10 Keys to Effective Writing for the Web
Writing for an online audience is much different than writing for a traditional print publication like a book, magazine or newspaper. Online readers are obviously reading from a screen, and as a result they will more likely scan the article as opposed to reading it word-for-word. In order to maximize the impact of your articles you will need to make a few adjustments.
1) Use Headings and Sub-Headings – You can break up your text and make it much easier to scan by using headings and sub-headings. This will help the reader to find the parts of the article that they are most interested in, and it will allow the primary topics of the article to stand out with just a quick glance.
Necessary white space is also added by using headings. This makes the writing less intimidating to the reader as they see that it can quickly be digested.
Coincidentally, using headings may also help improve the quality of your writing by helping your article to flow better and by helping your to stay organized and avoid unnecessary content.
2) Use Lists – Both bulleted lists and numerical lists will increase the readability of your article by making it easier to scan and keeping the content organized.
3) Use Short Paragraphs – Reading on screen can be difficult, and long paragraphs make this worse. Short paragraphs look less daunting on screen and are more likely to be read.
Like the first two points, short paragraphs will make your writing easier to scan. A reader that is looking for a specific piece of information is likely to scan, but unlikely to fully read an entire article. Simply put, short paragraphs help readers find what they are looking for.
4) Use Bold Text for Emphasis – Regardless of what you are writing about, some parts of the article are bound to be more important than others. Bold text allows you, the writer, to control what is emphasized. Typically headings and sub-headings are bolded, but bold text can also be used within paragraphs.
5) Allow Text to be Re-Sized by the User - Not all readers prefer to view text in a medium font size. In fact, some need larger fonts in order to be able to read the text at all. Internet browsers allow readers to change the text size (although many users are not aware of this).
However, if the page is designed with a pixel-specific font size, Internet Explore users will not be able to adjust the text size. To avoid this, design with a text size of small, medium or large and control the size of specific text within the page by using percentages (for example using a medium text size, code headings to be 110% instead of specifying a size in pixels).
There are some times where you will want greater control of the text size, but generally you should allow the reader the option of adjusting the size.
6) Include Links in the Article – Article text is a great place to use links to other pages within your site as well as links to other websites. Because readers will not always read the entire article, place links in the body of the article where they are applicable. This will make it easier for visitors to find all of the content you have on a particular topic.
7) Use a Blog to Allow Feedback – Most of the current trends online involve some sort of user interaction. Blogs provide readers with the ability to ask questions and to comment on postings. This type of involvement from readers helps to connect the writer to the audience and to encourage repeat visitors.
Create an RSS Feed to Syndicate Your Writing – Once you’ve mastered the art of writing on the web, RSS feeds can help you deliver that quality writing to more people. With RSS other websites can syndicate your content. Syndication equals greater exposure for you, and quality, up-to-date content for others. If you are using a WordPress blog you will automatically have a RSS feed of your posts.
9) Know Your Audience – Before writing remember to consider who will be reading. If your website or blog has a very specific audience, industry-related terminology and jargon may be appropriate. But if you are writing for a more general audience, be sure to avoid words or phrases that they may not understand.
Length of the article may also be affected by the target audience. Readers that are looking for technical or educational articles will typically be willing to read longer articles than readers who are looking for news or entertainment.
10) Pay Attention to Text and Background Color – Websites give you the opportunity to use every color imaginable; however, drastic colors and color combinations should be avoided. Generally a white or very light-colored background with dark text is easiest for reading from a screen. Dark backgrounds with white text can also work.
Another factor to remember is that some readers may have images turned off in their browser if they have a slow internet connection. If your site uses background images to control background color this may cause problems. If this is the case, be sure that the text is also readable if the background image is not there.
Whatever type of writing you do, be sure to look at it from the perspective of a potential reader before you post it. If the article looks like something you would skip over, try to incorporate more of these principles to make it more reader-friendly.
By following these basic guidelines you will create web content that is more likely to be read and therefore more effective.
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Common Web Design Mistakes
1 – Horizontal Scrolling – Users on an average-size monitor with average resolution should not have to scroll left and right to read the contents of your pages. Designing with fixed widths that will fit onto smaller monitors or designing with fluid layouts will avoid horizontal scrolling.
2 – Invalid Code – In order to have the best control over your websites appearance and functions in all situations, valid XHTML and CSS should be used. The W3C offers free validating for both XHTML and CSS.
3 – Designing for One Browser – Each internet browser interprets code slightly different than the next browser. When developing a website, test it in several different browsers because your visitors will be using different browsers. AnyBrowser.com is a good resource for testing in multiple browsers.
4 – Harsh Color – Reading on screen is harder on the eyes than reading from a piece of paper. Using extreme colors only makes this worse and increases the chance that visitors will leave your site quickly.
5 – Hidden Contact Information – Some visitors will want to contact you with questions or comments. A contact form, or at least your email address should be easy for your visitors to locate.
6 – Excessive Use of Flash – Flash animation and video can make a site look great, but it can severely slow down page loads and it can also distract the visitor’s attention away from the important content of your website.
7 – Poor Use of Page Titles – Page titles will typically be displayed on search engine results pages. Because they describe the contents of the page they have a major impact on click-through rates. A non-descriptive page title will loose traffic to a competitor with a better use of page titles.
8 – Dead Links – Nothing will frustrate a visitor like dead links, especially those that are internal (linking to other pages on your website rather than linking to someone else’s website). Use a tool like Dead-Links.com to find dead links on your website.
9 – Excessive Advertisements – While outside advertisements can create revenue for your website, they can also cost you money in lost visitors. Websites with too many ads generally look unprofessional.
10 – Linking to Bad Websites – The sites that you link to will influence the visitor’s opinion of your business. Links should provide valuable information or services for your visitors. Don’t link to a poor website just because they agree to link to you in exchange.
11 – Using “Click Here†for Links – The anchor text of a script should be descriptive of where that link is going. Not only will this give your visitors a better idea of where the link will take them, but anchor text is also a factor in search engine rankings.
12 – Navigation that Uses Only Images – The navigation of your website is crucial for visitors to find what they want. Not all internet users will be able to see images. Some will surf with images turned off to speed up the load time, and some disabled users will rely on the anchor text of links to navigate your site. These users will be unable to move through your site with navigation that completely relies on images (although alt tags can help). CSS-based navigation is much more accessible.
13 – Not Using Headings – XHTML provides specific tags for headings. Many websites accomplish the same visual effect by using a larger font size and bold text; however, headings have significance to search engines.
14 – Email Address at Another Domain – If your email address is posted on your website, using a free email service like a Yahoo address does not look professional. Your hosting service will provide you with email addresses at your domain name.
15 – Poor Use of White Space – White space is important to make your content easy for visitors to read. White space can be used improperly by having too much blank space, or by cramming too much content into a small area. Many websites that use excessive advertisements also lack sufficient white space.
16 – Using the Wrong Software to Create the Website – Websites should be created by either hand coding or with a program specifically made for creating websites, like Dreamweaver. Using a word processing program or any other any other type of software will create unnecessary, invalid code.
17 – Not Displaying Subscription Options Prominently – If your website offers an email newsletter or an RSS feed sign up information should be easily seen by visitors. Placing sign up instructions at the bottom of pages or only on certain pages will decrease the number of new subscribers.
18 – Pages that are Hard to Find – Navigation of the website should be logical so that visitors can find the pages they want. Adding a sitemap or a search function is a good idea.
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Offline Methods of Marketing Your Website
Too often businesses only consider online methods of advertising for getting potential customers to their website. Offline advertising can also reach large audiences and bring new visitors to your website. If you don’t already have a domain name, choose one that’s easy to remember. Some offline methods of marketing your website will require the user to remember the address. Running special promotions can be especially effective for offline methods (such as advertising a special coupon or promotion that can be obtained by visiting your website).
Listed below are several possible methods to advertise your website offline. Using a combination of methods will produce the best results.
- Place ads in newspapers and magazines mentioning your website
- Advertise on TV or the radio.
- Run a billboard advertisement that includes your website address.
- If you have an office or store, post signs, banners and posters promoting your website.
- Collect email address at your store or office from your customers.
- Run a contest in your office to help collect email addresses. A common method is collecting business cards for a drawing. If you plan to email people that give you their business cards, you need to notify them at the time you get the business card.
- If you have a mailing list, include your website address on items that you mail. Announce parts of your website that have recently been added or updated.
- Make sure your website is listed with your ad in the yellow pages.
- If your business is listed in a chamber of commerce directory (online and print version), have your website is included in the listing.
- Include your website on your business cards, stationary and all other printed materials (brochures, menus, flyers, handouts, pens, mugs, t-shirts, etc.).
- Post your website on any sign that you have outside of your business.
- Always list your website on your answering machine or voicemail.
- Include your website on fax cover sheets.
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Choosing a Website Hosting Company
There are a number of important factors to consider when deciding on a web hosting company.
1 - Price - Web hosting services come in all different prices, including free. While free hosting may sound tempting, it’s not a good idea for any business that takes its website seriously. Using a free hosting service will typically result in slow loading pages, limited disk space and bandwidth, very slow support (if any) when you need help, and sometimes outside advertisements on your site.
On the contrary, many hosting services are overpriced when compared to the competition. The best approach is to compare several hosting services to find the one that provides the best service with the most features at the lowest price.
2 - Contracts/Commitments – Most hosting services will require you to commit to using their service for a specified length of time, usually one year. Agreeing to a contract can sometimes reduce the monthly fee, but it also prohibits you from leaving if you are not satisfied with the service.
If you are not committed for a certain amount of time you are likely to receive a better product with better service in order to keep you as a customer. If you are going to choose a hosting provider that requires you to agree to a contract, be sure to find out what fees are involved if you decide to end the contract early and go to another service.
3 - Support – Inevitably at some point you will need support from your hosting provider. You may need help setting it up or dealing with an issue down the road. If service hours are limited or if service is only available via email, it may be difficult to get the help you need.
If you do use email support, how long will it take to get a response? It is a good idea to call before signing up for the service. This lets you see how difficult or easy it is to talk to a real person that can help you solve your problems.
4 - Disk space and bandwidth – Each hosting company will limit you to a specified amount of disk space and bandwidth. Disk space will determine the maximum size of your website. Always allow enough space for future additions to your site. Remember that audio and video files take up much more space than plain html files.
Bandwidth will determine how much traffic your site will be able to handle. Again, remember that visitors downloading audio and video will use up a lot of bandwidth. There is a very broad range of disk space and bandwidth provided by different web hosts, and most companies will offer multiple packages to choose from.
5 - Downtime – Every web hosting service will at some time experience difficulties. Even just updating their servers can occasionally cause your website to be momentarily inaccessible. The amount of downtime should be a significant factor in your decision. Your website does no good when it is not functioning, and it can even leave a customer with a bad impression of your business.
Always look for a hosting company that provides statistics on their downtime. The most trustworthy statistics will be provided by an independent 3rd party. An example of this type of report is the one provided by NewWebsite.com.
6 - Email address – Your web hosting service provider will give you email addresses at your domain name. The number of email addresses will vary greatly from one host to the next. Determine how many email addresses you will need and be sure that you choose a hosting plan that will provide enough to meet your needs.
7 - Statistics – Tracking the visitors to your website is a significant contributor to having a successful website. Almost every hosting company will provide you with a statistics program. If not, there are several free programs (including AwStats) that you can use.
A statistics program should at a minimum provide you with: the number of unique visitors, the number of visitors for each page, the length of time that visitors were on your website, which site sent the most visitors to your site (search engines and inbound links), what search terms people used to find your site, and what pages visitors exited your site from. You should also be able to organize the data by day, week, month, or year. Without this information it is impossible to know much of anything about your visitors.
8 - Extras – Along with the basics of the web hosting service, you will also get other extras that will add value to the service. Because each hosting company will have its own set of features, it is a good idea to compare and make sure that you are getting the features that are most important for you.
Some common extras include: contact form creators (allows your visitors to contact you by filling out a form on your website), polls and surveys, email forwarders, auto responders, mailing list managers, forums and blogs. Some of these features will be more important to you than others. If any of them are critical to what you are trying to accomplish, you should be certain that any hosting service you are considering will provide these features.
9 - Multiple Domains – some hosting services allow you to host multiple websites (domains) on one account at one price. Without multiple domain hosting, adding new websites can be very costly. Having more than one website may help you to reach more people and to funnel traffic to your main site. Creating additional websites can help to promote specific products or services.
10 - Upgrade/Downgrade Options – If your hosting provider offers several different packages, you should ideally be able to upgrade or downgrade at any time. If you are under a contract this may not be possible.
11 - What do their clients say about their service? - Be sure to read testimonials provided by the web hosting company and consult any friends or colleagues that use the service.
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