September 12, 2009 by Jack Fox
#1. Keep it Simple
The first thing you need to realise is that people do not read web copy in the same way that they do books magazines etc. The main difference is that people tend to scan text on web pages as opposed to the more in depth attention they tend to pay to books and magazine articles. This is because they are searching for information in a variety of areas and are prepared to look elsewhere if they don’t get an answer from your site straight away.
Bear this fact in mind when writing your web copy. You get some leeway with things like blogs and online articles that are designed to be read in depth (in theory), though it’s essential to keep all other website copy very simple, especially when it comes to homepage text. Speak in concise, direct sentences. A good rule of thumb is aim for a 10 year olds reading age.
and avoid too much fancy grammar, by which I mean asides, semi colons, brackets, parentheses, etc.
It’s also a good idea to limit each paragraph to one idea. The internet is not the arena for dense complicated text. Leave that to the instruction manual writers.
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