Writing for the Web is Different
We firmly believe that if Shakespeare was around today and trying to write for the web he’d fail miserably. And it’s not just Shakespeare that doesn’t translate well from print to the internet, it’s a challenge for most traditional print writers to overcome the differences between print and the web.
Web writing is different for a number of reasons the biggest reason is that people want their web content to be found on search engines, so they’re tailoring their writing to use search engine optimization (SEO) strategies which will earn them a higher ranking on a search engine results page. Writing using best SEO practices is very different than writing for print and, by in large, people have gotten used to that. They not only ignore some repetition they wouldn’t tolerate in print, but they actually expect it.
And if web writing for the internet is different then we must also understand that reading on the web is different as well. Most people do not dive right into the text of every website they open. Instead, people scan website content looking for the information they want, something interesting, or to assess validity and authority. People exhibit a great deal of impatience when searching and reading content on the web, but who can blame them when there are so many resources at their fingertips and if one fails them they can instantly find another.
We mentioned impatience, this plays heavily into web writing and the adage shorter is better rules in most situations. Rather than creating articles that are a few thousand words long, typically the most effective internet articles (or blogs) are a couple hundred words long. This seems to fly right into the face of the SEO mantra that content is king but a good internet writer will know how to balance the two concepts and come up with a lot of content that is compartmentalized into small, keyword-rich, tidbits.
If you’re having trouble coming up with content for your website or the content you have needs a little web tweaking, contact Tingalls Graphic Design and we’d be happy to help you.
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