Review Your Website Content Inventory

Before you begin to write for your website, review Content Inventory.

Skilled Editor is Essential

A skilled editor is an essential part of effective content creation. The editor should not only set style standards but must also ensure that the site follows them consistently. The editor should develop or revise content specifically for your specific web use.

Be Succinct

Write no more than 50% of the text you would have used to cover the same material in a print publication. Website users read 25% slower on the web than they do reading print publications.

Write for Scannability

Don't require users to read long continuous blocks of text; instead, use short paragraphs, subheadings, and bulleted lists.

Use Hypertext

Use hypertext to split up long information into multiple pages. Always provide a way back to the original web page.

Text Word Count

People don't read they scan the copy on most internet commercial pages. Here are some rules to improve your online writing:

• Keep heading to less than eight (8) words.
• Keep sentences to less than eighteen (18) words.
• Keep opening and closing sentences to less than twelve (12) words.
• Keep total text word count per page to two hundred (200) words to four hundred (400) words.

Writing Headlines

Headlines tell visitors the benefits you deliver. It's up to you to convey why It's important. You have about 10 seconds to convince the website visitor to stay on your website. A headline is your first contact, make it count! Some tips:

• Read your headline out loud. If it sounds weird out loud, it will sound that way in reader's minds. Remember, they're reading this for the first time. Anything that makes them stop, think, or worse, confused, hurts your efforts.
• Don't hype your language with sensational headlines. People have been battered to death by bad writing. Get to the point. Keep it simple.
• Examine your subject. After writing a headline, ask yourself, Why is that important? When the answer is self-evident, you're finished.
• Write in one or two syllable words whenever possible. The simpler, the better. People need to move through your writing and remain engaged. don't permit confusion.

One Topic Per Paragraph

When users scan text they will only read the first sentence of each paragraph. This suggest the importance of the first sentence and one topic per paragraph. If you use multiple topics per paragraph the user will miss your second topic.

Don't Use these elements

• Complex Words - hard to understand online - promotes confusion.
• Humor - Users scan text, they may not know when you are trying to be humorous - they may take the statement as fact.
• Marketese - Hype reduces creditability.
• Clever phrases and marketing lingo.
• Redundant content will reduce the impact of your message.
• Exclamation marks - They don't belong in professional writing, and they especially don't belong on web pages. Exclamation marks look chaotic and loud - don't yell at users.
• Unusual punctuation - unusual punctuation will reduce scannability and would be annoying to visually impaired users whose audio browsers spell out the word instead of reading it as a word.
• Single-item bulleted lists.
• A lot of graphics - users like one clear graphic of the product.
• A lot of bold text - bold text should only be used in the heading. Bold text can draw the users' attention away from an important point.
• Underline words for emphasis - it looks like a hyperlink.
• Coupons - if the users do not have a coupon when checking out, they may exit your website in search of a coupon.

Use Bulleted or Numbered Lists

Lists - Bulleted or numbered lists are a great way to break the page up into brief ideas. Bulleting points makes them much more memorable than writing them together in a sentence.