Writing Well for the Web

Sourced From
McGovern, Gerry, Killer Web Content. London: A&C Black
Website:www.clickz.com

Getting Started

People read differently on the Web, so you need to write differently for the Web. Surprisingly, very few websites take the time to lay out their content in a way that will maximise its readability. An important point is that it is more difficult to read on a screen than from paper. This means that if you want to be read on the Web, you must write and lay out your content in a simpler, more straightforward manner than you would in print. If you want to ensure that your content has the best chance of being read, focus on:

• Shorter sentences, shorter paragraphs, and shorter documents.
• Plentiful use of short, punchy, and descriptive headings and summaries.
• Larger font sizes and sans serif fonts, because they are easier to read.
• Straightforward, factual prose.

FAQS

In what way do people read differently on the Web?

They scan, moving quickly across text, always looking in a hurry for the content they need. They are very fact-orientated. People don’t read on the Web for pleasure – they read to do business, to be educated, to find out something – so they like to read content that gets to the point quickly.

People like reading short documents, with links to more detailed information as appropriate. If a document is long, and people really have no choice but to read it, a significant number of them will print it out. In general, however, long documents tend to go unread.

Why do so many people regard Web content as poor quality?

People don’t trust the content they read on the Web because they come across so many websites with poor publishing standards. The Web gives everyone access to the tools of publishing, but giving someone a word processor does not make them a good writer.

Too many websites lack proper editing standards. They also translate documents that were prepared for print directly to the Web; this may save money in the short term, but if people don’t read the content, it is pointless. Some websites deliberately try to mislead people with their content. All this gives a poor impression to people who use the Web.

Is writing for the Web a difficult skill to learn?

It is not easy to learn how to write well no matter what the medium is. However, writing for the web is about concentrating on the facts. You don’t need flowery prose; instead, you must be able to communicate with really important stuff in as few words as possible. This is not an easy thing to do, but with practise most people can master the basics.

Making it Happen
If you’re not read you’re dead

The connection between writing and reading is one that is not always considered: a surprising number of organisations create vast quantities of content without asking some obvious questions:

• Is anyone interested in reading this content?
• Is it written in a way that is understandable and easy to read?
• How are we going to let people know that we have just published this content?

Less is More

Writing is rarely about quantity, but it should always be about quality. Less is more, particularly on the Web. It is easier to writing 5, 000 words of waffle than 500 words that are succinct but 500 words is what is needed on the Web.

Editing is Essential

One of the primary functions of editing is to get a long draft into shape. As George Orwell put it: ‘ If it is possible to cut a word, always cut it’. We all have pet phrases that we love to put into sentences whenever we can. They may sound good to the writer, but often add nothing to the meaning of what is being communicated. The Web is about functional writing. Get to the point as quickly as you can. Then stop.

Keep it Short

When writing for the Web:

• Documents should rarely be longer than 1, 000 words: 500 to 700 is a good length to aim for.
• Paragraphs should be between 40 to 50 words.
• Try not to let your sentences go over 20 words.

Write for the reader, not for your ego

When writing, always keep in mind who is you are writing for. If it is the sales rep, the technician, the support staff, the customer, the investor? Will they understand what you are writing about? Don’t writing to please yourself – write to please your reader. One mark of a poor writer is the use of big words and convoluted phrases. The good writer is clear and precise.

Focus on the Headings

Headings are important on the Web for two central reasons. First, people scan, so the first thing they often do is to look for headings; if the heading doesn’t attract their attention, then they probably won’t read any further. Second, people use search engines a lot, and the most prominent things in a page of search results are the headings. The heading really has to sell the Web page and convince the person to click for more information.

Writing headings well is an art, but here are a few rules that will help you get the basics right.

• Keep them short. A heading should not be longer than five to eight words.
• Make your point clear. For example ‘Nasdaq crashes to record low’ is more information than ‘Apocalypse now for investors!’. When talking about a severe stock-market downturn.
• Use strong, direct language. Don’t be sensational, but at the same time don’t be vague, and don’t hedge.
• Don’t deceive the reader, for example by using ‘Microsoft’ in a heading just because you think people will be more likely to read it. Remember, the job of the heading is to tell the reader succinctly what is in the document.

Use subheadings

In longer documents it is always a good idea to use subheadings, as they break up the text into the more readable chunks that readers like. Subheadings should be used every five to seven paragraphs.
Summaries: the who, what, where and when

Next to the heading, the summary is the most important piece of text. It should be descriptive, not wandering or indirect. Tell the reader what the document is about, and who, what, where and when the information relates to.

Getting down to write

’No man but a blockhead ever wrote . . . except for money,’ according to Samuel Johnson. Sound advice. Writing is not easy but someone has to do it. The first rule of writing is reading: if you are asked to write a technical paper, read how other people write them. Read how they are written on your own website, on competitors’ websites, in industry journals. Find a style that works well and copy it; use its techniques and approach to structure. Don’t plagiarise, but never feel ashamed of finding quality writing and learning from it.

Learn how to edit

Even if you have an editor, you still want to send them a draft that is well written. Here are a few steps to follow.

• Get a first draft written and don’t throw it away.
• Leave it for a while – have a cup of tea – then print it out, or make the font size larger so the text stands out more.
• Read it as if someone else wrote it. Be severe. Ask questions such as: Is it written in a way that the reader can easily understand it? What is the writer trying to say here? Is this sentence or paragraph necessary? Has the writer covered all the essential facts?
• First drafts are often too long. When preparing the second draft, cut ruthlessly, maybe by as much as half.
• Use your word count carefully. When you are asked to write something, always ask how many words are required. If you are not given a word count then decide on one yourself. Keep it as low as possible.

Explore collaborative writing

Computers and the Internet make collaborative writing far easier, and as a result it is becoming an increasingly popular approach to writing content. Collaborative writing works well if:

• The writers spend time working through the objectives of the writing exercise, and reach agreement on such necessary matters such as style, tone, and length of the piece.
• There is a lot of content to be written that can benefit from the input of multiple disciplines.
• People can be given defined segments of content to write, and/or the different skills of different people can be used, for example when one person understands the subject well, while another is a good writer.
• There are professional processes in place to facilitate collaboration.
• The writers know and respect each other.

Common Mistakes

Not focusing on the needs of the reader

A surprising number of websites fail to consider who their reader is, simply adding content for its own sake. If you ignore the needs of your reader, then your reader will ignore you.

Putting non-Web formats on the Web

Translating a 40-page Word document into HTML is a simple task; persuading someone to read it is another job entirely. Have you ever tried reading an Adobe PDF file on a screen? It’s a painful experience. How many of your customers have read that PowerPoint presentation you translated into HTML?

Putting every piece of content you can find on the Web

The Web is not a dumping ground for content. You might have 50, 000 documents, with only 5, 000 suitable for your website. Publishing the other 45, 000 simply wastes your readers’ time – not something you want to do.

Poor editing

It is almost impossible to create quality content without sending it through a professional editorial process. No matter how good the writer is, their content will always benefit by having it checked over by an editor.

Long, rambling documents

If, after reading the headings and summary, the reader hasn’t grasped what exactly you are trying to communicate, chances are he or she will click the Back button. Online readers are ruthless about their time.

Sources
McGovern, Gerry, Killer Web Content. London: A&C Black
Website:www.clickz.com

When is copying a crime?

As a web-based organisation, and as a consultancy, we have over many years of research and strategy development and web development, been involved in studying our competition and using other sites and magazine articles, publications, university papers etc. as benchmarks for developing our own thoughts and even extending our own thoughts so that we can assist clients and engage in continual learning within Competitive Edge.

Of course, there is a fine line between understanding concepts, undertaking designs and publishing material where there may be ideas and concepts sparked by material, designs and developments already within the marketplace and merely copying these and passing them off as your own creativity and innovation.

Media watch is an organisation on Channel 2 that has grown out of the current practise by many suburban and regional newspapers and even major newspapers of taking articles from publications here and abroad and republishing them with slight changes under the signed hand of a contributing editor. Many of the newspapers are constantly brought to ‘heel’ for this practise.

In the marketplace today, however, there are serious consequences attached to breach of copyright and passing off material as your own or even downright plagiarism.

We have had a recent example of this. We undertook a brief for a New Zealand company and travelled to New Zealand to attend a meeting and to spend time with a client and to outline how he would approach the development of a fairly sophisticated and integrated website for their organisation. They responded by giving us the business and sending a deposit cheque so that we could start on the business.

Unfortunately, over time they did not deliver the material required to get the process underway and within six months they wrote an e-mail saying that they had decided not to proceed and could we send the money back. This is a breach of contract and we’re probably within our rights in not sending the money, however we felt that we’d persist with them and give them more time to see what they needed, and how they could use our services so things were left up in the air.

During this time, unbeknown to us, in the early stages, they had taken a site that we had developed on the mainland here in Victoria and virtually copied the outline of this website and they had even used the same colours, the same navigation headings and without much disguising and, without much disguising, had taken a map that had been developed and even the graphics on the map and placed this on a website designed by ‘unknown hand’. They are now demanding their money back.

This led me to look at what is the situation with copyright, especially web-pages, because some of our clients would not like to have their sites copied completely and we also feel it’s a responsibility of ours to point out to other clients who are looking at competitive activities and benchmarking their sites in the marketplace, the dangers of copying competitive sites or being ‘too close’ to the creative hand and visual representations of their competitors.

We are not against understanding the competition or even benchmarking against the competition, but we are against people taking others concepts and creative and making them their own and passing them off as theirs.

The law in the UK that sets the precedent for which the Commonwealth law and laws in New Zealand and in other Commonwealth countries are drawn, says that if a concept or design or thought or idea is ‘confusingly similar’, then this is breach of copyright and/or plagiarism. This sounds vague, but now the law is becoming very precise and it will not entertain copyright or ‘passing off’ without awarding serious damages or penalties that can include prison, in the most dire circumstances.

Aboriginal artists are one group that have recently been part of this new move and there are now pieces of art that actually have attached to them the requirement that the original artist receive a percentage of any increase in the value of this artwork as it goes through successive owners and auctions/sale over time.

Back to the client that we were talking about. This client has engaged in serious replication of our work, and at no time has acknowledged the source of the design, the creativity or the original thought, and it could be said that they used the briefing stage to gain ideas, and possibly, always had in mind that they would not be using our company as the implementer of those ideas.

Apart from the breach of contract in terms of payment and then withdrawal after many months of the business, and then their demand for repayment of the initial deposit, they have with complete knowledge of a similar site on the mainland, published and utilised their website with borrowed designs, graphics, etc.

If you find that you have competitors copying your website, so that the design, navigations, colours, etc are ‘confusingly similar’ to yours, or directly a plagiarism of major proportions, then we would like you to tell us about them because we would assist you to prosecute and to make sure that these people cease and desist such actions.

If you are thinking about copying a site, then don’t.

If you are employing a web-designer or web-based organisation, with skills such as ours, then ensure that, when you finish the website, that you get a sign-off on the website so that you have ownership, because unless you do this, then the creative aspects and the designs aspects of the site including the total layout and look belong to the original creator or artist just in the same way as a photograph belongs to the original photographer, and you will have no intellectual copyrights in regard to that piece of work.

- David Higginbottom

Saying Thank-You

It takes nothing to say thank-you, except the two words.

Unfortunately, we seem to have lost the ability to say thank-you in today’s society. Saying ‘thank-you’ is something you say like ‘G’day’, or ‘Goodbye’ but it doesn’t seem to carry the same impact, and it is not used in relation to the serious acts of good faith and acts that exceed expectations where a thank-you is definitely required.

When you’re in business, I’m sure that all of you will appreciate that there is nothing better than receiving a thank-you for excellent work, or work in which you’ve engaged and excelled to create a maximum benefit and payback for your client.

Yet, many clients still do not know how to say thank-you.

After thirty-two years in business, let me tell you, that when clients say ‘thank-you’ to me they get rewarded handsomely and even over-rewarded, because we work hard for them and we’re constantly motivated to make sure that they succeed. Those people who believe that saying ‘thank-you’ opens the gates for rorts such as overcharging, under-performing, etc, are disillusioned. While this could be a risk of saying ‘thank-you’, the greatest risk is that you demotivate and devalue your work in the eyes of the provider, the sub-contractor, the art-source supplier, etc, and as a consequence you may receive less effort, less interest and within the organisation. There can also be problems motivating individuals to perform on your work.

My advice is that you should think about the "Thank You" phrase when you are trying to do work, especially leading edge work or work that involves serious thought, brain-activity above the ordinary, etc, and consider saying thank-you more often. You will get a great result, you will become important to the supplier, and the person that performs the activities and functions for you, and I’m sure that you’ll be amply rewarded.

After writing this I felt it may be a bit corny for our newsletter. Then I sat in front of the desk of an excellent furniture salesman and heard him say thank you for the order in a demonstrative way. It did not sound corny. It sounded polished, professional and sincere and I know the retailer would have been pleased to hear it. So I published this

- David Higginbottom