Writing for Your Website

Creating your own website involves a few tasks that are not part of the average daily life, and writing online content is one of them. Here few simple guidelines could come in handy:


Menus and Buttons

Avoid using too many puns or abstract phrasing. Buttons’ sole role is to allow easy and smooth navigation for your site visitors. Don't confuse them by using terms they may not understand. For instance, “Get in Touch” could be a good alternative for the “Contact” button, but “Carrier Pigeon” might be a bit too much.


Describing Yourself/ Your Business

This part should vary according to the service or product you’re offering. Artists, for one, should personalize their bio and not restrict it to a customary education and awards section. There should also be some kind of life story or short manifesto included. This can also apply to a company, only without the personal tone. It is important to describe the product, the quality of service and the advantages compared with competitors (but don't get too nasty!). Some businesses, like medical services or wedding photography, involve a great amount of trust, where a personal statement from the leading professional of the company is a real plus.


Text Length and Structure

In our WWW era, people don't bother to read long texts, so unless your site is actually an online magazine, a blog or a newsletter of some sort, try to keep your content short. For the same reason, we advise you to avoid long paragraphs and sentences. The important thing is to make sure your key ideas and messages are clearly phrased and easy to understand. If you add scrollable text boxes, make sure the most important points appear at the very beginning. And use a READABLE font size.


Writing Style

We can't, of course, recommend the same style of writing for all websites. A website for a human rights organization should not adopt the same tone a basketball summer camp does. We can, however, advise you to stay away from extremes within your own style. If you want to write cheekily, dropping a joke every two sentences will only create the opposite effect. If you want to write professionally, you still need to use adjectives here and there and avoid a strict technical phrasing. Online content contributors usually live in extremes, but write carefully.


Flexibility

One of the biggest revolutions of online text is that it's easy to edit, so make good use of that. Go over your texts every once in a while and make changes if you see fit. A good website reacts to changes in the outside world. You can do this by referring to special sales that you have at the moment, to national or international events, to big news that relate to your business and so forth. It also adds to the credibility of your website, since the visitors see it is often updated and active.