Online copywriting - ­ getting the words right makes a big difference

31/12/2008 - Manchester

Lots of people have given lots of advice about writing.  And that can be confusing. 

But writing for the web is not difficult. There are some simple rules that make web copy more effective. It makes a big difference. Good copy can:

· give people the information that they want to know

· help them to navigate through web pages

· send calls to action that create key conversions on sites

The overall impact of good copy is a good experience for both online users and the owner of the site. The user is getting the experience that they want while the site owner can build user journeys that achieve the goals they want.

Defining your message, understanding your audience and how the internet works are all essential to writing effective web copy.

It¹s essential to try and understand who your audience is in as much detail as possible. But we can also state some things about web audiences in general. They have a short attention span, for instance, and generally have a direct goal when they visit a site ­ usually to find out a specific piece of information.

So we need to give users what they want if we want them to do what we want them to do. The easiest way to do this is by using plain English and following some basic rules ­ keeping things, short, simple and succinct.
George Orwell¹s rules for good writing, which he wrote in 1946, are a great
start: 

- never use a long word where a short one will do
- if it is possible to cut a word out, cut it out
- never use the passive where you can use the active
- never use a foreign phrase, a scientific word, or a jargon word if you can think of an everyday English equivalent.
 
These rules will all help to keep your audience happy. And that¹s already made a big difference to how effective your website is.