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Writing for the Web

People read differently on the web for two key reasons:

  • It's a different medium
  • They have different expectations

Medium issues

The medium we're talking about here is a backlit digital display of some sort, be it a monitor, PDA, mobile phone, etc. This puts a different strain on the eyes, and reading is typically slower than reading from paper.

Expectations

The age of the Internet has brought about instant gratification when seeking information. There is such an immensely vast amount of information on the web that visitors are impatient. They want help finding what they're looking for, and they want it now. Content must be easy to digest and quick to scan. If you don't accommodate this behaviour, visitors won't stay on your site.

Tips on how to write for the web

Here are a few key tips on ensuring that your content actually gets absorbed by your site's visitors:

  • Write like newspapers do. Often referred to as the 'inverted pyramid' style, this puts the most important elements of a page at the beginning, with successively less important facts to follow. That way, if a visitor abandons the content at any point, they have already read the most important elements.
  • Create scannability. Use headlines, sub-headlines, captions and bulleted points. Highlight keywords or key topics on the page, and link them to other web pages appropriately.
  • Be brief, be concise. Keep your sentences short. Keep your language punchy. Limit each paragraph to one idea. As a rule of thumb, web content should be about half as long as traditional content.
  • Chunk up your content. If you've got a long story to tell, tell part of it on a page and link to a secondary page for the full story. Give the audience the option of reading more.
  • Group sensibly. Try to group your website's content as your users would expect to see it, rather than how you organize your company. Learn more about usability.
  • Avoid web artifacts. The classic artifact is using 'Click here' within a hyperlink. Jacob Nielsen states that "Generally, if the words or phrases are specific to Web use, then they are probably words to avoid. A good test of web-term overuse is to print the page out, read it, and ask yourself if it makes as much sense on paper as it does on screen."

Think you could use help fine tuning your content? Let us help.

Further reading