WEB BASED WRITINGWeb Based Writing.

WEB BASED WRITING

It is a technique that should be followed for effectively delivering the webpage content to the end user.

Though there is no fixed technique, there might be few variations but the basic style remains the same across most of the websites.

HOW BETTER WRITING IMPROVES YOUR SITE.What can writers and editors do?

• Testing has shown that you can improve the usability of your webpages by 159% simply through better writing!

• Clear, concise text makes it easier for people to use your site and get to the information that matters most to them.

• No flashy redesigns required.

……. Think before you write.

WEB BASED MEDIUMS OF COMMUNICATION Social networks and user-generated content

sites :- Such as Facebook and user generated content

sites like flicker and YouTube provide a variety of communication tools, including user comments and personal profiles for brief messages. Many companies now host their own social networking sites, where product users and interact with eachother.

Blogs Able to update contents quickly and easily. Saves lot of time Bloggers can publish information to vast

audiences with relatively little efforts

FACTS TO CONSIDER FOR WEB WRITING -THE WEB IS NOT THE SAME AS PAPERSome facts about reading and the Web…

• 79% of people scan webpages, instead of read them.

• Reading on a computer screen is 25% slower than reading on paper.

• Computer screens have about 10% the resolution of paper.

KNOW YOUR AUDIENCE

• It is the same as your print audience.

• Look at your current data – where does your traffic come from?

• Who visits your site, for how long, what do they look at most? Know your audience!

WHAT IS THE VOICE OR CONTENT OF YOUR WRITING ?

• Voice is the expression of your company or site through images, graphics, typeface, colors, content selection, and words.

• The website’s voice communicates what your brand is all about.

• A strong, consistent voice sets your site apart from the competition.

SPOT THE HEADLINE

TIPS FOR WRITING WEB HEADLINES1. Give people a reason to click • Why is your work worth anyone’s attention and time.• It must explain in some way why they should click on you• If you can’t work out a value proposition and express it clearly

in a headline, it might be worth editing your piece.• Promise a BIG, powerful benefit to your customers.

2. Think creative

• For example at the book store: first of all, you are attracted by the bright cover and then you pick it up and look at the table of contents.

• They don't read ALL your pages. They jump from headline to headline. And only if a headline catch's their interest, they start to read the information under it.

3 - It should probably mention what the piece is about

Its always worth stating. It’s surprising many fascinating pieces have

incredibly vague headlines. Anyone who finds you through search because

they’re looking for the thing you’re talking about is almost certainly going to be lost if you don’t mention it in the headline

4. People like lists That doesn’t mean you should write a list if your

piece isn’t already a list. But if you’re writing a list and you don’t take the

opportunity to use a number in the headline, you’re probably missing a trick.

Eg : 7 benefits of yoga

5 People like useful This ought to be self-evident. Are you giving

people instructions, a helpful way to do things, or information they might find useful? Then make sure your headline says so.

6 Don’t make promises you can’t keep Make sure people know they can trust what

they’re clicking on. No one likes feeling disappointed, and people aren’t going to share things that create those feelings.

• SEVEN. Keep it snappy• Too long, and it’s going to end up truncated in most of

the places that count – Twitter has a character limit, Google has a display limit – and look ugly on your site on mobile, unless you’re specifically designing for it. You’re going to lose attention. Simple tends to be better; shorter tends to be better; if you can make it elegant, alliterative or amusing at the same time, that’s icing on the cake.

• EIGHT. Work out what your audience responds to• Headlines are designed around two clauses, one with

an emotional pull, because that’s what its core audience shares most. If you’re making things aimed at a certain audience and you know they respond to a certain type of sell, then you can cheerfully ignore the rest of this list, safe in the knowledge that your readers won’t care.

OTHER IMP TIPS

• Use verbs that are strong, active, fresh, and accurate

• Front-load the most relevant info

• Make sure the headline can stand alone, without a tease, subhead, photo, or even the article

• Choose clarity over cleverness

• Keep global audience in mind

• Include relevant search keywords

• Introductory Text• Site visitors rarely read introductory paragraphs

on their first visit. Why? Most people arrive at a site via a search engine, so they often bypass the home page. Others, of course, follow a link to a home page, or click on a Home link inside the site to see what else it has to offer, so an introduction isn’t useless, but make it short and sweet, answering the what and the why in as few words as possible. The same goes for introductory text on interior pages.

Points of Entry Most people scan, rather than read, Web pages, at

least initially. Many, of course, read entire articles and essays, but home pages and other top-level pages should catch visitors’ attention with scanable text like linked or unlinked keywords, practical (not clever) display copy (otherwise known as headings, subheads, and the like), and bullet lists.

WRITE TEXT TO ATTRACT SEARCH ENGINES

Your web pages should be written to attract search engines, not people.

Why? Because if search engines do not rank your page well, the only visitors you will receive are those you give your link to directly, or from websites that link back to yours. To accomplish this objective, identify keyword phrases of 2-3 words the keywords that relate to your business and use them in the text you write.

AVOID OVERUSE OF PUNCTUATION

Do not add gratuitous punctuation as in: We're the Best!!! We're Exciting!!! Buy from Us!!!“

The same goes for commas and semicolons. They make sentences harder to read and may turn people away.

USE SHORT SENTENCES

• Long sentences are harder to read. Break them up into shorter ones.

• Write only one idea per paragraph• Web pages need to be concise and to-the-

point.• People don't read web pages, they scan

them, so having short, meaty paragraphs is better than long rambling ones.

•   • Use lists instead of paragraphs• Lists are easier to scan than paragraphs,

especially if you keep them short.

• Include sub-headings in web page content

• Use action words whenever possible• Avoid the passive voice.• Write what you would say to them if you were

talking on the phone.

• For example, instead of:An acknowledgement of the order will be issued via an e-mail message when payment is completed.

Use:You will receive an email from us confirming your order.

Write links that work• Please remember not  to use "click here" for your

links.

"Click here" says nothing – it doesn't reach out and grab your readers and make them want  to click on the link.

• According to the W3C Quality Assurance Team, links should:

• be brief and meaningful• provide information even when read out of context• explain what the link offers• not deal with the mechanics of the site• not be a verb phrase

Make your links part of the text

Links are another way web readers scan pages.

They stand out from normal text, and provide more cues as to what the page is about.

Make sure that the text for your links indicates where the links will lead your website visitors.

• Proofread your work• Typos and spelling errors may send people away

from your pages.

• Go back and edit your work• Edit before you publish. Edit after you see it

online. Edit again next week.

• Keep asking yourself:• Is this clear?• Is there a simpler way to say this?• Is there a shorter way to say this?• Is this even necessary?

Link to original sources Don’t post another site’s content on your site –

link to the original source instead.

Why?  If the content on the other site changes your

content will be out of date if a site visitor has questions about the content

they will contact you not realizing that it isn’t your content.

• Key Facts First• Employ the inverted-pyramid model of writing,

based on journalistic style, in which the most important information is featured first, followed by decreasingly significant information.

• Put conclusions at the beginningThink of an inverted pyramid when you write. Get to the point in the first paragraph, then expand upon it.

• Advantage???• One advantage of this strategy is if content is too

long, it’s easier just to cut from the bottom rather than try to delete passages throughout.

• Say It Straight• Chant your new mantra: SWYM, MWYS. (Say what

you mean, mean what you say.) Objectivity equals authority; avoid marketese, promotional excess, hyperbole — whatever you want to call it. If people trust you to be evenhanded in your writing style, they will trust you.

• Also, be literal, not figurative: If, in a heading for a sports story, you use metaphorical language like curse instead of something more concrete like “losing streak,” you lose the opportunity for search optimization.

• Define your goal Before you write anything, ask yourself:

WHY am I writing this

WHAT is my main message

WHO am I talking to?

HOW do I want them to respond.

Hey, no kidding. How DO you want them to respond? This is how you increase conversion rates! When people have made it to the bottom of the wonderful page you created, give them someplace relevant to go! Don’t make them scroll back to the top.

Post content regularly

• In order to both keep your existing audience happy and at the same time grow your readership, you should post new content regularly.

• Make sure you take enough time to brainstorm about topics and to do your research. Depending on your resources, schedule two, three, or more regular publications per week.

• An easy way to get up your number of articles is by allowing guest posts. As long as you keep the overall quality high, your audience probably doesn’t care about who has written the articles.

FRONT LOAD CONTENT• Use subheadings. Because users will skim read, it’s a good

idea to use subheadings so that they can find relevant content quickly.

• Be concise. Use bullet points, clear and simple language which is not long winded. .

• Front-load content. This means that you put the conclusion for what you are trying to say first. This helps users get a jist of what is on the page and hopefully it will capture their imagination.

• There is nothing worse then reading a few paragraphs and realizing the page you are on is completely irrelevant

DON’TS OF WEB WRITING

• Welcome people to your website and explain what a website is

•

• Put your mission statement on your home page

WHAT IS SEO?

Search engine optimization (SEO) refers to the many techniques you can use to raise your webpage’s rank in search engine results.

Search engines analyze the words on a page and consider some words as more important. Essentially, the search engine will think the webpage is “about” whatever those words say.

As writers and editors, we can make a big difference in SEO by creating well-organized and information-rich copy.

SEO FOR ARTICLES

• Try to repeat each keyword 2 to 4 times in a 300-word story.

• But you don’t want your text to sound artificial or so repetitive that it's ridiculous.

• Include keywords and variations in subheads, bold, bulleted lists.

• Draft your story first and then see where you can tweak wording and use keywords and variations.

WHAT IS A GOOD KEYWORD?

• A keyword is a word or short phrase people will use to search for your article.

• Keywords are usually “everyday language” not insider jargon or marketing hype.

• Spell out keywords because people don’t search for abbreviations.

3

Thank you…

MADE BY