Writing Website Content. Part Three - Break The Habit.

Once you have established the writing tone for your website the content will flow with ease. For the benefit of your visitors it is now time to consider breaking this habit.

Break the habit.

Not all of your text content must be written in the same manner. Put a note for your website designer by any content which is suitable for a different approach. Consider setting aside small sections, perhaps quotes or claims, to be put in a separate box-like container and displayed away from the main content.

Easy to write, easy to read.

Writing the content for your website should not be hard work. Put what you know about your organisation down in very simple terms. Some areas are best presented as a simple bulleted list with no paragraphs to be seen. This helps to make the webpage easier to read by providing a visual break.

• Website visitors love lists.
• Many visitors will skip over a paragraph and go right to the list.
• There is no need to rewrite information because it is in a list style.
• Consider giving your address, prices or opening hours in a list format.
• If you would normally use a list to display information, then do so on your website.

Wrap it up.

After the first draft is complete take a look down this to-do list.

• Read this article again and judge how your content compares.
• Make any final alteration to your text.
• If your first draft was by pen and paper, now is the time to type the content out.
• Run a spellchecker on the text and print it out to best spot any errors in grammar.
• Get someone else to read it through.
• Ask them if any part was not clear.
• Resist the urge to make your text content perfect, you know when it is good enough.
• Label each page of text with the webpage title to avoid confusion with your designer.
• Save the file in the text file format which should end in .txt (eg website-name.txt).
• E-mail it as an attachment to your website designer.
• Request confirmation that it has been received.
• Congratulate yourself on a job well done.

A few final tips.

• Don't use underlining on your word processor, not even for headings. Underlining is for links only.
• Use other websites as a starting point by searching for something similar (eg accessibility statement).
• Saving your content as a text file (.txt) prevents a virus lurking within your formatting.
• Saving your content as a text file (.txt) prevents any formatting whatsoever, so don't bother making it look pretty.
• Files intended for visitors to download should be fully formatted, including underlining and made to look pretty.
• Give every file you send to the website designer a meaningful title (eg WebsiteName-AboutUs.txt)
• Copy your name and details into every text file you send, yours will not be the only AboutUs file received.
• Once published on the website your content will not look exactly as you planned.
• Screen width, monitor resolution, fonts loaded, default settings and the browser used will alter the look of your content.

The above article is provided for information purposes only.