REPORT ON WRITING FOR THE WEB

When we go online we become a different kind of reader. We browse the web looking for information, and when we find it we scan rather than read.

And if you are a writer trying to draw online readers to your site, or to your piece of work, you need to go about your trade in a different way.

People are asking themselves one question as they browse the web: “Is this going to tell me what I want to know?”

You need them to be able to find your site when they use a search engine, so the conventional generic introduction won’t do. You have to try to second-guess what the search might be.

The internet is a serious medium, far more serious than newspapers or magazines, and it is facts the browsing reader is looking for.

 An example from a recent edition of the Daily Mail:

• “A policewoman forced out of her job after returning from maternity leave has won £93,000 in damages.” Perfectly good as a newspaper intro, but probably needs more information, such as the officer’s name and the police force involved, for a search engine to pick it up.

If the facts are at the top of the story a search engine is more likely to find it, and if the facts are what readers see when the search results appear on screen it might be your site they decide to visit.

You want readers to look at your piece, of course, but you also want them to revisit the site, so you have got to make it easy.

The size of the screen matters, readers don’t like to scroll through long stories on screen. So the fewer words the better.

Short sentences and short paragraphs work, you really want the whole thing to appear at once on the screen. Better to break a complicated story into a series of chunks than expect readers to scroll.

Links can help offset the disadvantages of screen size and are another thing search engines tend to pick up.

The internet is a personal medium, so words such as You and We work well. Pictures often don’t work – there is not enough space on the screen

Remember readers are going to browse the web and scan your story. If they can find the facts they want quickly, and the information is presented in a usable way, they might revisit your site.

A short checklist for writers working on the web might look like this:

• Write the important things first
• Stick to the facts – in the headline and the text
• Use fewer words
• Keep the sentences and paragraphs short
• Ask what you can put elsewhere – you are probably not going to write a single story but several chunks.
• Use bullet points rather than punctuation – they look better on screen

The author attended NUJ Training’s Writing for the Web course, run by Chris Wheal. The NUJ runs this and other journalism courses, which can be attended by non-members as well as members. Further information at: www.nujtraining.org.uk