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CONTENT IS KING - WORDS
There are three main rules when writing for the Internet:
1- Word economy ... be concise. Write no more than 50% of the text you would write for a printed publication.
2 - Write for easy scannability. Don’t expect your visitors to read long continuous blocks of text, use short paragraphs liberally scattered with sub headings and bulleted lists.
3 - Use hypertext (links) to split long information into multiple pages.
Reading a story on screen is very different from reading in a newspaper or magazine. It is more difficult on the eyes and research shows that it is about 25% slower than reading on paper. So text needs to be in shorter chunks with lots of breakers - sub heads, illustrations, quote boxes, fact boxes etc. We also know that users do not like to scroll down long pages so ideally keep all your text in view on one screen.
All text should be run through a spell checker and re-read before it
is uploaded to your site. Misspelled words are not only an embarrassment
and loss of credibility factor, but they also slow the reader down and
can cause confusion.
Remember the Internet offers people choice - more choice than ever before
to read what, and how much, they like on any topic. The average web
visitor will only want to read a short synopsis on any subject in the
first instance and then be free to read the longer article through a
link, so he/she can choose (or not choose) to read the detail. Conversely,
those who want to read the detail want ALL the detail.
A topic should be introduced with a well-written, concise synopsis or
teaser heading (something to make them want to read more).
Scannability
Because it is painful to read text on a computer screen, users tend
not to read streams of text word by word - instead they skim a page
and move on; so you need to grab their attention and keep it.
There are other reasons why users scan material on screen:
- the web is driven by the user who often
feels he or she has to move around and click on things
to make themselves feel productive.
- modern day web users are receiving
scores, even hundreds, of emails, voicemails and text
messages so they don’t have time to trawl through long screeds
of text. They expect the message to come
up sharp and easily for them.
-Your web page is competing with millions
of other web pages and the user does not know
which is the best one, so he or she will scan through many pages and
pick out interesting snippets from various pages.