The Top 20 Tips For Website Copywriting
Web copy should be bulleted, concise and easy on the eye. Clean and uncluttered is best - eye-tracking heat map studies say so. That means plenty of white space.
Photos should be informative, not decorative. Your website copy is very different to printed media like magazines or newspapers. Newspapers have had trouble transitioning from print to the Web as they are used to doing things differently. Many new webmasters still have difficulty too - they tend to write complicated, dense (cluttered) copy.
Studies have found that website visitors spend more time reading wordy content, but remembered 34 percent less than when they read really tight copy. That's because of the way people read on the Internet. It's the same reason designers on the Internet use sans serif fonts --so you can read faster.
"If a user is comfortable," said Nielsen researcher Tara Coyne, "not hindered by clutter and superfluous words, and can scan the main points, they will get the summary of the article quickly and easily."
People don't really look at pictures, either, unless they're pictures of real people and not models. People like pictures that give them information. They skip pictures that are pretty but not relevant.
Here's a list of suggestions to help you remember - keep it in front of you when you are writing your website copy.
20 Tips To Remember For Good Website Copy
1. Tight writing. Cut out all superfluous words. Be concise, edit firmly.
2. Copy of about 600-800 words is better for SEO and catching the long tail of
the Search Engines.
3. Title – Subject – Support, in that order, like subject, verb, object.
4. Titles should be snappy and informative; – clickable, but clear.
5. Leads (first sentence or paragraph) should get to the point. Tell the reader what
the article is about, right away.
6. No fancy, wordy intros where it's not clear what you're talking about.
7. Information beats fluff every time. Pretty is for books and newspapers (and only
sometimes).
8. Information does not beat style every time. Style keeps people awake.
9. Sans serif fonts are easier and faster to read on computer screens.
10. White space is awesome; – even better than big, pretty pictures.
11. Content should be scannable.
12. Think in bullets and subtitles.
13. People like lists.
14. Pictures should be specific and informative, not generic, decorative or look
like an advert.
15. Photos should be relevant to content.
16. People in pictures should look friendly and approachable (and have their whole
head).
17. Photos should be full body if possible.
18. Spelling is important - nothing looks worse than wrongly-spelled words.
19. Grammar is important; it adds to your creditability.
20. Online press releases should be even tighter than Web copy.
