Writing Website Content. Part One - The Golden Rule.

One of the most daunting tasks facing the new website owner is writing content for that website. Deciding where to start is often enough to freeze a would-be content writer solid.

This article should help the thawing process until the text starts to flow.

Tell yourself it is important.

The most important of all content on a website is not flashing pictures, swirling video or insistent advertising. The king of content for every website is good, old-fashioned text. Get this right and you are half the way home to a quality website. Get it wrong and no amount of pretty pictures will raise your site from the bottom of the internet heap. So no pressure then.

Nobody wants to read it anyway.

The first thing to understand is that nobody truly likes reading on the internet. People are more impatient on the web. The printed page is much easier on the eyes. Internet links to other pages makes reading website pages disjointed and breaks the concentration.

Once this is understood it becomes clear that the way you write for your website must be different from the paper and pen method.

High-speed text.

The method that is best for website pages is speed. This does not mean lack of content, it means the content must be delivered for the quick glance down the page.

Visitors like to decide if text on a website is worth reading before they read it.

The solution to this crazy situation? Start everything with a heading.

The golden rule.

Keep it short. Write your paragraph before you add a heading on top. That way the heading follows the content not the other way around.

The paragraph should be the shortest piece of text you can write whilst conveying your message. Then stop.

A page is not a page.

For standard printouts the A4 size is taken as a full page, for the internet this is reduced by half. Anything more than this and visitors find it impenetrable and become impatient to leave.

For pages longer than half an A4 consider splitting the content across multiple pages. An exception to small, easily read chunks are the rules pages (for instance the terms & conditions, membership rules and returns procedures).

Throw it aside, not away.

There will always be some things that cannot be chopped into tiny pieces, e-Commerce sites require product details or conditions that you will want to make quite clear. When this happens, and it will, write your full version exactly as you need it to be then put it aside.

Now rewrite it in the usual way to make a short version and have the website provide a link across to the full version for those who want it. Don't break the golden rule.