Copywriting for the web is entirely different from anything you will have done offline. Online is a fast food medium: visitors do not have the time or the inclination to read reams of text from a flickering computer screen. People will come to your website with a purpose in mind and expect to find what they need quickly and easily.
The ability to communicate with your audiences in an honest and human way is vital if you are going to engage people and encourage conversion to your objectives. To give you a head-start over your competitors, we’ve compiled a quick ten point guide to writing effective and successful online copy.
1) Strike the right tone of voice
Remember that the internet consists of conversations between human-beings, not demographic sectors. In the main, conversations between people sound human and are conducted in an open, natural, first-person voice. To establish a tone of voice, suitable for your organisation, simply visualise your audiences and their online skills and characteristics. A tone of voice document should be a part of your online brand guidelines.
2) Edit, then edit again
Reading online is up to 25 per cent slower than reading offline. Thus you should focus on one idea per paragraph and use roughly half the word count that you would for print. Keep to the point: every word must be relevant. Also remember to avoid complex sentence structures, as these are difficult for readers to follow online.
3) Aid scanning
Given the difficulties and slowness inherent when reading text online users tend to scan web copy: picking out keywords, sentences and paragraphs of interest and ignoring the rest of the text. Skimming instead of reading has been confirmed by countless user studies. Web copywriters have to acknowledge this fact and write for easy scanning.
4) Invert the pyramid
Online, it’s all about grabbing users’ attention, engaging them with the first paragraph and encouraging them to read more. Try using the inverted pyramid principle: i.e. start with your conclusion and work backwards. This style of writing (common to newspapers) allows a reader to grasp the main points of the story before reading on.
5) Keyphrases for SEO
Google rewards useful and relevant content with a higher PageRank. Relevance is determined by the frequency, position and emphasis of keyphrases in a page. You can write your copy to increase the number of times a keyphrase is used in proportion to the length of the article copy (known as keyphrase density).
Inclusion of keyphrases near the top of the copy, in titles and in the image ALT tags all boost search engine positions. Remember not to overuse keyphrases as this will affect the sense of your text and could lead to accusations of keyphrase spamming. The use of synonyms is a good way to avoid the over-repetition of keyphrases.
6) Maximise the impact of hidden text
Using keyphrases in your hidden copy also helps search engine optimise your website. Hidden text includes page TITLE tags, META tags (Description and Keywords) and the naming conventions of URL-strings. This copy is read by search engine spiders and is hidden in the source code. The TITLE tag plays an important role in Search Engine Marketing, because it is typically the text underlined in blue on the search results page. Do not keyphrase-stuff your META Keywords or Descriptions.
7) Keep it consistent
Nothing looks more unprofessional than a word spelt differently throughout an article (e.g. web site, website, Web Site). Likewise a company name spelt wrong will have a damaging affect on the brand and undermine your credentials. The best way to maintain consistency (especially when there are multiple Web Editors working on a website) is to create a company-wide house style guide; covering common inconsistencies, such as how dates and times are written.
Be remarkable to attract links
Original, newsworthy content is vital in stimulating links from other sites and bloggers. Links are important because Google (the world’s most popular search engine) uses a PageRank system when generating search results, which counts every link to your site as a vote of confidence in the content. You can help spread the word about your content by syndicated it to other sites and using RSS feeds.
9) Plan for the year
A broadly planned online content strategy for the year is a good way to prepare for specific seasonal opportunities, such as Christmas or Valentine’s Day. By planning in advance you can secure resources with your agency and also identify online / offline link-ups to create an integrated marketing story (i.e. reflect a Direct Mail campaign on your website and in PPC adverts).
10) Clear calls to action
And finally always make sure that your copy leads to an action through the text, buttons or promotions. Ask yourself, what do you want your user to do - buy, register, download, enquire, view, comment, read more? Never leave a visitor asking what they should do next: instead guide them on a journey through the content that is pre-defined by you.
