How To Write For The Web
By Kelly Norris
Most anyone who has passed an English 1-A class probably garnered a workable grasp of paragraph construction and how to organize a decent composition.
Writing copy for the Internet, however, presents its own challenges unique to the medium. Herein are some tips important to grabbing and keeping the attention of jaded Web surfers:
1. Know your core audience. If, for example, you’re writing about a topic that is technical in nature, how your text is structured should be based less on the subject than on who will be reading it. If you audience is broad, keep your language simple and accessible, and your descriptions concise. Overreaching an audience’s grasp of a topic or using language that flies above its experience will leave readers both frustrated and bored. If, however, your audience is comprised of peers well-schooled on your topic, you’ll bore and frustrate readers with too much redundancy and superfluous background or explanation. Know who will be your predominate readership and structure your language and information appropriately.
2. Less is more. Few Internet users want to scroll through twenty paragraphs of even the most fluid prose, so keep descriptions crisp and instructions easy. Place hyperlinks only where they are helpful to avoid interrupting the flow of your message. Hyperlinks, graphics and other amenities are helpful in moderation and a hindrance in excess.
3. Formatting is key. Break up your paragraphs with headers and varied typefaces, and delineate sections using numbers, margins and/or color. Simple formatting techniques help attract and maintain attention and make it easier to navigate through information.
4. Proofread. Spellcheck is indeed a boon to the modern writer, but it isn’t always enough to clean up a final draft. Have someone knowledgeable proofread and edit your copy before you publish. Grammar and punctuation errors are common among even the most accomplished writers and anyone can miss key mistakes. Truthfully, many readers won’t notice that you used who when you meant whom. On the other hand, many will. Your Web site is nothing less than your business’s virtual storefront, after all, and a clumsy mistake or two can make your business seem slapdash and amateurish. Sloppiness can erode confidence in your company’s integrity. If it appears that your business doesn’t labor over details, potential customers to whom details are important will move on to a competitor.
5. Optimize your text with finesse. So-called search engine optimization, or making text Web-friendly, is a vital step in getting search engines to discover your site, but SEO copy can often read as though it were penned by a teenager with ADD. Optimized copywriting text, for example, will endeavor to include as many searchable keyword and keyword phrases related to copywriting as possible, all crammed together with a few words in between to glue them together. Such optimization for a copywriter in Sacramento, CA, for example, might end up reading as follows:
What is copywriting? Copy writing is everything from ad copy for marketing your California business to writing Web site content, newsletters, articles, and books, and is one of the fastest growing opportunities for people looking for jobs Northern California on the Internet. A copywriter is not to be confused with someone who deals in copyrights or garnering a copyright. If you're interested in Sacramento copywriting classes or would like to join a professional copywriting course and learn everything there is to know about Sacramento County copywriting services and tips for copywriters, then please sign up for our free newsletter and see how easy it is to start your copywriting career today. Learn all about freelance copywriting jobs, editing jobs for editors Sacramento, direct mail copywriting and other important marketing services in California. Be a Sacramento copywriter or find copywriting jobs in Rocklin, Auburn and Elk Grove and leads for an excellent copywriter in Roseville and Granite Bay, or learn copywriting tricks for Placer County CA.
Scintillating, isn’t it?
Sure, SEO text can be an important feature for a Web site, but bear in mind that it is cumbersome, plodding and as annoyingly repetitive as a Top-40 radio ad. So use it judiciously and only on pages where optimization plays a significant role. Pages meant to impart real information should be written with the reader in mind, not the predilections of search engines.
