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Writing for the web
Clear, concise, scannable, relevant - web copy, more perhaps than any other area of your site - needs to follow the golden rule of web design: give your visitor what they want, fast.
Content
- Overview
- Use bullet points
- Use one idea per paragraph
- Use specific headings
- Google has no sense of humour
- Black & White - not purple prose
- The Science Bit
1st Rule of web copywriting:
Copy is the most important part of your site.
Second rule:
No-one reads web copy.
The third rule could be "don't contradict yourself", but actually those two statements aren't as confusing as they appear.
The most important thing to remember when approaching writing for the web is that it is not like writing for any other medium.
When you wrote an essay at school, or the copy for your company report, you were making the not-too-unreasonable assumption that what you were writing was going to be read in an ordered fashion - start at the beginning, through the middle, to the end.
When you are writing for the web, however, very few of your website users will read what you have written word for word - they are simply scanning it for the information they want.
Think of your copy as a series of signposts, rather than a constructed whole. People don't read web copy, they scan it for the specific information they want - ie, what you can do for them.
Let's try a little exercise. Take the copy on your site's homepage (or pick a favourite site if you don't have one). Now, see if you can cut the number of words in half.
Once you've done that, cut it in half again.
If you are not sure where to cut - start with the "market-talk". Is your company "a family-run business with a reputation for excellence and 20 years' experience in the lampshade industry"? Well, it might be in your sales brochure, but on your website you "sell lampshades".
Need to tell people more - then remember, "show - don't tell".
- Standard Lamps
- Designer Lampshades
- Exterior weather-proofed lamp covers
- Glass and crystal chandeliers
Your customers want to see what you sell in an instant - if they find themselves having to trawl through reams of text to find it, they will leave your site for one where they can find what they want.
"Our Rain-o-Proof lampshades are suitable for all outdoor lighting even in the worst weather conditions.
We have a wide range of designer shades from the Swedish company Loitink and French interiors specialist Ang LePoise."
"Our Rain-o-Proof lampshades are suitable for all outdoor lighting even in the worst weather conditions.
Designer lampshades
We have a wide range of designer shades from the Swedish company Loitink and French interiors specialist Ang LePoise."
Try to avoid "witty" or "clever" cross-heads, headings and link names.
"Putting our competitors in the shade" as the main headline on your page might make your users chuckle, but if you know your customers are searching for you using terms like "lampshades" "lighting" or "lamps" then a better heading would be "Lampshades, Lighting and Lamps".
This is important for two reasons:
Firstly, it's good not to confuse your customers.
Secondly - Google - the number one search engine - indexes the first 500 words of your pages (and takes a keen interest in headlines and links) so every one of those words needs to be relevant, specific and useful.
You get 500 chances to include the word or phrase a potential customer is searching for - don't waste words.
"Imaginative" link names are another usability problem. Everyone knows what to expect from a link called FAQ, but what lies behind one called "Shedding light on lamps"? Confuse people and, again, you risk losing their interest.
Black & White - not purple prose
You may be a great writer, you may write great company reports, you could even be JK Rowling (if you are, can we do your website please?) - but it doesn't mean you can write for the web without first understanding how web copy works.
One of the biggest mistakes those responsible for their company's web copy make - even at the biggest companies - is to treat it as an opportunity for some vanity publishing.
If you want to show the world your wit, share your philosophies, or craft a work of online genius - save it for your personal weblog.
If you want a demonstration of how much the way you write your web copy can affect the performance - studies by usability expert Jakob Nielsen show just how dramatic it can be.
Applying the rules set out above - short copy, bullet points, scannability, he measured a 124% improvement in usability on a test site.
That translates as 124% more customer satisfaction, 124% more users sticking with your site - and hopefully 124% more sales.
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