The style of writing drastically changes when you write for the average Internet surfer. People rarely read web pages word-by-word. They scan through the content as fast as they can. Besides, your readers may originate from different countries, with different habits and awareness levels. You have to take into account all these factors while writing for the web.
Many times you feel that all you have to do is, write well and the rest will be taken care of by the web designers. It’s not so. You need to write small sentences, lots of bulleted points, lots of highlighted words and phrases, and shorten your copy as much as possible.
Here are a few points you can keep in mind while writing for the web.
CONVERSE WITH YOUR READER
The Internet is a highly interactive medium, and this separates it from the traditional publishing. You have to use a tone that seems like you are talking to the reader. Put lots of you’s and I’s in your copy. Converse with your reader and you’ll on your own feel like using day-to-day, simple language that actually conveys your message the way it actually should.
WRITE CRISP PARAGRAPHS
Shorter paragraphs are easily understandable. You can read short paragraphs faster. Remember that you are not writing a literary story for an average surfer who is trying to find some information on your product or service.
Words that sound confusing and superfluous should be avoided. Not everyone understands “nutriment” and “osculation” mean “nourishing food” and “kissing.” What’s the use of your writing well if it needs a dictionary to understand it?
WRITE IN POINTS
Use lots of highlighted points in your copy so that your copy can by scanned fast. Most of your message should be encapsulated into these highlighted points so that even if the main copy is left unread, the reader knows what you are trying to say.
SHOW SOME ACTION
Active words work better than the passive words. For instance, instead of features, talk about the benefits of the product or service you are writing about. Show, don’t tell, is the old adage of persuasive copywriting. For example:
Wrong: Our documentation management system manages multiple documents.
Right:You can work on multiple documents at the same time with out document management system and save hundreds of working-hours.
The “right” example is a bit longer, but it actually tells the customer how he or she is benefited if our documentation management system is used.
SPELL CHECK, SPELL CHECK, SPELL CHECK
Most of the word-processors have this facility. If you use a word-processor, there is no excuse for you to have spelling mistakes in your copy. No matter how prolific a copywriter you are, your spelling mistakes are going to put your readers off big time.
Also take care of the similarities such as “sole” and “soul,” “their” and “there,” etc. If you use them wrongly, your word-processor will ignore them, unless you have a very highly-developed language checker installed on your machine.
FOLLOW A UNIFORM WRITING STYLE
Whether they are abbreviations or capitalizations follow a consistent style throughout your copy. If you used “email” in the beginning of the copy, use it throughout without jumping from “email” to “e-mail” or “E-mail” or “electronic mail.” Similarly, if you used “copywriting” initially, then don’t start writing “copy writing” unless it is a necessity.
These pointers have helped me, and I hope they help you too.
Amrit Hallan is a freelance copywriter,
and a website content writer. He also dabbles
with PHP and HTML. For more tips and tricks in
PHP, JavaScripting, XML, CSS designing and
HTML, visit his blog at
http://www.aboutwebdesigning.com
