The Word Wrangler

Though the web is still maturing people still make the mistake by thinking that copy written for print can just be transferred over to the web.

This isn’t the case. While writing styles between print and web are similar in terms of grammar and punctuation, the presentation of information on the Internet has to be quite different or it’s likely to be passed over by readers.

The following are some guidelines to follow when crafting articles, blogs and other content for your readers so that they’ll keep coming back for more.

Get to the Point – People read magazines and newspapers as much for entertainment as they do for gathering information, and the same is true for the web. However, the difference is that while people will spend quite a bit of time reading magazines and newspapers, they’re awfully impatient when it comes to searching for information on the web.Give them the meat right off the bat or they’ll likely look elsewhere.

There are thousands of web sites competing for your readers’ attention. If they don’t find something worthwhile on your site, they’re gone. Skip the fluff and get to it.

Use Strong Headlines – Just like in print a strong headline can be all that it takes to pull someone into your piece. Now I’m not talking about the kinds of cutesy headlines you see in some newspapers, but rather headlines that incorporate a piece of vital information that your readers are looking for.

Use Short Paragraphs – People don’t like large, unbroken pages of text on the web anymore than they do in print. The difference is that people are more likely to sit down and leisurely read a lengthy newspaper or magazine article, but simply blanch when confronted with too much copy on the web.

This isn’t to say that people won’t read a lengthy article online, you just have to know how to present that information so that it’s easier for the reader to get through.

Make Your Copy Scanable – Web readers are notorious for skimming through copy to see if there’s anything worth reading. That’s why it’s important to break up large chunks of text with subheads, bullet points and even block quotes. Again, when using these devices, make sure they’re written to include important information that the reader might be looking for.

Content, Content, Content – Whether you’re a site owner or a copywriter, writing web content should never be about simply filling space. With several million web sites online there are too many other choices for web surfers to visit if you’re just going to throw filler at them.

Get into the heads of the typical people who will be reading whatever you’re writing about. What’s important to them? What bit of information can you find that they may not already know? The better — and more specific — the information you can give your readers increases the chances that the copy will be read and that the site will be visited again.

If you’re serious about attracting visitors to your site — and making sure they come back — give them good, informative content that’s easy to read.