10 Great Tips for writing web content

Writing content for the web and for the print are entirely different. And if you are a freelance writer then you need to know some tricks to make people hire you as a freelance content writer. People don’t read on the computer screen like they do with a book. Moreover reading on a screen is 25% slower than on the conventional print media. Dr. Jakob Neilsen of Stanford university has done a lot of usability study. So to keep your reader to your site or page you shall have to know proper tricks of the trade. Here you go :

First the facts to know in order to write content for the web :

• Web readers generally tend to ignore obscure and strenuous page designs
• 79% of reader generally pay more attention to headlines, summaries and captions than reading the whole topic line by line
• Web readers read snippets from here and there
• Even the most intense of web readers read only 75% of the content from the whole page.

Reasons for this are :

• Reading on a screen is 25% slower than reading off a printed page.
• Eye strain and fatigue is increased by reading from a computer screen
• People often reader from centre then left and then right rather than they normally do on print i.e. reading from left to right
• Web readers are very active and are always in a hurry. If they don’t find the information they are looking for quickly then they will leave. They won’t spend much time searching for it. Why is it so? This is because there is information overload on the web. If they don’t find something on your webpage there are lot of other options.
• Longer pages of text are less likely to be read. Short is always sweet.
• Web users don’t believe in false claims. Every point you make has to be supported by facts.

So the best web content writing tips are :-

1. Web users skim and scan. So be specific, to-the-point and brief.
2. They don’t read more since its difficult to read on a screen. So convey your message fast.
3. Make you page very informative. So that people can grab and go.
4. Headline is very important if you want your page to be read at all. Make it catchy.
5. Make the important points BOLD.
6. Use bullet points instead of long paragraphs.
7. Use a very readable font. Try arial.
8. Structure you content like a conversation.
9. Answer important questions regarding the topic.
10. Cover as much ground as possible i.e. cover all important aspects yet keep it short.
    

To summarise it all, after writing a piece of content you need to put yourself in the shoes of the reader and ask yourself, ‘Had I landed up in this page what questions regarding the topic would I have in my mind?’  Are those questions answered? Don’t be biased in this evaluation. If you think yourself that your page is worth it then you shall surely get truck loads of traffic and people will even include your page link in their websites.