Writing content for your website
If you’ve ever faced the task of reading large amounts of text off a computer screen, you probably found yourself skimming, trying to get the information you wanted without having to read every sentence from beginning to end. Undoubtedly you noticed that reading from the screen just isn’t as easy as reading printed materials. In fact, studies have shown that screen-reading is at least 25% slower than paper reading.
When preparing written content for your website, it is vital that you keep this in mind. With the proliferation of websites out there, visitors can be out of your site faster than they came in. Listed below are a number of tips to help you provide your website visitors with the information they seek in an inviting and screen friendly format.
Be concise
As a general rule when writing content for the web, you should reduce the amount of text you use to less than 50% of what you would use in printed materials. Otherwise your visitors may stop reading before you have communicated what you intended. Remember, people reading web content are generally there to find information as quickly as they can, so use small words and short manageable sentences. Be precise and to the point.
Write for your audience
Don't use fluffy language or industry jargon in your web copy. Keep in mind the best writing style for your target audience and incorporate the words that they use to describe your business. This will provide the added benefit of increasing your rankings in the search engines for keywords that your clients use when they search for your type of business online.
Avoid long pages of scrolling text
Separate different topics of information into bite-size chunks, and allow your visitors to find the individual topics that interest them easily. Long pages of plain text can be both boring and overwhelming.
Headings, headings and headings
Use them! Identify the content of short paragraphs and label them usefully so that readers will know immediately if the information is pertinent to them. If burdened by wading through things that don’t interest them, your readers may be too impatient to find what they were looking for in the first place.
Use teasers and hyperlinks to provide more detailed information
The great thing about the web is that it is a non-linear and interactive medium. If viewers are interested in more details on a topic, allow them to access these details by linking to the information. Don't take up valuable real estate on main pages, such as the homepage or section overview pages, with information that may be irrelevant to many of your viewers.
If you’ve ever faced the task of reading large amounts of text off a computer screen, you probably found yourself skimming, trying to get the information you wanted without having to read every sentence from beginning to end. Undoubtedly you noticed that reading from the screen just isn’t as easy as reading printed materials. In fact, studies have shown that screen-reading is at least 25% slower than paper reading.
When preparing written content for your website, it is vital that you keep this in mind. With the proliferation of websites out there, visitors can be out of your site faster than they came in. Listed below are a number of tips to help you provide your website visitors with the information they seek in an inviting and screen friendly format.
Be concise
As a general rule when writing content for the web, you should reduce the amount of text you use to less than 50% of what you would use in printed materials. Otherwise your visitors may stop reading before you have communicated what you intended. Remember, people reading web content are generally there to find information as quickly as they can, so use small words and short manageable sentences. Be precise and to the point.
Write for your audience
Don't use fluffy language or industry jargon in your web copy. Keep in mind the best writing style for your target audience and incorporate the words that they use to describe your business. This will provide the added benefit of increasing your rankings in the search engines for keywords that your clients use when they search for your type of business online.
Avoid long pages of scrolling text
Separate different topics of information into bite-size chunks, and allow your visitors to find the individual topics that interest them easily. Long pages of plain text can be both boring and overwhelming.
Headings, headings and headings
Use them! Identify the content of short paragraphs and label them usefully so that readers will know immediately if the information is pertinent to them. If burdened by wading through things that don’t interest them, your readers may be too impatient to find what they were looking for in the first place.
Use teasers and hyperlinks to provide more detailed information
The great thing about the web is that it is a non-linear and interactive medium. If viewers are interested in more details on a topic, allow them to access these details by linking to the information. Don't take up valuable real estate on main pages, such as the homepage or section overview pages, with information that may be irrelevant to many of your viewers.
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