Here are some important guidelines that you can follow to write good and powerful website content
- When writing for the web, use
- Shorter sentences, words and paragraphs
- One idea per paragraph
- Concise text, i.e. half the word count or lesser than what is used in writing content for print media
- The inverted pyramid style, i.e. putting either the most important point or the conclusion in the beginning.
- Simple words
- Objective language to build credibility, rather than exaggerated claims or overly promotional words like "great", "tremendous" etc.
- Bulleted lists
- Highlighted text for scannability, i.e. using
- bold or colored fonts for text or
- hyperlinked text
- Meaningful headlines and subheads and avoiding cute or clever lines
- When writing for the web, Understand how people (don't) read on the Web
- Reading on the web is too much work!
Web content has to be 50% shorter than print as
- Reading from a computer screen tires the eyes.
- People read 25% more slowly on the web than they read print material
- Readers on the Web scan text
- 79% of readers on the Web tend to scan or skim text rather than read word for word, according to a study by usability expert Jacob Nielson
- Using highlighted text (bold or color, also hyperlinked text) and bulleted lists aid scannability.
- Readers on the Web are impatient
Readers on the Web are in a hurry to get the information they want, and move on. They do not have the patience for either
- obscure and complex text or
- scrolling through masses of text
Since there are millions of alternative websites in cyberspace, they will quickly move to another site if they don't enjoy the information gathering experience on your site. Therefore you must
- Attract attention and retain reader interest , as you have just
- 10 seconds to grab attention with your web site content and
- 55 seconds to develop an understanding of your company or product
- Make it easy to get relevant information, in order tocombat reader fatigue, by make
- Putting the most important information at the top.
- Using clear and concise text.
- Readers on the Web are skeptical
Build credibility by
Using objective language, writing meaningful headlines and subheads
- Avoiding marketing jargon or exaggerated claims
- Avoiding cute or clever lines which could take the reader longer to get to the main point.
- Providing hyperlinks to the sources of your information or to related information
- Readers avoid information overload
Since in an average workday, people already suffer from information overload with a large number of emails in their inbox and several documents to read, they would not want to spend time and effort reading content that they may not find useful. Therefore,
- Offer information in bite-size chunks, which are easily digestible - Use short sentences, short paragraphs, one idea per paragraph etc
- Use meaningful headlines and sub-headlines , which help the readers nail the information they require, quickly and easily.
Would you like maaweb write effective, selling web content for you?
Contact us today
|
