Writing Usable Web Content

In my wanderings through the web, for shopping, information or even when getting acquainted with a new client, I’m often amazed with how difficult those websites make my task of finding what I need.

What companies often do not realize when going on-line is that writing content for the web is different in many aspects than writing content for the off-line media.

The wrong way of writing content for the web is characterized by:

1. Content rich articles, sometimes monstrosities with more than 1,000 words
2. Content rich paragraphs, having multiple sentences
3. Overly creative headlines, sometimes trying to get clever with the readers

These companies are losing quite a bit of potential customers, hence revenue, by not realizing that writing for the web is a lot different than writing for the off-line media.

How much do users see on the web?

Dr. Jakob Nielsen shows a result of analyzing 45,000 pageviews containing between 30 and 1,250 words.

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