It’s only words…

But words can drive your website visitors away, to paraphrase The Bee Gees.

Most visitors will only read a small number of words on a computer screen, compared to the number of words they might read in a magazine or newspaper.

You are qualified

The good news is that you are highly qualified to write about your business — you know it better than anyone else. Your website visitors don’t want to read fluffy market-speak. Just think about the most straightforward words and phrases that you would use to describe your business to a person you met in the street.

Five easy questions

The old standard “who, what, where, when, why” questions are a great place to start:

• who are you/who is your business?
• what can you do for someone?
• where are you/what area do you serve?
• when was your company started, or how much experience do you have?
• why is your product/service great/unique/desirable?

Three top tips

Nothing fancy is required. Plain speaking, short sentences, and bullet points are your best writing tools. In other words, use:

• plain speaking,
• short sentences, and
• bullet points.

Scanning, not reading

Keep things short and sweet. The average website user scans a page rather than reading it word-by-word. Recent user studies emphasize how little actual reading takes place on a web page, so avoid large, unbroken blocks of text.

Stories — know when to hold ’em

A final, important consideration is the needs of your users. What do they want to find out, and how?

Some users want information as quickly as possible. As nice as it is to hear the heartwarming story of how you inherited an old family shovel, which led you to a lifelong passion for gardening, so you opened your own landscaping business after years in college, consider that some users are just looking for the facts about what you can do for them:

• is your business capable?
• how much experience do you have?
• are your prices competitive?

Other users will value the story of you and your business — and, more abstractly, the story of your relationship with the user now and in the future. Part of what branding does is provide a foundation for the relationship with your clients. Developing your content is definitely part of your branding, and should be consistent with how you present yourself in all areas.

Like The Bee Gees said, it is only words. There’s nothing to fear except writing too much, or failing to provide useful information. Short, simple website content using plain words and bulleted lists will tell your users what they want to know. And that will make your website work for you and for them.

For an even more detailed look at writing for the web, we encourage you to read Jakob Nielsen’s excellent article.