How to Write Great Web Copy

People ask me about this topic a lot. Writing for the web can seem intimidating. But the basic principles of writing great web copy are very simple.

My Advice…

I’ve had two jobs as a web editor, and a third job working on an online educational product. In total, about 4 years of experience.

My bible of writing good web copy is Don’t Make Me Think! A Common Sense Guide to Web Usability by Steve Krug. The book follows its own principle of not making you think too much. It is straight and to the point, easy to read, easy to understand. The dust jacket says the book was meant to be read through on a short airplane flight, and it can be. Actually, you can probably finish it faster if you focus on the parts you need (e.g., web copy instead of interface design).

Keep It Short and Sweet

Here is the main principle to keep in mind for web copy. People do not read web sites like they read books.

They skim. Their eyeballs flicker down the page, grabbing stand-out text. If a page goes on for too long, readers often give up, go back to Google, and search for something shorter.

I see so many web sites with long, wordy copy. It makes me sad. People are just not going to read it. I see three exceptions to this rule:

1. Blogs. If someone is reading your blog, chances are good that they enjoy your writing and will read all of it (or nearly all). This gives you license to be more verbose. It’s also why many great blogs are later turned into books.
   
   Despite what I just said, a blog is still on the web. If a blog entry carries on for screens and screens and screens, even your fans may surf on to something else. The more scrolling you force your readers to do, the more likely they will stop reading and move on.
   
   
2. “About Us,” “Company History,” and similar pages. I’m talking about pages whose express purpose is to provide copious details that a user has specifically requested (by clicking the link). Even here, it’s wise not to go into too much detail. Save the long version for the annual report or the printed brochure.
   
   
3. Tutorials. I have learned a lot from online instruction manuals, from recipes to Photoshop tutorials. As with “About Us” pages, their purpose is to provide abundant detail when there’s an excellent chance the reader actually does want to sit and read it all.

But even these three types of writing can be made more web-friendly. For tips, read on.

How Do I Keep It Short and Sweet?

Several basic tools can make web copy more readable:

• Boldface subheads. When a reader is scanning down a page, it should be as easy as possible for them to spot the parts they want to read. To that end, boldface subheads are gold.
  
  I’m not saying you should precede every single paragraph with a subhead. But I wouldn’t go longer than three or four paragraphs without one, unless it can’t be avoided.
  
  Blog entries might be an exception, depending on the blog. If you write the kind of narrative blog that reads like a short story, subheads may not make sense.
  
  
• Short, concise copy. Generally, the web is not a place to be verbose. After you write a web page, go back over it and see where your copy can be tightened up. Long paragraph? Break it up into two paragraphs. Long sentence? Break it up into two sentences. Long phrase? See if there’s a shorter way to say it.
  
  
• Short paragraphs. I cannot emphasize this enough. When someone skims a page, they do not read whole paragraphs. The shorter a paragraph is, the more likely it will be read.
  
  Think of it as a challenge for your writing skills. How concise CAN you be, when held to the fire? Got a piece of text that you think is nice and short? CAN YOU MAKE IT EVEN SHORTER and still get all your points across? I think you can.
  
  
• Inverted pyramid style. Journalists know this one. The meat and potatoes of the story should come first. Less-important details should be near the bottom. This applies to each paragraph as well as to entire articles.
  
  This is very important on the web. When a reader skims a page, they only see the first line or sentence in a paragraph. That sentence had better contain some meaty information, or else the paragraph is likely to be skipped over.
  
  The phrase “inverted pyramid style” is a visual representation of how the copy should be structured. Picture a pyramid upside down so that the wide part is at the top and the narrow part at the bottom.
  
  
• Bullets. I love bulleted and numbered lists for the web. Why? Bullets make it very easy for a reader to scan and still absorb a lot of information. Make the first part of the bullet boldface, of course.
  
  Now that I’ve written web copy for a while now, my thought process incorporates this automatically. “How can I break up this long copy into bullets?” “This seems like ordered instructions; should I make it a numbered list?”