People scan; they don't read: When people go on the internet to do research or
anything similar, they don't read every single word, but they skim through and take snippets
of each section the come to. If you put multiple ideas or concepts into one paragraph, then
people will probably miss whatever the second one is after they get an understanding of what
the first one is. In most cases it is easier to put things in a list, because they are
easier to scan, are written telegraphically and break up text. Use unordered lists for
things that don't need to be ordered in any specific way, and use numbered lists for a list
of instructions like a recipe.
Reading Age and Tone
Write for an 8th-grade audience:People don't care exactly how good you can write a
couple of sentences on your site, most of the time they just want to get through the text as
quickly as possible without skipping the whole thing. So when writinga homepage or summary,
write as if you are writing for 5th-grade, your content for 8th-grade and maximumof
11th-grade for supporting information.
Formal text is harder to read:If you write with formal text then it is going to be
harder for readers to understand what you are tryingto say. It also makes it relatively
difficult to
fix if there is a messup in it. One way to not end upwith hard to read text is to write as
if you are
talking to your audience in-person. Another way is towrite with an active voice not a
passive one.
Don't Tease: What's in It for Me?
Create information-rich signposts:People use signposts to get to where they need to
go, and they
also read in an F shaped way, so the mainheadings should be at the top and that gives the
readers exactly
what they will get. Article summariesshould have some of the information inside of it to
help get the
readers to want to read more.
Answer readers' unasked questions:When writing for the web, you got to think about
the big
question most users have when they come to asite: Whats in it for me? If you implement that
question in
your writing, then you will have a slightlyeasier time writing, and you will also have to
think about what
your product will mean to other people.
Front-Load Your Content
Readers lose interest quickly:When people read on the internet, it is important to
place the main
point of your page in the beginningbecause that is where the users attention is placed the
most and if
nothing there explains what your pagesays, then the user will become bored and move on.
Remove the Sales Pitch
Marketing speak and jargon turn people off:Marketing is mostly made of hyperboles, or
exaggrated
statements about a product and people don't reallypay any attention to that, and if trying
to compare two
things, then the exaggrations get in the way.
Industry-specific words:For a lot of things, people don't need to know the
industry-specific way
of how to explain a product, butthey want a ormal way of describing that product. If you're
trying to
explain to another colleague, thenyou can use the industry-specific words because they will
understand
what you are talking about, but mostnormal people won't.
Provide Detailed Information and Useful Images
People look for supporting evidence:If some people want to fact-check parts of your
writing, have
sections of your text with links to furtherdetails if they want them.
People respect authoritative sources:When people use one of your external links, they
won't just
up and forget about your site, they will justuse that link then if they want to go back to
your site then
they will, even if to access that originallink again. Avoid link exchanges where two sites
go back and
forth between each other.
Stock images are a waste of space:Most stock images are boring and don't provide any
meaning in a
site. Taking the time to look for goodmages will help keep your sites message with it and
make it a bit
clearer to your users on what it does.
Actively Manage the Information You Publish
Readers are wary of dated content:If you have any content on your site that has the
potential to
expire, then you should try to keep it upto date, and if not, then have an expiration date
set up so that
you can fix it up later, and also makesure to check your links to make sure that they are
still credible.