Be clear, be specific and be bold. But mistakes still happen. No matter how good you are in writing an articles for the web, the chances for web visitors to actually read your message are actually low. How can you make those potential customers to read your text? How do you make them click the links you want them to click?
Most writers on the web treat their web visitors as readers of a printed text. This can be a good choice if your readers are actually interested in you. But the chances are low because most people on the web are in a hurry.
A written web copy is totally different than a print copy. In a print copy, readers can spell each words carefully and read each paragraphs in a casual manner. But on the web, what you wrote is scanned and glanced. Readers don't like to spend that much time reading things on the web when they have plenty of other things to do.
The reason for this is because information on the web is more than sufficient and distractions are everywhere. Visitors are hunting for information or products. They tend to make quick decisions without thinking.
Give What Visitors Want
On the web where information is just a matter of clicks or taps away, web visitors are jumping from one page to another, from one website to the next quickly. People on the web are like hunters hunting for information, then when they see one, they quickly decide to stick around or leave.
On the other hand, websites on the web are the huntees.
Just like any hunters, visitors make fast decisions, often without thinking. To them, your website is just one out of tens or even hundreds of websites they want to visit. If you don't put your messages clear, the chances are you won't be seeing them again.
Web visitors quickly glance on you web page before deciding to stay or leave. If they see your website doesn't answer their needs, they'll leave; if you pages don't show up as expected, they'll leave; if your contents don't meet their demands; they'll leave. And if they don't know yet for sure, they will probably leave as well.
Understand what your targeted visitors want, and give them everything you've got. You have only a fraction of a second to make them decide.
First Thing First
If you have a long article that goes in-depth for a specific topic, that is one good reason for people to stay. But most people don't know if the content you have really answers their needs when they first arrive to your page. Because of that, you need to put the most important information first.
Web visitors scan a page, and glance at the headline, then the first few paragraphs. If they think that the information you have to give doesn't answer their question, they'll just leave you page, adding up your bounce rate.
By putting the most important message in the first few paragraphs, you're writing differently from print copies that tend to look like an old-fashioned essay.
On the web, conclusions or answers comes first, then the description. On print papers, overview comes first then the main reason followed by the conclusion. Since web visitors are in a hurry, the most important thing is to answer their question first, then explain why your answer is related to the question.
On web pages, writing articles is the opposite of print articles: your most important points come first.
Your most important information can be just a simple statement. Once your web visitors understand the summary of your content and think that it's relevant to their need, if they want to know more about the details, what they have to do is just continue reading. This type of writing resembles a inverted pyramid writing where the most newsworthy information comes first before details and background information. So even if readers are reading the first paragraph of a story, they still understand the big picture.
Be Obvious and Self-Explanatory
Writing for the web involves creativity and knowledge. But to make web visitors see and enjoy what you have to say, you need to make simple statements first.
On the web, visitors rarely read your every words and every of your paragraphs. Most of them don't have time to do this because of other scents coming from links, clickable pictures and other medias, ads and other distractions.
So instead of wasting time trying to figure out what you have to give, they'll just skip the moment and move on.
Simple statements here often work best because most of the time they're obvious and self-explanatory.
Your creative writing skills and vast knowledge about a certain topic may attract some pool of targeted audience. But to others that are mostly your wandering visitors that just visit your site for the first time or by accident, making them think is not an option. Asking people to think doesn't work well on the web because they don't want to be bothered with such thing.
Write for Speed Readers
When everyone is in a hurry, how can you say what you have to say quickly? Writing for the web doesn't just involve skills and knowledge, but how to write for those that don't really care, and make them appeal.
Your contents should be easy to read and easy to understand. Because people don't like to waste time in thinking, each and every messages you have to say should be clear. To make your copy easy to digest, you can:
- Use short paragraphs and sentences instead of long ones.
- Skip unnecessary words.
- Avoid passive tense.
- Avoid unfamiliar jargon.
- Avoid needless repetitions.
- Make your article short but powerful.
Further reading: Effectively Use Fewer Words to Attract Your Audience
Every Page A Landing Page
The more web pages you have on your website, the more information you have to give. What you need to do is to make sure that web visitors are comfortable in whatever page they landed.
When you're reading a book, the chances are you're reading from chapter one than proceed to chapter two then chapter three. Now imagine when people are reading a book at a random page, maybe in the middle of chapter four or at the end of chapter six then back to the fifth paragraph in chapter one.
This is how most web visitors are; they can be reading your pages starting from anywhere.
Because any of your web pages can be an entry page, you need to make sure that your pages are easy to read, clear and well-designed, having a call-to-action feature, and having a proper navigation.
Related: Creating a High Conversion Landing Page
Visualization
Humans are visual creatures. So in order to get attention, you need to stand out above the crowd and be visible. If your words are great and your paragraphs are powerful, there is no better chance to make them seen other than making the overall looks great. This is where web design takes its proximity role.
The visual appeal of your website impacts the readability of your text; and influences whether web visitors can quickly get what you're about to say.
Some simple tweaks to your page can affect your readers tremendously. The things you can do are: replacing some of your text with pictures or videos; using different fonts for different purposes, use quotes to add credibility, use text styling; use sub headlines; use bullet points; reduce noise and play with white space.
Not only these simple tweaks will make you page easier to read, they will also increase visitors' trust on you.
Because the web allows many forms of media and interactions, you don't need to be specific or wordy about a topic. You don't need to show off your extensive vocabulary skills. What you need is to make everything, including their aspects, as simple as possible.
If can make these right, you can emphasize you position making yourself clear. This would make visitors easier to see what you have to say and make your messages clear and loud.
Everything on Your Page Should Work As One
Short messages are short. Why does people rarely care about how a short message looks? The answer is because short messages are already clear. On the web, messages can be hundreds or even thousands of words long. How can you make those long articles clear?
What most web visitors do is glance at a each new pages, scan some of their text, then click on the links they're attracted to.
How can you make those people to actually read what you have to say?
On the web, you have many powerful tools to make almost anything stands out and visible. What you need to make people read your message and understand, is to make everything on the page to work as one.
Starting from the very obvious, your text; then your images, they should answer, or describe, what you have to say; your web design should play some psychological role in making people stay.
Furthermore, your headline should be able to communicate what you're about to say, your sub headlines should summarize all your key points, your paragraphs should reduce wordiness, and so forth.
Everything on your page should aim for one purpose. To make this possible, you need to make sure that everything in your page are communicating the same language.