Posted By admin on March 2, 2009

For over 20 years I’ve been writing professional sales, editorial, and promotional copy and I’m good!

But when I started writing for the Web, I quickly learned that this medium involved a whole new way of working with words and that some of my good English writing skills had to be thrown out of the window.  This realization nearly killed me!

OK, not literally, but you know what I mean.  It came as a real shock.

So I spent some time working with and learning from some of the most knowledgeable online writers and search engine optimization pros in the country.  They instilled within me an understanding of this interesting new world and I’m happy to share a few of the most critical things I learned with you today:

#1:  Write to be read now.  Unlike a printed piece that might be put down and picked up at a later date, if a person is going to read your Web copy, they’re most likely to read it now — or never.

So the Web is not the place for overly expressive language or poetic prose.  And, because research suggests that people spend only a few short minutes on each site they visit, the smart Web writer will get to the point quickly and will commuinicate in short, easy-to-understand sentences.

In artist terms, it means that you should draw a stick man and not a detailed portrait.  Do you get the picture?  (Pun intended!)

As I write online copy, I try to always keep in mind that the reader’s next web site is a mere click away and I recognize that “clicking away” is the right Web readers use quite liberally.

#2.  Write as if you know your reader.  Web writing should be as warm and personal as possible.  Use the word “you” as much as possible, and craft a message that meets the readers’ needs and solves their problems.  This certainly applies to offline writing as well, but on the web it is even more important because the immediate competition is fiercer.

#3. Write to be found.  In the beginning, it was somewhat difficult for me to grasp this concept, but it is absolutely critical if you are to write effectively for the Web.

The way I look at it, I’m writing for the search engines (Google, Yahoo, Ask, etc) almost as much as I’m writing for my human audience.  Let me explain…

Once you establish your list of key words, it is extremely important that you use them as often as possible and that you place them in strategic positions on our web page.  Doing so will maximize your chances of being recognized by search engines and, in turn, found by your prospective customers.

This vital requirement sometimes overrides my desire to write a certain way and I find myself re-writing what I think is great copy to appease these invisible, but oh-so-powerful search engine audiences.  Said another way — sometimes “bad writing” is good.  

But the flip side is that here’s where you can write “differently!”  Because the Web is such a fluid method of communication, it provides the perfect environment for crawling out of your box and doing something daring.  Feel free to take a chance to write about something controversial or use a style you’d never put in print or test a new, unproven offer.  And do so freely, realizing that if your audience doesn’t like it you can quickly replace what you have with something else.

In closing…

Today, most businesses have some sort of Web presence and that’s great.  But unless you’re carefully selecting the words you use and how you use them, you may not be getting your money’s worth.   Read the research or partner with a professional who can help ensure that your Web words work hard for you.

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