Content writing

Design is only one part of a successful website, another key area that always needs attention is the text that goes in it. This article looks at writing copy for websites; why it needs special attention, and how to write for your customers.

Adapting to the situation

Writing comes in many different forms each designed for its situation and audience. For example the adverts in shop windows are big, colourful and simple, designed to catch the eye of passing shoppers. Conversely the text in books is small and compact, because it already has your attention its main concern is to keep the size of the book down without becoming unreadable. The same principles apply to writing for the internet it has its own special requirements that make it different to how you would write for print or adverts.

How do people read on the internet?

To write for the web you need to know how people read on it. On the internet you have to treat people as being time poor; they do a search, find a website, go in, quickly scan through and then leave if they don’t find what they want. The wrong sort of copy in your site will mean that more people leave then stay, even if you do have what they are looking for. However if they do find what they want then they expect detail – if you have a product then all the detail possible can go in there, descriptions, even reviews or testimonials. Somehow you have to manage this balance of appealing to skim readers while offering all the info you can.

Text tactics

These tips will get you on the way to good copy on your site; but no one knows your audience like yourself; so see what works and what try things out.

Have one topic per page; so only have one detailed product description per page, or only discuss one service per page.

Give them somewhere to go; what happens when they finish reading? Have a link or button of call to action at the end of text.

Give them alternatives; so it turns out that this page doesn’t have what the user wants… provide some alternatives on the page for them to go to rather then having them hit the back button.

Have a standard page layout; keep a quick overview at the top; introducing the topic of the page, and finish with a brief summary at the bottom.

Sentences need to get to the point; marketing waffle gets in the way of scanning, so be direct.

Use headings to further break up text; make them interesting and the eye will be drawn to them.

Bullet points and lists work very well; they can get the point across faster and better then combining it all into a sentence.

Give details; if you can give as much info as possible; what you don’t want is someone leaving because you don’t have that one bit of information they need.

Its not always Halloween so don’t scare you reader; break up text, keeping it laid out with well spaced paragraphs and regular headings.

People read from left to right and top to bottom; so keep your important text at the top.

When people use the internet they scan; why? because they are looking for the right information –essentially certain keywords. Always mention your product or service in the text; don’t just rely on the page title or navigation.

Restrain your page; keep animation to limited areas – you want people to read? Moving graphics will distract them.

And remember: Don’t have all text in caps, don’t make it over large, use a nice font and make sure there is enough contrast between the text and background.

That should give you the guide you need to start getting your website copy up to scratch. Oh and one last point, always remember to check the spelling and grammar!

If you would like more information about this topic or to discuss what more could be done for your website content then please get in touch. If you have any feedback or suggestions for a possible topic for an article or would like something made exclusively for you please contact us.