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Guidance for staff on writing for the web

Some important things to remember:

  • Web users SCAN rather than read.
  • Reading online is approximately 25% slower than print.
  • Users make an impression of a site in only 7 seconds.
  • The average reading age is 12 (according to the Campaign for Plain English)

Therefore:

  • Content must be scannable, concise, and credible
  • Contrary to writing for print, don't build up to the main point. Make the main point clear at the start and expand later.
  • Web copy should be about half the length of print copy. If the content of your webpage exceeds 500-600 words, consider splitting it into more than one page.

Making your content precise and relevant will make your site more useful to users and search engines (which 'read' your site with roaming programmes that scan web sites in order to rank them).

These search engines will look for key words - the kind you type into your search box - both in the headings and the text of your page. The better the structure of your page, the easier it is for the search engine to determine what it is about.

So - don't be afraid to

  • make your content clear
  • use simple language
  • repeat yourself occasionally
  • spell out your acronyms

And remember to avoid

  • verbose prose
  • specialist terms in general content
  • leaving your main point to the end

More information on writing for the web

Users look at web sites in a very different way to print. They scan a couple of lines at the top before jumping down the left hand side. This is known as the 'F shaped' pattern.

A key section of the page is the area that is visible before you need to scroll down. Users need to get a clear idea of the content of your page from this section, and will not scroll down further if they don't think they will find anything of interest.

PDFs (often used as downloads for printing) are 300% less usable than web pages - so avoid using them unless material is designed for printing. Think about rewriting text for web when possible.

Users assess the credibility of a web site based on how attractive and easy-to-use it is.