Writing Website Content

Return

Introduction
Writing the copy for a website can be a big challenge and it is one that often falls to the website manager in preference to the web design company. In some ways this is understandable as the web professional can't possibly know the ins and outs of how your organization operates. However this does put an enormous burden on the site owner to write for a medium unlike any other. That is why below we have outlined ten things worth taking into account when writing for the web.

Don't Patronize
It is shocking how many sites treat you like the village idiot. You want to be informed but you don't want to be patronized. Be careful when writing copy for your site not to treat people like fools.

Make it Personal
The web is a very impersonal environment and computers are never really perceived as friendly. It is therefore important to compensate for this in your writing style. This can be a difficult balance to strike. You should appear friendly but not overly familiar. Try to keep your writing style approachable in order to encourage users to trust you and therefore purchase from you.

Remember the Medium
Never forget that your users are reading your copy on screen. Many computer monitors have a crippling effect on the eyes and cannot often be viewed for extended times. Therefore keep your writing brief and to the point. Also, ensure line lengths aren't too long and that instructions for printing is available for longer documents.

Make Sure You Can Scan it
Because on screen reading is difficult and the web can overload us with information users rarely stay on a website for long. You will not often find a user reading an entire page of text. It is therefore important to make your content easy to scan. You can do this in the following ways:

  • Put important information or even a summary at the top of the page
  • Make use of headings and subheadings
  • Use bold, italics and color to highlight important content
  • Use bullet points where possible
  • Say what you mean (in as few words as possible)
  • Most people mainly use the Internet as an information source. Their primary objective is information gathering. They therefore need copy that is direct and to the point.

    Avoid Marketing Talk
    Internet users have become acutely aware of marketing spin. Try and avoid the heavy sell. Users respond much better when you simply present the facts and allow them to make their own decisions.

    Avoid Jargon
    Remember that not all your users will use the same terminology as you. They won't necessarily know all the acronyms and industry terms which are so familiar to you. It is often worth proofing copy via a family member or somebody unconnected with your industry to see if they understand it all.

    Keep it Short
    Krug's third law of usability states "Get rid of half the words on each page, then get rid of half of what's left". Steve Krug is a usability expert is admired greatly and although he was exaggerating for effect he does have a point. Because users just don't read large amounts of text on screen there is little point of it being there. Wherever possible keep text to a minimum and be sure to omit needless words.

    Remove Instructional text
    Users don't generally read instructions. Normally they just muddle through. When you do need to have instructions, be sure to keep them step by step, logically written and to an absolute minimum.

    Remove "Happy Talk"
    Again this is Krug's choice of words but he makes a fine point. Krug refers to "happy talk" as anything that fails to convey useful information. It usually consists of sentences that begin with the phrase "Welcome to..."

    Developing a Good Sales Letter

    The rules for a "good sales letter" apply to any promotional text effort. Whether it is actually a letter, an e-mail, a webpage etc.

    The use of a good sales letter can make or break your promotion campaign. That's why it is very important to spend some quality time developing one. Don't worry if you're not the greatest writer. There are a few simple guidelines that can help you create a successful sales letter. The key is to capture and keep the attention of the reader from the beginning of the subject line to the end of the email or page. The subject line or heading, is the most important part of your composition. The reason for this is that everyone sees and reads the subject line. In e-mail this line will determine whether the recipient will even open and read your email or not. Therefore, it is rather "dumb" using phony sounding subject lines such as "Spend $5.00 and make $5,000,000.00 in one month!" People can see right through this kind of stuff, and they will just hit the delete button - some will even get mad when they feel you are trying to dupe them and may send you a nasty reply, because after all it is insulting their intelligence.

    If your subject or heading offers something that the recipient wants or needs, chances are they will read the full message. Make the subject line so appealing and enticing that the reader just can't wait to learn all details. If they decide to read all the information, your job is to then keep their attention throughout the page which will hopefully result in their ultimately saying "yes" to your product or service.

    An effective sales letter should have the recipient very anxious to find out how they can order your product or service halfway through reading your page or email ad. Of course this statement must be qualified. You must be offering some worthwhile item or service that is competitively priced. But don't think that you have to create the perfect letter the first time around. For an e-mail ad try out several different letters using different return email addresses to see which one brings about the best results. The nice thing about email is that over 50% of your responses will come within the first 24 hours, so you won't have to wait around for days to find out if your sales letter content was effective. Search engines can work well depending upon circumstances, but at the best it will be weeks or months before you can guage the success rate.

    You can also find a lot of great documentation on creating a successful sales letter by typing in "good sales letter" at your favorite search engine. It has been proven that the best sales letters are filled with informative content, but don't go overboard. If the letter is too long, people will give up half way through it. If it is too short, it leaves them without enough information to make a decision. While you are writing your sales letter, try putting yourself in the shoes of the recipient and thinking like they would when they are reading it. If the letter wouldn't appeal to you as a recipient, chances are it won't appeal to them either. Also, save your compositions and re-read the ones that appealed to you. This may give you some great ideas for beginning future sales letters, e-mail messages and website pages. Once you find a good balanced letter that works, stick with it. Like the old saying, don't fix it unless it is broken.

    Return