps ensure readers don’t skim past critical context hidden in long walls of text.
- Collapsible sections provide flexibility. They keep pages light and scannable while giving readers access to supplementary information. An FAQ list works well here: The reader sees the question while scanning vertically and can then expand only what’s relevant.
Add Context with Interactive and Supporting Elements
How & where should I add context or optional detail?
Supporting elements provide depth without clutter. Not every piece of information should be visible at all times. Well-placed interactive macros let readers pull details only when they need them.
- Tooltips add more context and define terms inline without taking much space. Some readers may want to open a tooltip to see a definition, while others can skip right past it.
- Footnotes add references without interrupting the main text. This way, citations live at the bottom, so readers who need them can dig deeper, while those who don’t won’t be slowed down by inline clutter.
- On-page notifications highlight important and time-sensitive updates. Instead of a permanent panel at the top, a short notification highlights the change for a specific duration, and then its supply disappears. This delivers the message without requiring much maintenance on a page.
Drive Engagement with Clear Calls to Action
How do I guide readers toward action?
Great Confluence pages don’t just inform; they drive engagement. Space homepages and parent pages often act as the starting point. To effectively pinpoint to additional resources and key actions, you need:
- Well placed buttons highlight key primary actions and point readers to related pages, or external resources. Put them at natural decision points, such as the top of a page for visibility or at the end of specific sections.
- For secondary actions, you can opt for either simple or inline links anchored to specific text. This way readers can make the distinction and quickly identify what’s most important.
- Smart Buttons go a step further by allowing users to launch automation rules directly within the page. For example, you could place a Smart Button at the end of a section to let users trigger a rule such as adding a label to the current page, creating a task, updating a status, and more. This makes the page not just a hub of information, but a launchpad for automated workflows.
Facilitate information retention with visuals
What visuals help readers grasp information faster?
When going through a page, we’re often more attracted to visuals and for a good reason. Visuals don’t just make a page look nice, they kind of make information easy to scan, understand, and remember. A 2025 study found that people retained information from graphics significantly better than from text or tables alone.
Visual elements anchor the page and make scanning effortless. Images and diagrams clarify complex ideas, panels emphasize important content, and smart links or embedded cards provide context without breaking flow. These elements keep readers engaged and oriented.
Confluence pages are not only about content but rather how it is presented. By combining carefully designed layouts, and both native and third party macros, you can create informative pages that are easy to navigate and engage with.
Many of the macros we’ve referenced throughout this article (such as tabs, tooltips, buttons, footnotes, and more) don’t come natively in Confluence. They come from our Content Formatting Toolkit for Confluence. Using these additional macros allows you to go beyond what’s possible with native Confluence features alone.
