Writing Professional Content
March 18th, 2009
Having great content is a prerequisite to having a great website. It’s something that is often neglected by website owners because, like anything that is quality, it takes time and effort to produce. Writing for the web can also be a little different than writing for a magazine or other medium. There are a few extra considerations that need proper attention.
Good Writing, Good Site
Before dealing with any web specific aspects of content writing, it merits talking about the general importance of good grammar and proper spelling. Any content that your organization publishes online should be as perfect as possible. This can be a real time investment – but poor writing skills are a great way of making your organization seem cheap and amateur. If you are nervous about the structure and flow of your writing, it might be a good idea to hire an editor or let your peers review any written content.
Keep Jargon to a Minimum
Jargon refers to special words or expressions that are used by groups or professions that are hard for others to understand. Jargon is stuff like, “Our firm offers the best solutions to your business by helping you navigate real-time choices and mission-critical functionality“. Sites guilty of this sort of content are often the same type that are heavy on the usage of bad stock photography and sales copy. You should keep your content simple and easy to understand – your ultimate goal is communication, and if your content is written poorly there is almost certainly something being lost in translation.
Writing for Scanners
The internet is all about finding information quickly. Because of this, most people are prone to scanning text rather than reading it entirely. The use of title and header text is a great way to help users navigate site content efficiently. Titles break up your content into convenient pieces, allowing users to quickly find the information they are looking for. You want people to feel positive about your site - and making sure they can find what their looking for will leave them with a positive impression.
Remember the Images
In web design there are two kinds of images; those that are a part of your sites structure, and those that are a part of your content (inline images). If you’re going to include images in the actual text of your content, it is crucial to write in a way that will allow things to fit together properly. If you only have two paragraphs of text and want to have 15 images on the page, it might merit considering how things are going to look. Writing for the web is similar to writing for a newspaper. We need to consider the physical limitations of our page, and more specifically, how exactly our images will fit in with our content. Spacing on the web is notoriously neglected, and it makes a huge difference in readability and general attractiveness of a site if the text and images have enough room to ‘breathe‘.
Remember Who You’re Writing For
Understanding your audience is an important part of choosing the style you should write in. Things like age, diversity,and geographic location can often affect the way you need to write. If you are writing for a young audience, you might want to consider using a less formal tone than if you were writing for the elderly. Likewise, your audience might be experts in a given field and can handle the use of industry specific terms.
You should never underestimate the importance of good content. Your words form the core of your message so you need to make sure that you cross all the t’s and dot all the i’s. And after-all, everyone knows that on the internet, ‘content is king.’