Website Writing
Website Writing - Special Techniques to Keep Visitors on your Page
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Website Writing - Interesting and Informative.
Writing for the Web
Website writing is different. And that's because people read web pages differently from the way they read any other text.
People scan web pages, their eyes flit from headings to links, from highlights to bulleted items, to images. They don't see all the words in between, especially if your writing style is expansive. They skim over any waffle.
Most people have a natural writing style. But writing for the web doesn't come naturally.
Some web surfers will spend less than a minute on a web page of 1000 words. Most have very little time to spare. You want to impart as much information in as few words as possible. Aim for high “information density”.
So how should you write for the web?
10 Rules for Website Writing
- Prefer commonly-used and well-understood words - remember your visitors' many, varied backgrounds.
- Keep your sentences short. This improves understanding and aids fast visual scanning.
- Aim to make each sentence fully understandable on first reading.
- Keep your paragraphs short.
- Have only one idea per paragraph.
- Keep related ideas together and avoid abrupt transitions. Website writing should flow.
- Use bulleted lists. They are easier to scan than long paragraphs.
- Watch spelling and grammar. Lapses will reflect on your credibility.
- Really important ideas should be near the top of the page. (Some readers may never get further!).
- Use frequent, terse and relevant headings.
Review website writing
Keep reviewing your web writing. Look for ways to increase information density. Take out unnecessary words and phrases. Restructure long sentences. Replace difficult words.
Watch out for information overload. If you overwhelm your reader he will click away. This appears to be a contradiction with the previous paragraph. It isn't really. If the material is complex, break it into bite-sized chunks and work extra hard on sentence structure and idea-flow.
I review my own website writing often, until I can’t find anything to improve. If it loses its freshness and spontaneity, I review it again! (But it helps to take a long break, then return to a page with a fresh perspective.)
Get someone else to review your web page, read your content and comment on it.
For the ultimate in objectivity, use a professional review service. There are several who specialize in web material.
Web Writing - Content should match your visitors' needs.
Try to select information that will be interesting and useful to your visitors, not just what you happen to know. You may have to do additional research.
Where your content is factual, be sure to get the facts straight. Your visitors may assume you are an expert!
Stick closely to the subject of each page, each heading, each paragraph. Refrain from writing about other matters that come to mind, no matter how interesting a diversion they might be.
Keep page length around 400 to 1000 words. Shorter is better. When a web page is short people read more and skip less.
Website Writing - Keyword Research
Some experts advise you to research your keywords before you write for the web, so that you use the important keywords "naturally" (and often!) in your text. This is to maximize search engine appeal. (So you get visitors).
I think I do a better job of writing if I'm free to choose my words, without worrying about including keywords frequently. So I do keyword research after I've written.
Then it’s fairly easy to adapt the writing to incorporate selected keywords and phrases. But it's a matter of personal preference.
We'll be dealing with keywords and search engine optimization in the next few tutorials...
Links / Resources
Professional Web Page Review Services:
Editing and Writing Services
Insight Resources
The Proofreaders
Word Count Free Software:
Harmony: Text Tally
Ginstrom: Count Anything
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How to Write for the Web and Keep Visitors on your Page