Web Writing Crash Course: 1. Introduction

Did you know that a web user on average spends 8 seconds on your website before deciding whether to keep reading? In other words, you have only 8 seconds to grasp your visitors’ attention.

That may sound like a challenge, but we are here to help you write compelling web content and entice your audience to stay on your site. Welcome to the “Web Writing Crash Course”!

What makes compelling web content?

Scannablility

Web users want to find information quickly.

Research shows that only 16 percent of web users read web pages word-by-word, while 79 percent scan the page and pick out keywords and sentences. Therefore, making your document scannable is essential for a good web page.

Accessibility

Accessibility is beyond Web Content Accessibility Guidelines compliance. It is about making sure that all your audience has a quality experience while browsing your site.

When writing your web content, write with your audience in mind! Think about the physical barriers (lack of alternative tags, transcript, etc.) as well as language barriers (overcomplicated vocabulary, jargon, etc.) that may hinder your audience from accessing the content.

Searchability

If you want your audience to read your post, you have to make sure they find it first!

Every time someone types a search query into Google, robots scan websites to find matches. They scan millions and millions and millions of web pages. So, this is all about your website being found by Google search robots. With a few web writing tricks, you can boost your SEO (Search Engine Optimization) score and help the search robots find your site more easily!

In the next few weeks, we will share with you some of our best tips to write scannable, accessible and searchable web content. Stay tuned!