How To Write For The Web
By Amrit Hallan
Among the web’s myriad peculiarities, one is, the way people read online text. It took me a lot of time (being a writer who loves to read the greats like Dickens and Kafka) to realize how impatient and hurried the general web reader is.
Most web readers do not read complete sentences and paragraphs, unless they are reading a white paper or a piece of literature. They generally scan the headlines, or the words and expressions that grab their attention. Web readers tend to scan text online and read text offline. They typically do not read a page from start to finish on the computer screen. Instead, they scan a site looking for relevant items and then print pages that contain the information they seek. You need to apply a style and method to your Web documents that accommodate this type of reading.
I’m not saying there are hard and fast rules for writing for the online audience, but if you take care of the following guidelines, you may find yourself on the comfortable side of the hedge.
TRY TO BE CONCISE
As I mentioned above, an average web reader doesn’t read big text streams. Unlike a printed papyrus, the web is humanly limitless when it comes to seeking information. It’s all on the back of the reader’s mind that the moment he or she begins to feel bored, just a few clicks are required to go somewhere else.
CONVERSE WITH YOUR READER
Write in a conversational tone whenever possible. Use lots of You’s, I’s and Me’s. Keep a free flow and keep throwing appealing and stimulating expressions at your reader. No, it doesn’t mean you create a nuisance or insult the sensibilities of your reader, but try to be as formal as your subject allows.
A few months back I used to write technical tutorials for a management portal. The chief editor had hired me as a freelance columnist because of my casual but incisive style. The senior management, however, objected to my style and suggested that I should tone down my humor and make the tutorials sound serious and bookish. While I wrote in my style, the portal got great response and the readers loved the tutorials. When they curbed my style, the popularity declined vertically, and soon, I got bored and stopped writing for them. They closed the web site last week because many subscribers asked them to refund the subscription money.
Lesson learnt: no matter what’s the field, a typical web reader does not read pedantic stuff. I don’t know why, but the web makes them funky.
WRITE IN A LINEAR FASHION
Try not to divide a single topic among various pages. If the message is interesting and relevant, your web readers would like to read it on a single page no matter how long and bulky that page is. They don’t appreciate pressing the Backward and Forward buttons.
I have seen this myself, and know how irritating it is to having to go to various pages to read just one article or product description. Fine, the web readers prefer shorter pages, but it doesn’t mean if a paper consists of thousand pages then we should have to click thousand pages to read that paper. It’s better if all the content is on a single, linear, scrollable page.
USE LESSER LINKS
Some online articles are full of links. Even for a two-line explanation, some writers use a second page and give the hyper link in the first page. I find it very restrictive, especially if I want to take a printout for later reading. Agreed, sometimes we can’t help it, but keep in mind that where you can avoid giving a link, avoid it.
Another problem with links is, they distract the reader. Sometimes the reader goes to the link, reads whatever is there, and ends up forgetting the original page.
HIGHLIGHT MAIN POINTS IN THE BEGINNING
Yes, this is a very important point. If you give the headlines at the beginning of the page, and if you make them interesting, the web readers tend to read with greater earnestness.
Suppose an article or a section tells the insomniacs how they can sleep using the technique mentioned in the article or the section. The following highlight would probably trigger an interest:
DO YOU CRAVE TO SLEEP CONTINUOUSLY FOR AT LEAST 10 HOURS WITHOUT TAKING A PILL? READ ON TO KNOW HOW YOU CAN.
MAKE COMPLETE PAGES
As far as possible, all relevant pages should be self-reliant, and should be present in their intrinsic entirety. Web surfers arrive at web pages randomly, sometimes directly from a search engine or a referred link. There is no way to tell where they’ve been or where they’ll go after visiting your page. Even if you try to provide content using links to bind related pages together, you cannot force a Web reader to follow those links. As a result, your approach must be encyclopedic, giving the reader a fairly comprehensive presentation of the topic on every page. Whenever they arrive, they should know where they are without having to go here and there.
Always include a link that takes to the main section of the web site with just one click.
IMPORTANT THINGS FIRST
The important message that is to be communicated to your visitor, according to the relevance, should come first on the page, and if aesthetically possible, properly highlighted. Think of all those things that the visitor should/would like to see first most, and keep them as easily accessible as possible.
You should present the important information in the first two or three paragraphs so that by the time the reader gets distracted and leaves the site, you have conveyed your main message.
MAKE PRINTABLE PAGES
If you have lots of textual content on your web site, keep it in a form so that your readers can take out printouts. Either create separate copies of your web pages stripped off all the layout features, or use a ready-made script (you can get many such scripts on the Internet) that removes all the HTML tags before showing your web page.
This sums-up my writing presentation for the time being. If you feel I have left out some vital point, you are welcome to let me know.
Copyright © 2010 Amrit Hallan
If you want to publish this article, please let me know.
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