Guidelines for Content writing for Web/Blog

Posted in: Content Writing by Jazz on July 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

This is for all of the content Guys

These are some principles that apply to any /all content on the web. Even for those of you who will be writing Blogs every month

• Writing Style  should be Informal- relaxed, personal, friendly, conversational, Informational pages can have a more formal tone- Objective, factual
• Use active voice whenever possible – especially for instructions/labels that support user actions
• Use the second person (you) to set a friendly informal tone
• Use Contractions (can’t, won’t) for a conversational tone
• Word choice- strive for simplicity in terminology, avoid abbreviations, acronyms and Jargon
• For word selection take the following into consideration- Connotation- elderly Vs senior citizens,
• Avoid words with unspecific or multiple definitions – good, some, soon, everyone
• Ensure the tone remains consistent through out the site since it reflects the branding
• Write to facilitate quick scanning
• Sentence length- 8-20 words
• Sentence Variety- add interest by varying the traditional subject and verb sequence about every 5th-6th sentece
• Bulleted lists to make it easy to skim a written passage for relevant content
• Numbered list for sequences/instructions
• Use the inverted Pyramid writing style- helps users get to the point by quickly scanning headlines. Present conclusions at the top and put details at the end of the page or on a separate page

Headlines and titles-

• Identify content of a section-macro level description 40-60 characters.
• Put important words first that make sense even when truncated.
• Emphasize actions or decisions
• Help Guide readers
• Include subtitles to help guide readers done the pyramid
• They should help users comprehend even when displayed out of context
• Use “hooks” to get the readers attention

Quotations –

• Questions- “ How do you turn lookers into buyers”
• Unusual Statements- “How to lose ecommerce customers?
• Comparisons- “What works, and what flops, in a E commerce webite”

Links

• Underline only Links- give them the best affordance or “click-ability”
• Link Text – Cue users if this is a different destination- “New Window”
• The text should be clear and understandable

Some facts from Usability studies-

• Line length refers to the number of characters per line.
• If line length is too long, reading speed decrease- eye gets lost returning to the next line.
• Line length of 5.5 inches was read faster then that of 1.8 inches – eyes have to move more to return to the next line
• Young and older readers prefer shorter line lengths– optimal  line length is seven words per line
• Ideal line length is 55 characters per line (column format) for Readability
• Although some studies show that 100 characters per line are better for reading speed
• Trade off here is Readability Vs reading speed

You can also explore the “Readability Tool” – Ms Word – Tools>> Options>Spelling and Grammar Tab>>Turn on the readability statistics