Short is Sweet for Web Copy Writing - Cut the Excess, Get Attention
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You play into your online audience’s tendency to skim by making sure they don’t lose too much when they do so. That means cutting out excess words. Don’t put too many words into a paragraph or too many paragraphs on a page. You still need to have good, solid content; strive for between 250 and 500 words per page.
Writing for SEO Chat, I usually try to fit an even tighter margin: 350 to 450 words per page. It takes practice, but it can be done; eventually you get to the point where you barely have to think about it. If you use Word, try using the Verdana font and setting it to 12 point (yes, I’m an old fogie with old eyes); fill one page and you’re about right.
Even with a word count that short, you’ll need to direct your readers’ attention. You can use bullet points and bolded text to help draw their eyes to the most important parts of your article. Headings also help; they’ll give your readers a preview of what will be covered in that section, so they can decide whether they want to skip it or spend some quality time on the subject.
I want to address headings for a moment, because Nielsen made some interesting discoveries about them. If you took any substantive English classes, starting in high school, your teachers hammered you with the idea that you must not use the passive voice. It must be one of the biggest sins of writing. You must not use the passive voice in writing for the web, either – except in section headings.
Why the exception? It goes back to the way people read on the web. In a summary to an entire article devoted to explaining this concept, Nielsen says that “using passive voice can let you front-load important keywords in headings, blurbs, and lead sentences. This enhances scannability and thus SEO effectiveness.”
Next: Consider Your Audience >>
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