Articles
Writing for the web
To increase your readership, tailor your website to provide the most approachable content for your target audience. Remember, people reading online tend to be rushed and distracted, they are reading for information, not pleasure. Most often, they’re scanning for the information they want—not reading for literary purposes.
Writing with the online user in mind ensures that visitors will be more likely to spend more time at your site and to visit it often. Because people usually visit several times before making a purchase, your goal is to create a site that makes people want to return again and again.
Information architecture -Creating your content plan
Remember before you even set up the content, take a few steps back and start planning your goals, the site architecture and wireframe.You must ask yourself:
- What are your website goals
- What are your users goals and expectations
- What are your sites content areas?
- How are you going to drive users to those content areas?
Take your time to create a site map including a wireframe to determine how the user is going to access your content and how engaged they are going to be. Remember that web design and content go hand in hand here… Understand what will catch the eye of your user “top of fold”, and how you can help guide them towards the desired action.
Write for the web but do not write for the web
Writing for the web means being informal, showing your personality and providing relevant information. In short, it’s a conversation that builds relationships. You have a lot of tools to use to be able to do that.
But what you should not do is write as if you’re writing for the web..Don’t call attention to the “web” by putting phrases such as:
- Click here
- Follow this link
Don’t use any self referential terms and avoid words/phrases specific to web use. To double check out any overuse – print out the article, read it and ask yourself if it still makes sense on paper.
