5 tips to write more effective webcopy.

Lately i found my self reading about webcopy, and the diference between both printed media and digital media amazed me, and everything is based from the most obvious fact, Web copy is presented in a screen, this makes reading in a computer exhaustive for most users and they will read less or scan less?.


Yes!, people on the web do not read the content the scan the content to find what they are looking for, so this means that they don't read word by word like in printed media, so you can't write in a website or blog the same as you write in a magazine, or book.


So I will help you out with:


5 tips to write effective webcopy.


1. The page title.
This one is your first and more powerful weapon this will make the user neither look and read the first paragraph or make him take the next option he find on google and navigate away from your copy.


Always write a title that say what is the article or site about.

2. Effective first paragraph.

So next just after the Title there is the first paragraph, Here is were you need to pull the reader into your copy before they get bored and navigate away. 


Best practice is to pull the most important information first.

This is a good example taked from Rockable press book, how to write great copy for the web. 

Example 1:

Sara Green is a thirty-four year old wedding photographer

from Brighton, UK. Her favorite camera is the Canon 40D

and she takes it with her everywhere. This allows her to

take great shots wherever she goes. She has recently

started to work as a freelance wedding photographer and

is available for hire in the Brighton, UK area.

Example 2:

I am passionate about capturing the special, hidden

moments that will happen on your special day: the smiles,

the laughs, the glances and the kisses – moments that

would otherwise be lost. I'm an experienced wedding

photographer based in Brighton who is dedicated to

capturing authentic moments you will treasure for a lifetime.

If you're not planning on getting married anytime soon you might

find that both paragraphs are uninteresting – but imagine you lived

in Brighton and were on the hunt for a wedding photographer.

You will obviously be more attracted to the second example.

3. Lists 

As people keeps scanning your site another thing that may catch they eye are lists, lists can help to make your copy more easy to understand, like the good old ale, lists are good only in moderation so don't put lists all over your content, that may make it look unprofessional. 

When using lists:

• Try to write all things in the list with similar grammar

and structure.

• Use numbered lists for anything with a sequence or

hierarchy; bulleted lists for everything else.

• Use consistent capitalization and formatting.

• Capitalize the first letter of your list item when the item

is a sentence, lower case when the list item is not a

sentence.

• Use a period at the end of each list item if they're

sentences; use nothing if they're not. But be consistent.

If your list combines sentences and items, use periods

at the end of them all.

What you want an example? Just re-read the list above and think, how would it look if it wasn't arranged in a list?, would that make the content more accurate?.

4. don't click me!

Compare the following approaches:

1. Donna offers web writing workshops. Click here for

more information.

2. Donna offers web writing workshops. Please see

http://maadmob.com.au/ for more information.

3. Donna offers web writing workshops.

The third approach is the best practice you can use while using hyperlinks, this help you with search engines, and this will make your text more fluid and easy to scan since people will stop scaning at the link and is best for them to read "web writing workshop" instead of "click here" or "read more" also this will help people that have a audio reader for the sites if they are hearing at links and the only thing they hear is "click here" that wouldn't make click and will become confusing.

5. Use simple words.

Yep, this don't apply to every site but you need to get use that in most sites every kind of people will read your articles and since not everyone understand your language at all and maybe they will just translate with google, or they maybe understand but not like everyone should (when i was a kid I felt like this because of my little English level at that time) also there is low-literate people that may need a little help to read and also high-literate people will read and understand faster your content.

Follow up reading and links.


How little do users read?

The 5 Best Copywriting Books: An Unconventional Guide