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Showcase: Articles
25 Tips for Better Web Writing
By John Wooden, Usability Engineer
Drawing on the recent work of Jonathan and Lisa Price and
Nick Usborne, the research of usability experts such as Jakob Nielsen,
and our own experience, we have compiled this list of 25 tips for writing
online. This is the bread and butter stuff that everyone writing for web
sites and e-newsletters should know.
Brevity
- Cut any paper-based text by 50%.
But don't cut so much that your words lose all meaning and personality.
And don't cut so much that your words become ambiguous.
- Make each paragraph short.
If possible, keep paragraphs to two or three lines.
- Delete marketing happy talk and hyperbole. Be direct, honest, and
sincere.
- Keep to the main point.
If information is not relevant, delete it. If it is important, but not
directly related, move it elsewhere and link to it. Also consider "sidebars."
- Write in the active voice.
Scannability
- Keep each paragraph to one main idea.
- Put your conclusion or lead idea in the first paragraph of the article.
- Avoid colons, semi-colons, and apostrophes. (They are hard to spot
on screen.)
- Use tables, charts, or graphs to present repeating information.
- Turn any series into a bulleted or numbered list.
- Use titles that are are clear enough to identify the contents of
the page.
Make sure that menu labels match page titles.
- Use meaningful subheadings to help visitors scan pages.
- Use bold to highlight what is important.
Effective Links
- Place links at the ends of sentences wherever possible, rather than
in the middle of sentences.
- Provide clues so visitors know what they will get when they click
a link.
- Avoid using "click here" and "click to." Don't
point to your links.
"Shift the focus from the links to the subject" (Price and
Price).
- Link to external sites when relevant.
- Point to what's new with special links.
Good Manners
- Write clear, memorable URLs.
Try to keep your URL short and predictable, and avoid special characters.
- If you redesign your site, make sure that you set up redirects on
your server so people who click bookmarked links can get to the new
pages.
- Tell visitors how large a media object is before they start downloading
it.
- To optimize searching, use keywords in your page titles and body
copy, and use the meta keyword tag. Add a page description in the metatag.
- Write alternate text for images.
- Confirm a visitor's location by showing the position of the page
they are viewing in the overall hierarchy.
- Write each menu so it offers a meaningful structure.
See these related topics on our site:
Fredrickson Communications' Classes
Review of Hot Text
Six Essential Skills for Web Projects
Comments or questions? E-mail John Wooden.
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