Writing for the Web
By: Rachel Martino
Introduction: Writing for the web is
extremely important in our day and age. As more and more companies begin to
focus more content on the web, there're guidelines necessary for creating and
executing written copy on the web.
Scanning: It is first important to look
at how readers are consuming content online. In a research study, most readers
spend 4 seconds or less on a webpage. "On average, users will have
time to read 28% of the words if they devote all of their time to reading. More
realistically, users will read about 20% of the text on the average page,"
according to Not Quite
the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use. This study also found
that only 16% of readers read word for word while the majority scanned
webpages. Because of this, here are the best practices in writing for the web
•
Highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of
highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
•
Meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)
•
Bulleted lists
•
One idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional
ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
•
The inverted pyramid style,
starting with the conclusion and half or
less text than conventional writing
Scrolling: In
addition, online readers will generally not scroll. According to this study, 80%
of readers will read above the fold of a page, but only 20% read below the
fold. Thus, the most important information on a web page needs to be above
the fold, as most users will not scroll down. However, research suggests that people
will look very far down a page if (a) the layout encourages scanning, and (b) the initially viewable
information makes them believe that it
will be worth their time to scroll. So it is considered best practice to
have all the essential information at the top of the fold, but it is also a
good idea to keep something good at the end of the text to reward users who
have scrolled.
Titles:
The most effective titles quickly grab reader’s attention in a very
short number of words. BBC News Online, for example, uses four simple
guidelines for their headlines (as summarized by Jakob Neilsen)
• Short
(because people don't read much online);
• Rich
in information, clearly summarizing the target article;
• Front-loaded with
the most important keywords (because users often scan only the beginning of
list items);
• Understandable
out of context (because headlines often appear without articles,
as in search engine results
• Predictable, so
users know whether they'll like the full article before they click
(because people don't return to sites that promise more than they deliver).
According to the research of BBC News Online
headlines, most headlines were a mere 5 words or less and consisted of less
than 40 characters. This is important to keep in mind when creating titles for
any page on the web.
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