Writing well for the web

Share IT 24th March 2007

Structure

Style

What are we covering today?

2

“That’s a really good site”

Content is What Visitors Care About

! Usability studies show that “users comment

on the content first; if the content isn’t

relevant, they don’t care about any other

aspect of the design”.

Does anyone care about this content?

Why are you creating this content?

An organisation that had a 4,000

page website audited their

content.

They got rid of 1,000 pages….

Quick case study…

Creating Content: 5 Golden Rules

1. Wait to write

2. Know your readers

3. Make all your readers’ lives easy

4. Write to be found

5. Drive your readers to action5

How do we read on the web?

How we read online

Reading on the Web

1. Reading from computer screens is 25%

slower than from paper

2. People almost always scan your pages

3. Users won't read your text

thoroughly in a word-by-word manner

2 key questions

Am I on the right page?

Where do I go next??

Page structure

Most important

Less important

Background

Page structure

Most important

material first (start

with conclusion)

Use headings and subheads

! Make it easy to answer question 1

! “Am I on the right page?”• These are what determine if people read on.

• Visually break up the text - for scanning

• Help to ensure your content is sufficiently focused

• Are important b/c you don’t know where people

arrived from

! Short – max 8 words

! Should be meaningful on its

own

• Remember that titles/headings are

displayed out of context – search

results and bookmarks

! Use keywords of your users• Headings are important for search

engine rankings

Word for word –the title is the

most importanttext on the page!

Take time to getit right.

Headings/Titles – basic tips

Subheadings

! Don't need to be standalone

! Do need to be informative

! Should anticipate the

reader's questions

! Are one of the most

frequently missing pieces

from web content

Compare long articles:

! Boxes and Arrows

! A List Apart

Page structure

is more important than

page length

Making text stand out

from the crowd

Lists

! Use them!

! Bulleted lists or numbered lists make

a big difference – much easier to

scan

! Put as much info in the stem as

possible

! Avoid lengthy bullet items

! Are these lists

easy to scan?

Emphasis

! Use bold to emphasise key phrases.

• This is an underutilised tactic

• Don't bold single words

! Avoid italics (too hard to read)

! Never use underline for emphasis

! What do youthink of thisbolding?

! Notice theheading

! Comparescannabilityto Familyactivity ideassection

Style: the actual writing

Writing guidelines

! Predate the web

! More important now, for impatient web readers

Four simple rules to write by…

41. Shorter

2. Simpler

3. Active voice

4. Casual tone

! Fewer words frees up space, and are

clearer and quicker to read

“If it is possible to cut a word out,

always cut it out.”

George Orwell

Shorter is better

General rule: at least 50% less text than offlineequivalent

Cut your offline text in half, then try tocut in half again.

Steve Krug

How much shorter?

! Short headings: 4 – 8 words

! Short summaries: 30 – 50 words

! Short sentences: 15 – 20 words

! Short paragraphs: 40 – 70 words

Simpler is better

! Commence

! Discontinue

! Execute

! Implement

! Notify

! Obtain

! Utilize

! Dwelling

“Never use a long word where a shortone will do.”

George, again

! Start

! Stop

! Do (or Kill!)

! Do, Make

! Tell

! Get

! Use

! House

“Our Internet support infrastructureautomatically collects informationfrom the user’s system, facilitateseffective communication betweensupport personnel and users, andenables self-healing and automatedproblem resolution.”

- CRM vendor

More…

“Our goals are to increase coordination and toachieve strength, mutuality, and direction withinthe marine scientific community…

…We will achieve them by facilitating theestablishment of coordination mechanisms withour stakeholders and partner agencies.”

More…

More Casual Tone

! Be informal (or less formal)

! Try to make it personal where possible,use “you” and “we”.

! Aim for more conversational style

! Not as easy to do for all organisations,but the more formal, the less inviting.

! Don’t sound like a governmentdepartment or company, sound like aperson.

How would describe the tone of this?

What’s the point of this?

Use the Active voice

! Subtle, but important, difference.

! Passive is impersonal, and slows thepace.

! Active makes your writing more lively,less boring to read.

The issue will be consideredby the committee whenappropriate.

The committee will considerthe issue when appropriate.

After being filled in, the formshould be signed.

Fill in the form and sign it.

passive active

Your turn: rewrite this text….

Under what circumstances will you charge me VAT?

Generally, such taxes must be levied with respect to the ship-toaddress, rather than the bill-to address, on the assumption thatthe ship-to address is receiving the substantial benefit of thepurchase. The tax is triggered if we have a physical store in theship-to country. Currently, those countries for which we mustcharge VAT (when we ship to addresses in these countries) arethe UK, Ireland, Belgium, France, and Spain. We regret anyinconvenience.

Shorter and Simpler

Do I need to pay VAT?

We have to charge VAT on any orders we ship to UK, Ireland,Belgium, France, and Spain. Sorry about that.

(20 words compared to 83 words)

1. Never use a metaphor, simile, or other figure ofspeech which you are used to seeing in print.

2. Never us a long word where a short one will do.

3. If it is possible to cut a word out, always cut it out.

4. Never use the passive where you can use theactive.

5. Never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or ajargon word if you can think of an everyday Englishequivalent.

6. Break any of these rules sooner than say anythingoutright barbarous.

From “Politics and the English Language”, 1946.

George Orwell’s Rules for Effective Writing

Critical web writing skill:

Links

! Generally for 2 reasons:

• To find useful information

• To do something useful

! Links help them find it

! Links help them do it

! Links are your call to action

Why do people go online?

Links should be easy, right?

Links - key considerations

! Good links help users scan

! Use meaningful words and phrases (NOT “click

here for info on…”)

! Don’t construct the sentence around the link

phrase – write the sentence normally.

! Try to use verbs as the focus of the link

! Should be able to understand the link without

reading any other text (scannable)

Writing links

! Shorter isn’t necessarily better.

! Most successful links tend to be 7-12 words

• Because they’re more likely to contain the trigger words

• But short enough so you can find trigger word easily

! Well written links help your SEO!

What do you think of these?

Quick recap on everything…

! Don't jump into writing

! Take time to think through what you're doing

! Write an outline

! Even 5 minutes can make a difference!

1: Wait to write

! Do your readers care about this content?

! Is your text anticipating and answering the right

questions?

! Is it written at a level appropriate for the audience?

! Is it written using words they care about, not the

organisation’s internal lingo?

2: Know your readers

! Make the text scannable

! Use simple, clear language

! Use an informal, inviting tone

! Include well written links• Set clear expectation, then meet it

3: Make all your readers' lives easy

! Use the keywords and phrases your visitorsuse throughout the page

! Keep each page clearly focused on one topic

! Use descriptive text links

! Use headings and subheads, with keywords

! Bold words in your text for emphasis

! Keep your content fresh

4: Write to be found

! Aim to give every page a call to action

! Think creatively about what you want your reader

to do with the information you've provided

! Well-written links are the main action!

5: Drive your reader to action

laurence.veale@iqcontent.com

www.iqcontent.com