Writing for the web
What is writing for the web, and why is it important?
Reading on screen is harder than reading on paper, so we must make it easier.
Today’s web users are generally tech savvy and time poor, with most scanning through pages looking for information of immediate interest, forcing us to align with their general behavioural traits.
It’s also important to understand that audiences are diverse, so we have to cater to the majority. If you take a step back and spend a little time defining your target audiences, putting yourself in their shoes and thinking about the information they will be looking for, it becomes easier to deliver and meet their expectations.
We also have technical aspects such as Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) to consider.
Writing content that’s directed at your target audiences only becomes useful if those people can find the content in the first place! We’re forced to consider crawlers, bots and changing trends in how people search the web, to create content that’s as appealing for non-human visitors as it is the human ones.
But why do we write anything at all?
Ultimately, we want to convey a specific message and ideally, get your audience to take action. It’s why we write these blog posts. The content helps us rank well when it comes to search results, and – we hope – it’s of interest to our target audience.
Focus on your audiences
In our experience, most companies tend to represent their business and services as they themselves see them. Not as they want to be seen.
What do we mean? Well, we all have parts of our business and industry that make sense to us and little sense to others. For example, we’re used to working with acronyms which become synonymous with public companies and their EPIC on the exchange. As a digital agency we’re also awash in technical terms that we use every day without a second thought, but they probably mean little to someone from another industry.
It’s easy to fall into the trappings of industry jargon or over-used phrases and terminology, so our advice for writing compelling web copy is to keep it factual, on-message and to the point at all times.
Identifying your audiences and their actions
Who are your audiences, and what do you want them to do when they visit your website?
It sounds obvious, but not enough companies stop to think about this in much detail. Perhaps because it seems obvious what should go on the website, or the website is seen as a ‘necessary evil’. You’d be surprised how many websites we see which exist because the company needs it to meet regulations and not much else. Which is fine, we can work with that, but even those sites have users with expectations.
For the companies we are used to servicing, audiences can usually be defined as
- Current or prospective clients
- Investors (with a distinction between Retail and Institutional)
- Regulators (the exchange, perhaps a NOMAD or broker, legal, GDPR…)
- Potential and existing staff
- Joe public
- Partners and suppliers
- Journalists and press
- Peers and competitors
As for the actions of each audience
- To sell
- To inform
- To persuade
- To build confidence or loyalty
- To meet a legal obligation
- To enable people to complete a task
- ….?
When it comes to writing engaging web copy, know who you are writing for. Know what you want them to do. Focus on these two things and sacrifice the rest!
Web vs. Print
Make the information you wish to impart easy to find and your readers will thank you.
Print tends to be a linear, anecdotal and story-telling medium. Web is non-linear, direct and actionable.
Research shows that web readers scan pages before they read anything, meaning they may scan past your content if it doesn’t have a straightforward heading or introduction that includes key words about your topic.
It’s no surprise that news and media websites often outshine other industries here. Almost every publisher follows the same formula – big, attention grabbing headlines to draw the reader in, followed by an introductory paragraph to summarise the topic – often with a bolder or larger typeface – with the detailed content below. Often the most inconsequential details are left until the bottom of the article, as this is the part that’s least likely to be read. And if the article is quite long, sub-headings are used to break it into more manageable sections.
Considered design and use of typographical hierarchy (big, medium, small) is important. You also have to construct clear and compelling copy.
Shorten and strengthen sentences, eliminate jargon, replace superfluous phrases, clear deadwood and remove unnecessary information.
Remember, cut length but not clarity! Find the right balance. Simple words and sentence structures don’t mean you are dumbing down – visitors will thank you for getting to the point and only delivering the information they’re looking for.
Scan reading
Some things nearly all web visitors have in common:
- You have a three second window to capture attention
- Visitors have a reading speed of 250 words per minute for comprehension
- This means if you are lucky people read 18% of any extra verbiage
- Crudely speaking: the more you write, the less people read
Being careful about what you write is still only half the battle. Research suggests the position of the words on screen will impact how well they are digested. Visitors focus their attention in an “F pattern”, scanning the top row, moving down a little, scanning the next major headline, and moving down further.
In summary
Remain reader-centric.
Be direct.
Less is more – keep it concise and consistent.
Use simple language.
Get in touch to learn more about how Luminate can help.
