Writing for the Web: Basic Notes for Creating Web Content

Apr, 27 2009

 

"Content Is King" is the mantra of SEO professionals across the web, and they are not far off. Web content does much for your website. Of course, it draws search engine traffic organically, but it also provides your visitors with important information and can establish you as an expert in your field.

 

By providing valid, helpful information for your site visitors, you will make them more apt to trust what you sell as well. But, like with most things related to the Internet, writing good web content is not enough. You also have to publish it on your site in a visually pleasing manner. After all, if your readers have to squint and strain to read what is written on your site, they aren't going to stay long.

 

Choose Simple Colors

Colors are a very important factor of the readability of your content, and not just the font color. The easiest font to read is black text on a white background. However, this is a bit boring. Also, a very bright white background may hurt some readers' eyes. A good option is a dark font, black, brown or blue, on an eggshell or light khaki background. If you do it right, your reader may not even know that the color is not white, but you will be giving their eyes a break.

 

Cater to Reader's Short Attention Spans

Web readers have notoriously short attention spans. You need to do something to break up the text. You can do this by:

 

• Inserting pictures between chunks of text
• Using bulleted and numbered lists
• Using small paragraphs
• Using headers and subheaders throughout the text

 

Remember that many web readers will only read "above the fold." Now, obviously a website does not have a "fold," but this is a term borrowed from the newspaper industry which indicates that people are lazy and do not want to work for their information by unfolding a newspaper. In the web design world, it means they will not scroll down past what is instantly visible. Content that cannot be seen when the page is first open may not be viewed at all by some visitors.

 

Put your most important information first, and grab their attention so they will scroll down. However, do not make the title or header too large, even as you attempt to grab attention, because this will push too much of your content below the "fold."

 

Choose a Visually Pleasing Layout

The layout also plays a roll in how visually appealing your web content is. You can always add sidebars to keep more of your content above the fold. This is also a good way to draw attention to something you want to highlight.

 

If you do add graphics inside your text, give them plenty of space. Words that butt right up to text are distracting and visually unappealing. Web design experts recommend 20 pixels of space around graphics.

 

The bottom line is that when it comes to web content, simple is always better. The less cluttered your website's content is, the more likely it is that the reader will stick around to read what you have to say.