Writing content that’s easily understood
To help reach your prospective customers. your web site content needs to be easily understood and readily digested. Writing for the web is different than other kinds of writing. You can’t just take your 3-fold brochure and dump it online.
Be concise
Write tersely. To the point. Focused. Simply. Forget the froo-fra, the “marketese”, the exclamation points, the long-introductions, the obvious. Restrain yourself from writing “Welcome to our web site,” “This is going to be a great year for our club!”, “The links below will give you more information,” and so forth.
When browsing the web, research has shown the people like to scan. They rarely read until they find the particular kernal of information they seek.. They scan for the keyword or phrase of interest. They are trying to follow the “scent of information.” Write concisely, clearly, descriptively, declaratively, factually, and informatively. “Chunk” your text as much as possible. Use sub-headers whenever possible to indicate what the content is about. Break up very long pages into several shorter pages if feasible. Group like information on the same page.
Write simply
Use terms that are clear and readily understandable by all audiences. Avoid culture-specific idioms and academic jargon.
Use a consistent voice
Write using a plain, simple style that individuals with an eighth grade education can understand. Use a consistent “voice” when writing to help your user audiences feel comfortable and to make your information more accessible to your web site visitors.
Active voice
Avoid using passive tense, where the subject performing the action is ambiguous. Put the subject in front of the action. For example:
Don’t Use
SAT scores of 700 or better were achieved by one-third of the entering freshman.
Use
Over one-third of the entering freshman achieved SAT scores of 700 or better.
For more information on active and passive voice, see Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style.
© 2012, Brian Phelps. All rights reserved.
