Web Writing: A Short Series on Effective Web Writing and Layout – Part Two

Part Two: Laying it all Out

As you start to put your chunks, headings, and subheads together into a cohesive flow, remember these four key points:

1. Web writing is best laid out in an inverted pyramid style. This is accomplished by starting with your conclusion or main point, and ending with the finer points and details of your topic.
2. A successful site is written for many different levels of interest. It’s a tough concept, but the best sites are written from the viewpoints of “there is no interest in my topic,” to “my reader is thirsting for more info.” How do we do this?
3. Avoid promotional, boastful, or subjective writing, or exaggerated claims
4. Keep your paragraphs concise. What’s more, using high quality graphics will help get your key points across quickly, and without belaboring the point with unnecessary text.

As you plan your site, remember: less is more. Plan your page layout so the reader doesn’t have to scroll far down the page. You can accomplish this by presenting one idea per paragraph, ensuring your salient points tell the story succinctly and effectively. If it’s necessary to have a fair amount of information on one page so that scrolling is unavoidable, try to:

• Provide a strong, cohesive flow for scrolling pages
• Provide links back to top if long scrolling (over 1.5/2 scrolls)

Lastly—and perhaps the biggest point to remember as you plan your site—provide all your information within three clicks from the landing page. Usability studies show that if a reader is required to drill down any more than three clicks, you may lose their interest. When your information does require the user to click to another area, use a one-sentence summary for the link. Note: longer links give more info, so it’s fine to create them using:

• associated text as clues
• trigger words to describe content
• different links to same content

Do try to avoid adding excessive links, however, as too much colored, underlined text can be distracting to your readers.

Above all, remember: we only have a few seconds to influence the reader. Make those seconds count!v

This entry is filed under Branding, On the Web, Web Design, Web Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.