Fused Reality Studios | Dundee & Edinburgh Web Design & Development

What some people don’t understand is what writing for the web is miles different than writing for a publication. People don’t go and think that the writing style of a screenplay is just like that of a book–but yet more often than not I find myself having to correct copy that was ideally suited for another form of media.

The problem is that most people aren’t suited for writing content specifically for the web. Those of us that live and work on the net often feel surprised when someone can’t write their views and shorten it to 140 characters. We get insulted when the outside world looks oddly at a blog and ultimately insulted if they feel that it’s no way to make a living.

Let me digress. What the problem is that the web is a different medium which many have not yet grasped. It was only invented 40 years ago and it is constantly evolving. Our clients and others need to find out how to use this well as, just like we couldn’t write a book if given a typewriter, neither can others.

I provide to you these tips on writing for the web not as commandments. These are things that I have picked up on over the years that has made my life on the web easier and has ultimately helped in terms in the readability, interest and even in terms of search optimisation.

Short & Sweet

Publications, magazines and books often have long paragraphs. This doesn’t work on the web, and if you’ve not caught the user’s attention in the first 30 seconds–they’ll be off the page with no hesitation whatsoever. Try to keep your paragraphs short, sweet and to the point so that us of the information age can get what we need to know quickly as easily.

Titles, Titles, Titles

Not only does separating your content with titles assist with the readability and accessibility of the content, but it makes it easier for search engines to properly index your content. Search engines such as Google take more interest in titles and will often use them as keywords which will help new visitors find relevant content quicker.

Understand your audience

It’s no use writing like a pretentious university lecturer if you’re aiming to get the attention of children. Write like you would to your audience, and try not to sound too over-the-top by using overly-complex words when something simple can do. Nobody will think of you any better and you will do yourself worse by distracting the user.

Pictures are copy too

Images work as a great separator or descriptor of content. It allows people to see what the post may be before we even start reading it, or adds to current content by providing more depth to a post or page.

Just as having to many of one thing makes it worse, try to limit your images so they are meaningful without becoming distracting.

Oh, and for accessibility, ensure you provide decent ALT and LONDESC tags when required.

Anticipate your users questions

There are a few questions your reader has that you should answer on each page.

• What am I doing here?
• How do I do it?
• What’s in it for me?
• Where can I go next?

If your design and navigation don’t make the answers to those questions obvious, which they should, then you should use your copy to explain them.

That’s a wrap.

Hopefully those quick tips will help you write better for the web in no time.  If you have any tips of your own, please feel free to add them in the comments.