How to write for the web
The content on your website needs to be even more carefully
thought out than the content on your brochures. This article
offers some useful advice on where to start when writing for the
web.
Get Read To start with, web users don't read pages. They scan
them, looking for interesting information. They always want to
move on and don't always believe what they read.
To gain and keep their attention; you need to be relevant,
interesting, up-to-date, brief, consistent, easy to understand
and accurate.
Know your audience A good place to start is with your audience.
Think very carefully about who they are. This is obviously
easier to do if your business is aimed at a niche market. If
not; remember that you can't be all things to all people - and
find out who your most profitable customer group is. Aim your
content at them.
How do they talk, how do they think, what do they know and what
do they want to know? Ensure you know your audience and write at
their level and in their language. Make it relevant to them.
Get scannability Write in an inverted pyramid (say the point and
then explain it). Start with a really good headline that offers
relevant benefits of reading the text. Next, summarise your
point. Put the who, what, where, when and how in the first two
sentences. In the next paragraph, briefly explain the why and
then move on.
Ensure you write paragraphs on pages to be read out of order.
Remember that people have different sized screens and won't
generally scroll down to find out whether or not the information
is interesting. Put the main points at the top of the page in
bold.
Ensure you are up to date Keeping your information up to date is
hugely important. This is becoming more and more the case. More
companies are moving over to content management systems and
updating their content regularly. Being out of date even by days
will hugely damage your credibility.
Keep it brief Leading sentences are 10-20 words. Keep it short.
There is a limited amount of time that people stay on websites
for. They don't lie on the sofa to read the web or carry it
around with them (apart from possibly on a tiny phone screen).
People read 10-20% slower online and screens are still tiring to
read. You need to get the main point across quickly and clearly;
briefly explain it and move on.
Stay Consistent Don't continually re-brand yourself on each
page. You should also bear in mind that the language you use in
your other (offline) marketing materials must be consistent with
the language you use online.
Be understandable Explain everything you say. Don't make
assumptions about your readers' intelligence and don't be
impenetrable in your turn of phrase. A great marketing strength
lies in being able to explain what it is that you do and why it
is that you do it so well; to someone who has no idea about your
field of work.
Be correct Credibility is a big problem on the web. Many people
believe that the information they read online is not as credible
as information in hard copy. To avoid fuelling this
misconception, your content must be extremely good, and above
all it must be 100% correct.
Good luck!