David W. Ballard: Professional Writer specializing in Web content writing, copywriting, feature writing, fiction writing, and poetry.

Writing for the Web

Are you finding writing for the Web is an exercise in futility?

Remember information or content is the key.

Think of your own experience as a Web surfer:

You visit a site to check your bank balance, apply for a job, check the weather report – you know what you do. In the end, you’re seeking content that you can take with you. Using the Web is an interactive not a passive experience like watching TV.

That said, users are driving the process.  They’re in control of finding the information they seek. So, the job of a Web content writer is to make the users’ job as easy as possible.

In her book “Letting Go of the Words,” Janice Redish presents the way Web users respond to content. According to Redish, users:

• Skim and scan,
• Read for information gathering or for performing tasks, and
• Don’t read more because: they’re too busy, find information is irrelevant, or are looking only for primary information.

To be sure, good Web writing communicates the message a business or organization wants to communicate.  But in the attempt to communicate that message, the language must be speak-easy . . . not in the sense of a ’20s house of ill repute.

Redish says the language is like a conversation.  This means you’re having a conversation with your audience – remember interactive, not passive.  You want to speak your audience’s language so they:

• Know what you’re saying,
• Understand that you’re addressing their concerns, and
• See that you’re giving them the information they want.

Remember what you want from a Web site and provide the same for your users.

For a sample chapter from Redish’s book, you can visit her site at:  http://www.redish.net/writingfortheweb/.

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