It’s a common problem. You need to get some information together for your website – but how do you put it all together?
Instead of writing a giant wall of text that nobody will read, try laying it out like this.
Get to the point. Early.
If this opening paragraph is all I read, would this tell me what the page was about? People will often skim read this and then decide if they want to keep reading. Don’t waffle – get to the point.
When writing for the web:
- Use short, simple sentences
- Keep paragraphs small
- Break long copy into sections with subheadings (Use “Heading 2” in WordPress)
- Use point form where possible, and
- Use the inverted pyramid style (state your conclusion first)
Why?
People generally won’t sit there and read your page word for word. Studies have shown that people will scan your page to see if anything interests them. Keeping that in mind, make sure your important bits are at the top, and make it easy to scan by using short paragraphs.
Make sure that any keywords or keyphrases you would like to be found under are on the page as well. Bold them if appropriate.
If people do get to the bottom of the page, give them some directions. For example, you could finish off with:
Where to from here?
- Use the 5x5x5 rule to generate ideas to write about
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