(originally published in The Jerusalem Post, January 2004)

Content is King: Writing Good Web Copy

“Our company authoritatively fosters progressive intellectual capital to meet our customer's needs. Our challenge is to professionally initiate progressive paradigms to allow us to enthusiastically disseminate error-free resources because that is what the customer expects…”

Careful reading of the paragraph above can produce one of two reactions -- “Huh?” or “Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz” -- followed by clicking to a different site.

Although this particular passage was created by the “Mission Statement Generator” at Dilbert.com, many corporate Web sites feature copy that is all too similar.

We’ve previously discussed writing Web text that’s friendly to search engines. But ensure that it’s also friendly to human visitors! Your site’s primary obligation is to communicate effectively with your target audience. Consider some of the following points:

• Tone of voice. Write as if you were speaking to a typical member of your target audience. A site selling luxury cars will have a radically different tone from a site advertising tattooing and body piercing services or a site offering gardening advice. Vocabulary, grammar, the brevity or expansiveness of your text -- all should be appropriate to the visitors you want to attract.

• Focus on the visitor. Make it readily apparent what visitors stand to gain from your site/company. Address their needs and concerns, rather than just giving a spiel about your company or organization.

• Avoid hype. Don’t use language that sounds like advertising jargon. Your readers are already at your site; now give them reasons to remain, and to contact you directly. Give the sort of solid, objective information that fosters credibility and that is of real service to your visitors.

• Organize the content. As in traditional writing, structure your text for easy readability. Use “topic sentences” and one main point per paragraph. It also helps to adopt the “pyramid style” used by journalists: Present the conclusion first, then provide background and details. Follow up with a summary.

• Be concise. This does not necessarily mean, “Be brief”. Lengthy, persuasive content can be valuable for some involved readers. But prune repetition, passive construction, tangents, etc.

• Format. Although you should write as carefully as if visitors are going to read and memorize every word -- the fact is most people surfing the Web skim more than they actually read. Long, dense paragraphs are intimidating, so break them up by adopting some of the following aids: drop caps on opening paragraphs; headers that are visually distinct from the content; text lines limited to 10-12 words; bulleted lists; intelligent use of white space; a reasonable amount of “eye candy” (graphics).

• Hyperlinks. Help readers navigate your site by suggesting an order in which they should read, and what other sites they should consult. But practice restraint. Peppering the text with too many links can mean that the reader jumps erratically from one page to the next without fully absorbing anything.

• Proofread! This is crucial. And no, it doesn’t contradict the fact that people scan more than they read. They do read some of the text. And nothing can kill credibility faster than incorrect grammar and misspelling. A variation of Murphy’s Law states: “If your 5-paragraph Web page contains only one poorly-written sentence, that’s the sentence people will read.”

Does all of this sound too daunting and time-consuming? No problem! Here’s the simplest, fastest, and possibly most cost-efficient one-step method of producing readable text:

Hire a marketing expert with copywriting expertise.

If you don’t have the time and experience to write credible content, hire someone who does. Particularly if you’ve invested in a professional design, don’t undermine it with poorly written content.

Effective sites contain clear text presented within an attractive page that is designed to appeal to a specific target audience.

Resources:

• Are Long Copy Salesletters Scams?

• Writing Well for the Web: Quick and Easy Tips for Non-writers

• Writing for the Web
  Yes, I’m sending you to Jakob Neilsen’s ugly Web site again. Although his pages are hard on the eyes, his research is sound and many of his opinions worth at least considering.

• Quality Web Content

Request a free estimate for your web site project.

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