Writing for the web – Do’s and Don’ts

Writing for the web is very different from writing for print. Many people assume that anything you can read on paper can be read in the same way onscreen. This couldn’t be further from the truth. When reading online, we scan rather than read information word-by-word, therefore anything that is poorly visible to begin with will be completely skipped over onscreen. Furthermore, users are usually looking for specific information and as a web author you must make it easy for potential customers to find what they want. People generally read a lot slower online than they would in print and studies have shown that reading on screen for a prolonged period of time is an unpleasant experience for most users.

To avoid creating an unpleasant reading experience for your users, follow these simple do’s and don’ts:

Do:

• Use short concise paragraphs
• Use subheads
• Use bulleted lists
• Highlight your keywords
• Talk about benefits and end results to make the sale
• State your most important information in the first couple of paragraphs
• Keep it simple, and
• Avoid unnecessary jargon!

Don’t:

• Write copy that is long winded and laborious to read
• Use long sentences and large paragraphs creating a daunting wall of copy
• Write copy that will be out of date in a month – unless its for a date stamped blog
• Use sales language
• Use PDF’s for online presentation – users will print documents that are too long to easily read online.
• Make your copy all about you – your reader should always be the focus
• Forget who your target audience is