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Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Writing effective web copy

While writing a brief guide on how to create effective web copy, I thought I would post it up here as well.

In order to write successful content for the web, consider the following advice:

Make content scannable. Your users do not read text on your web page word for word so make it easy for them to pick out key messages. Adding bullet points, bold words and short paragraphs helps to make your content more scannable.

Use only one key message per paragraph. Users will become confused and uninterested if you try to include too much information too quickly.

Be aware of your user's goals. Browsers of your website are trying to achieve a goal. Ask yourself this question: Why is the user on this page and what information are they looking for? This will help to focus your content on the specific goals of your user.

Top load your content. Your users are less and less likely to read content the further down the page they have to go. It is therefore a good idea to put your most important information towards the top of the page. If the page is particularly long, it may be a good idea to include a summary at the top to save your users from having to read all the way through (which they wont!)

Keep it short. People don't read your website word for word; it's not your fault. They are even less likely to read a page if it is too long, they will simply skip onto another page, or worse still, find someone else! A good rule of thumb is to take your existing content, half if, then half it again. This is a very difficult task but it is probably the most important.

Remove happy talk. Happy talk is anything that fails to convey useful information, e.g. "welcome to...."
Here are some links you may find of use:

Jakob Nielsen: How to Write for the Web
We touched on the principle of "front loading" proposed by Nielsen in this article.

Steve Krug: Don't make me think
This book has some excellent advice on keeping your sites content short and to the point

Mencap: Creating accessible copy
The advice in this PDF file aims to show web site owners how to write accessible web copy. However, I would argue its suggestions apply to every website, not just those focusing on accessibility

usableweb.com/topics/001310-0-0.html
A collection of links about writing and editing web content

posted by David Rhodes

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