There are several instances of a great looking website laden with cool flash design and animations failing to draw adequate visitors. The websites with eye catching design and layout cut no ice if the content is not up to the mark. The developments in a web design company notwithstanding, the success of a website with viewers still depends largely on the quality of the content. The way the content is presented in a website also matters a lot in this respect. The web developers need to ensure that the content in a website is search engine friendly and the viewers find it useful and relevant.
Web content writing is somewhat different compared to writing for print media owing to the nature of the Internet usage and browsing patterns. A content developer needs to think the priorities of the web users when creating the content for a website.
- It is important for a content writer to understand how the web users read the content online before he proceeds to writing content. People feel tired by reading on a computer screen, no matter what the display type is, CRT or LCD. This explains why people tend to read slowly on computer screen compared to printed materials. Hence, the web content writers need to make the content briefer than print.
- The majority of internet users tend to scan text instead of going through an entire webpage. Therefore, a web content writer can apply formatting styles like bullet points, bold letters and highlighted text at important sections in the page content to grab the attention of the viewers. The web readers are also impatient by nature. They expect to find the relevant information in a website in the shortest possible time. To cope with this tendency of the web users, a content writer should put the vital information at the top of the content. This is called the inverted pyramid style.
- The web users are often doubtful about the credibility of the web sites. Therefore, web content writers should use crisp and simple language to develop the content. The headlines need to be meaningful and the content needs to be relevant to the subject of the website. It would not be a nice idea to use sales pitch, jargons and superfluous language.
This can be a turn off for a large section of website users. It is also advisable to provide hyperlinks to the information source in the content. To evade information overload, the content developers can use short paragraphs and sentences.
- Web content writing also requires proper editing before it can be published. It would be a good idea to find someone else to edit the work of a content writer. If that is not possible, a content writer should edit the content after some time of completion. Using proper keywords for making the content search engine friendly is okay but one should not go overboard with it. SEO Keyword stuffing can make the content uninteresting to the readers and give the article a spammy look.