Writing for the Web
Writing for the web is a skill that is often neglected. For a number of reasons it’s not the same as writing for print media so sadly you can’t just recycle the copy from your brochure.
A few key things to remember when you’re writing for web are:
- Capture your audience’s attention: You have to capture you reader’s attention almost immediately – believe me if you haven’t got them interested with the first few words they’ll probably move on. Use the inverted pyramid technique and start with the conclusion and follow with the details.
- Less is more: Be clear, be concise. If you can pare an article down to a headline and a series of bullet points then maybe you should.
- Make it meaningful: Don’t waste your reader’s time. If you’re going to tell them something, make it accurate and useful.
- Have a call to action: Users time is precious so you might as well make the most of it. Ask them to buy, donate, download or simply comment. If they go on and follow your call to action you’ll get another useful insight as to whether or not your content is working.
- Don’t forget the science: Writing content for the web has another more scientific dimension. Copy must be written in such a way as to make it more attractive to search engines like Google. Of course this can be overdone and it mustn’t compromise the integrity of your message. This science bit is a facet of SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) and I’ll cover this in a later post.
If, forgetting for the time being item 5, this all seems very easy then why don’t you try a little exercise? Take a 1500 or 2000 word article, maybe something from a corporate brochure and edit it down to 500 words. You still have to include all the salient points and it still has to make sense.
Harder than it sounds? Let me know how you got on by leaving a comment at the bottom of the page.
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Webs 1, 2 and 3 for Beginners
Ok, let’s start with the basics.
Terms like Web 2.0 and the Semantic Web are regularly bandied around by ‘web gurus’, but for us mere mortals what do they actually mean?
Web 1.0 is in fact just the web. It’s a term that’s only been in common use since the term Web 2.0 was used by Tim O’Reilly to describe a step change in the way in which people and organisations are using the web rather than a new version of the internet. Technologies have grown up to facilitate this and take advantage of it but you should really just think of it as the natural evolution of the internet and the ways in which people use it.
Sadly for those of you hankering after a return to the black ash and chrome of the ‘80s Web 2.0 doesn’t mean a black background and ‘glassy’ buttons for your website. Users of the internet had always used it to communicate with each other but over time they started to do something else. People started to share information, to collaborate not just with one other person but with lots of people. Developers and designers responded to this by building and designing websites that made this easier, faster and in some cases more entertaining.
So a Web 2.0 site allows its users not just to read content but to interact with each other and even provide content. Right now you are looking at the Web 2.0 element of the Ursus Media website. I’ve provided content to you, you can comment on what I’ve written (the box right at the bottom of the page), other readers can comment on what you’ve written and suddenly there’s a whole new conversation going on.
I think the following video from the nice people at notinwords.com describes it really well:
Web 3.0, more commonly called the Semantic Web, again describes a natural evolution of the internet. This is where as well as millions of people linking together in lots of different ways; all the billions upon billions of pieces of information and devices will be linked together as well.
Things like search will be revolutionised, shopping, communicating, learning; in fact just about everything will change. The web will be more efficient and more useful. If you think the internet is a great resource now, just you wait.
Currently information is brought to you online because its content and code is seen by applications such as search engines. As the Semantic Web evolves not only will the search engines see this content and code they will also understand its meaning, intention and relationship to other pieces of information.
In this next video thought leaders STI International describe in more detail the Semantic web:
Hopefully between me, notinwords.com and STI International we’ve managed to give you a good idea of what these things mean.
If you still have any questions about the different flavours of web I’d encourage you to leave a comment and then I can reply and so can the wider web community (very Web 2.0) or you can simply email me and I’ll do my best to help.
What this all means for your business and how you can take advantage of the ever changing web will be the subject of future posts. If you want to keep up, you might want to subscribe.
Remember if you have a project coming up: anything from a new website to some help with a social media strategy, we’d love to help. Contact us and we can talk it through.
