Words of the Web
 |
Words of the web… sounds like a love song, doesn’t it? Well, writing for web is almost like writing a love song, just with one big difference – you’re writing to be seen, understood, and respected – not just to be loved. |
Web writing has evolved immensely over the last 10 years. In the beginning, everyone wrote to plainly tell people what they are doing, at that very moment, very much like letter writing – but, the web has evolved, and writing for a web, that is just as much alive as it is ever changing, everyone has to stay on top of new developments and trends.
The two major rules of writing webcopy are
- Use formatting to your advantage.
- Know who you are writing to.
Using formatting to your advantage
Creating a format, which is easily readable, scannable, and memorable is your first port of call.
Here are our Top 10 basic check points to start off with
- Make it relevant.
- Put your main idea up top – where people can easily find it, and make it easy to scan.
- Shorter sentences and words, for your big ideas.
- Use bulleted lists.
- Use paragraphs, and one idea per paragraph.
- Quality over quantity rules! Know what you want to say, and make it clear.
- Use headlines and sub headlines.
- Use your bold, italics and colors features. Also make sure you hyperlinks stand out.
- Use keywords. Repetition is good! We know you were taught differently in school, but for web, as much repetition, without becoming blatantly obvious, is best. Keywords help web crawlers pick your relevant article.
- Match you keywords and titles together.
Know who you are writing to
Knowing who you’re writing for will definitely help you get your message across easily. Web content has to be focused for the reader.
Behaviours online show people read 25% slower on web, versus print media. The volume of web content, also gives your reader the opportunity to stop reading within the first 10 seconds, and leave your page. If you haven’t grabbed them with your main hook, in the first 10 to 15 seconds, you can be sure that you have lost them. You have to thus make is scannable, and easy to read.
Readers need to know you are trustworthy too. Use objective language to gain their trust. Use facts, don’t make up fiction, and know that everything is searchable out there.
Lastly, always proofread your work. If it’s not interesting to you, it certainly won’t be to anyone else.
Rewrite it if need be, but remember rule #1! Keep it short, accurate and focused.
