Breakthrough Web Writing: Eight Proven Elements to Cut Through the Clutter, Captivate Readers and Close the Sale

Want to instantly improve your online copy?

Whether you're looking to inform, influence or engage, more than 10 years of research has yielded simple, proven principles to follow.

This article outlines eight of the most important.

Learn them today and you'll write better web copy every time.

1) CONCISE

People who visit your website aren't looking to read a novel.

They are impatient, critical and busy.

They've come to your site to accomplish a task-they want to do or find something.

And they won't tolerate delays or roadblocks-like long pages of text and excessive scrolling.

If you don't give them what they want immediately, another site will.

So you must minimize impediments between them and their goals.

One such impediment: excess words.

Studies show that usability increases up to 58 percent for concise copy.

That means concise, to-the-point writing makes it 58 percent easier for your readers to fulfill their tasks-whether they're absorbing information or making a purchase.

And the best part? It's actually easier to write simpler sentences and paragraphs-and to use a more accessible vocabulary while focusing on just one core message.

2) SIMPLE

As surprising as this might sound, people don't actually read online.

Rather, they scan text, searching for words that match their particular interests and needs.

In fact, nearly 80 percent of users scan a page instead of reading each word.

Keeping copy concise aids scannability. But that's just a start.

Think of your writing from a visual perspective. When a page loads, how quickly can you draw a reader's eye to important points?

That's the goal. To achieve it, you must effectively use formatting styles and layout elements.

Even simple techniques-like strategically highlighting or italicizing key words and using informative headlines-can make text more scannable.

The payoff? Scannable copy is 47 percent more usable because it helps your readers quickly find what they're seeking.

3) OBJECTIVE

The web is full of spam and scams. Not to mention outrageous, unsupported claims.

It's all made people cautious.

For this reason, promotional language places a burden on web readers. They must invest time and energy sorting fact from fiction.

But people don't have the patience for that. Anything that smells of excess scares them away.

So when you're writing, try to be (or at least appear) objective.

Studies show that writing stripped of hype becomes nearly 30 percent more usable.

It might seem counterintuitive, but online, less hype spurs more action.

Unfortunately, credibility isn't all that common on the web. So how do you earn your readers' trust?

It's simple, actually. By eliminating hype, for instance, you'll produce writing that's far more believable and balanced.

And provide proof whenever you can to maintain your readers' trust.

4) PERSONABLE

What do most people spend their time doing online?

Largely, it's communicating in some way with friends, family and colleagues. Be it through email, messaging or social networking websites.

And how does this communication usually sound?

Not corporate.

Rather, casual. And intimate.

And that's the kind of writing that engages people online.

By reaching out with more personal writing-instead of fretting over your grammar-you'll more effectively make a connection and encourage action.

While the exact tone will differ slightly depending on what you're writing about, and who you're writing for, the general principle holds.

So go ahead and experiment-see what works and what doesn't for your particular audience.

5) SEARCHABLE

Search optimization is, of course, an article (or several) unto itself.

So for this article, let's just say that readers aren't the only ones consuming your words.

Search engines constantly scour the web for them. They add them to their indexes. Then, when someone punches those words into a search box, they suggest relevant pages.

Readers click to those pages and expect to see the words they're seeking.

A slight oversimplification, perhaps. But it conveys the key points: When writing for the web, you need to consider how search engines index your pages and how readers see them after they search.

By adding keywords that specifically correspond to whatever you're writing about, your message will be more searchable-and less perplexing to whoever reads it.

6) UPDATED

We've seen it before: the sad and stale home page boasting a news item from 2002.

Or worse: a copyright notice from the same year.

It's next to impossible to take a site like that seriously. A stale page screams, "We're out of touch, sloppy, don't care and probably aren't in business anymore."

You know how dynamic the web can be. Unlike print publications, it literally changes before your eyes.

With all the information available online, how can you determine what's credible?

Well, if you're like most web readers, freshness is your first clue. Knowing when a page was last updated helps readers determine its worth.

So bring your copy into the present with recent dates and current information.

7) ORGANIZED

Web readers don't read in a straight line.

Reading the web isn't linear like reading a book. Online, readers choose their own adventure, navigating a path through hyperlinks.

So you have to prepare for the unpredictable ways in which visitors will read your content.

How? By organizing your content accordingly.

As we've seen, web readers dislike long pages.

They'd rather read small chunks of information.

Chunking, organizing chunks and connecting chunks are essential to your content's success.

And make sure those chunks are connected in a logical way to save readers from frustration.

8) HYPERLINKED

Hyperlinks are essential to web writing. (Which is, hopefully, obvious by this point.)

Effective links don't just help your readers navigate through information chunks. They also improve your writing's credibility and scannability.

Hyperlinks show that you've done your research. It's one thing to reference a study, for example. It's another to provide readers with a link to read that study themselves.

Hyperlinks also highlight key phrases, serving the same function as bolding and italics.

But despite the importance of links, people often abuse, ignore or underutilize them.

Use them in your writing, but use them wisely. Don't call attention to the link-be clever about how you embed them.

Because no one takes action when a lazy writer tells them to "click here."

With these eight elements in your arsenal, you're on your way to writing content that doesn't just please online readers, but sucks them in and delivers your message directly and powerfully.

Want to learn more?


Download our Breakthrough Web Writing e-book FREE and discover the eight proven elements of compelling online copy that cuts through the clutter, captivates readers and closes the sale.

Simon Smith is the Principal of Commune Media, where he oversees the creation of clear, compelling web content that measurably improves clients' ability to inform, educate, influence and engage.

Article Source: ArticlesBase.com