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Writing Lean and Mean Web Content
The Main Question: Whom are you trying to reach? What are the main points you want to tell them? You must answer these questions before starting to compose your content.
For my site Gimme Sweeps, I know that my readers want the facts on each sweepstake. I am not writing press copy here. I give them just the information they need to decide if they want or are eligible to enter that particular sweepstake or not.
Studies of how people read on the Web indicated that they:1. prefer to scan rather than read
2. want text to be short and to the point
3. do not like marketing hype
How To Write For the Web
When writing for a newspaper or a magazine, you are writing for everyone, every type of person. When writing for the Web, you are targeting a very specific audience - the ones who will want to come to your site. Keep that in mind as you compose. How does that person want to be approached? What are their main concerns? What information are they looking for?
Give your visitor that information immediately - grab them with your first sentence. That back button is their way out and they are not afraid to use it!
Do keep your content scannable and concise. Answer the questions you believe that a potential customer or new viewer might have. Think of which questions you would ask. Keep the tone and vocabulary conversational.
Don't make it a term paper. Keep it simple (the KISS principle). Keep the vocabulary mainstream. Keep your text to the point and keep your paragraphs to a few sentences only. Nothing is as daunting as looking down a page full of text with no breaks. It seems more like a homework assignment.
Finally, use correct grammar and spelling! Nothing is more unprofessional than errors in the content copy.
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