Writing school – write better texts for the web

Be interesting and clear. You only have a few seconds. Poof! If you are not interesting, relevant or clear, you have lost your reader. You are constantly competing with thousands of other websites, blogs and newsletters for your reader's attention. Take in the writing school's 5 parts and write better texts for the web.

Understand the conditions on the web

When we look for information online, we do not read the same way as when we read a book or a newspaper. The reading situations are completely different.

People often say that the computer, the tablet and the phone are lean-forward media: the reader is eager and impatient in the hunt for information. The book or the newspaper are lean-back media: the reader has chosen what to read and is focused and concentrated.

Studies show that we generally read the web as skimmers. We quickly scan the text looking for keywords that interest us. There are of course also so-called methodical readers who read from beginning to end. But they decide early on whether to keep reading or not.

Most people who surf the web are looking for specific information. Studies show that we read about a fifth of what there is to read on a website. Wordy, dense texts attract few readers. Say what you have to say concisely, and make sure the text is laid out clearly.

So keep it short. But if your reader becomes interested in your text, surely they will want to read more? Yes, nothing really stops you from expanding the text and telling your reader all about your interesting topic, even when you write for the web. As long as you do it in the right place. More about this under Structure.

Know your target audience

Who are you writing for? Businesses of course want to reach potential customers. But also remember that it is important to keep your existing customers. 

Potential customers want to read about what you have to offer and what sets you apart from your competitors. For example, they want to know whether your product or service is good value, whether you know what you are doing and whether you are serious, experienced and pleasant to deal with. Try to keep existing customers at all costs. Getting new ones is expensive and time-consuming. Give them a reason to visit your website now and then or to read your email newsletter.

Also remember that the page may be visited by qualified people who are looking for a new job. If you give an unprofessional and/or dull impression, it can affect whether you succeed in recruiting important employees in the future.

Share what you know in the area that interests your target audience. Tell them about news and offers.
TIP: Learn more in our big checklist for creating content

It is easy to become blind to your own work. Ask an outsider to look at your website with critical eyes.

Use an outside-in perspective & address the reader personally

Think of your reader. An inexperienced writer often starts from themselves and wants to tell everything. They think from the inside out – an inside-out perspective. Many start by telling that the company was founded by their grandfather a hundred years ago, that it now has 200 employees and that the company's vision is to give customers what they want. Then do that! Think from the outside in – make sure your texts have an outside-in perspective. What needs and wishes does the reader have? What does your offer solve, and what value does your service add?

Think of your reader. Even if your business targets other businesses, it is an individual who reads. Do not write "you all". Write "you". When called for, you can write "you and your business/your company" or "you and your colleagues" and the like.

Structure your text well

Introduction

Almost all texts need an introductory summary, except very short texts. The introduction gives the reader a chance to understand what the page is about. If it is well written, it invites further reading.

Start with the most important

A good website has short introductory texts for those who want to find the most important things quickly. Help your reader understand what matters most, and at the same time you make it easier to see that the web page, blog article or newsletter is worth their attention.

Think of a pyramid. Put the most important information at the top and add background and facts further down in the text or the structure. This is also where you can put brochures, guides and descriptions as PDFs.

Example of an introduction

Before:

Malmö, 30 June 2011, project council. Representatives of school management, construction companies, the construction industry and the regional associations in Skåne meet to discuss important future issues for the region's construction industry. How we are to turn new knowledge and research in the energy and climate field into knowledge among the students in the Building and Construction programme is an important question.

(Here the writer has started "from the beginning". Only at the end of the text do we learn what matters.)

After editing:

The construction teachers in Malmö have gained new energy and climate expertise. A new project has started to adapt the programmes to energy and climate.

Also try to start with the most important thing when you write a sentence. Spare the reader from struggling uphill to get to what is interesting.

The headings matter

The impatient skimmer online needs the support of clear headings and keywords to find their way. Remember that the headings should stand on their own. Poetic and/or witty headings that work well in a printed newspaper become unclear and vague on a website. If your reader does not understand, they stop reading and look for information somewhere else. If you have to choose between being clear and being funny – be clear! Think through which keywords might interest your readers. Remember to put the keywords early in the heading.

What your headings say also affects how your website ranks in search engines, above all on Google, which is by far the largest in Sweden. It is not enough to have important keywords in the body text. The result is better if the search term/search phrase is in the heading. Google has tools that can help you choose and evaluate search terms/search phrases/headings.

Informative subheadings

Subheadings help highlight important information and invite reading. They make it easier for the reader to skim the text and find the right information. If you cannot find suitable subheadings, it is time to take a step back and think about the text's content and structure.

Important information in fact boxes…

Feel free to gather important information, or break down long lists, in fact boxes. It gives the reader a quick overview. You also relieve the body text by freeing it from long and complicated lists.

…or in bullet lists

• Fact boxes and bullet lists invite reading.
• Sometimes it is good if the bullet list is numbered.
• Do not make the bullet list too long.

Write short

Some rules of thumb for web texts:

• The text should be no more than 1,500 characters including spaces.
• The text should be visible on the screen without the reader having to scroll more than once on a normal-sized screen.

But every rule has exceptions. Today people surf on tablets and smartphones. Use your judgment. Think of your reader and try to adapt your text.

Cut it down

Inexperienced writers tend to write too long, in a roundabout and detailed way. It is harder and more difficult to write short than to write long. The best way is to try to clean up the text in several rounds. Be ruthless with yourself: Which paragraphs, sentences or words can you remove? Cut, cut, cut!

Fix paragraphs & formatting

New paragraph

A skimmer reads only a few words and then jumps to the next paragraph. If the paragraphs are too long, your readers may miss important information. Paragraphs can be marked in two ways, either with an indent or with a blank line. New paragraphs make your text easier to read. Do not be afraid that there will be too many. Nothing is more boring and tiring than reading a very long text – one that never seems to take a break.

Blank line

An indent means that you start the new paragraph a little way into the line, and it is most common in printed texts, such as books and newspapers. A blank line means that you leave an empty line between the previous and the following paragraph. A blank line is recommended in letters and for texts written for the web. Add a blank line for every new train of thought or when new information comes. The blank lines make the text easier to skim.

Avoid capitals

Writing a text in CAPITAL LETTERS is a really bad idea. Many people use capitals to mark that something is particularly important. Contrary to what many believe, capitals make the text hard to read. They become brakes in the reading that tire your reader out.

Avoid italics

Italic text can be tiring to read on screen and also contributes to giving the page a messy impression.

Bold is fine – but do not overdo it

If you want to mark particularly important information, it is best to use bold. Bold helps your reader find their way in the text and find the right information. You can use bold in the body text even though your subheadings are bold – as long as you do not overdo it. Do not use bold because it is decorative, only to mark important information. Otherwise, everything ends up equally hard to see.

Get the language right

You are not writing to show off with fancy and convoluted phrases. You are writing to be read. And understood. Avoid difficult words, subordinate clauses and long, complicated sentences. If you can choose between an easy or a difficult word – choose the easy one.

Write clearly

Be sparing with commas and inserted subordinate clauses. Use a full stop instead. But remember that too many short sentences in a row give a choppy impression. It works best if you vary the length of your sentences. Feel free to read the text aloud to yourself when you have finished writing. Then you will notice whether the text flows well.

Clean out unnecessary words

"What is obscurely thought is obscurely said."

You will be surprised when you discover how many words and sentences you can cut to say what you really want to say. What happens when you tidy up your text is that it becomes clearer.

Avoid splitting compound words

Many people make fun of the fact that more and more people have started to split compound words (writing "särskriva" as "sär skriva"). The phenomenon is probably because we are increasingly influenced by English, which is full of split compounds.

Incorrectly split compounds give the text a careless and sloppy impression. But many lack this linguistic intuition, even though they may be very knowledgeable in their field. Perhaps you are not even aware of how you write? Pay attention.

Do not spray exclamation marks

Do not use exclamation marks unnecessarily. It gives a careless impression. But more and more people give in to the temptation. Really, an exclamation mark is only justified in very special situations: "War has broken out!". If you think that you may only use an exclamation mark when a war has just broken out (yes, we are exaggerating), you might become more restrictive and aware of the phenomenon.

Use the spell checker – but with a pinch of salt

The spell checker is a good tool. But it tends to flag even things that are correct, and it does not catch all the errors that a human eye sees. You can never trust it 100 percent.

Let the text rest before proofreading

You have written your text. You have read it aloud to yourself and cut all unnecessary words and sentences. It is best if you also have time to sleep on it. The next day you have gained distance from the text and will discover more things that need adjusting. Preferably proofread on paper, where it is easier to spot any small errors and shortcomings.

Let someone else read your text

Also let someone else read the text with critical eyes. Try not to "defend" your text when you get "criticism", but thank them for the help and have a proper think: Who are you really writing for? For yourself or for your reader?

More about style & format

Write newsletters & web texts like a journalist

To make your text more interesting and worth reading, you can use journalistic techniques and methods.

Reflecting

What the journalist really thinks must never be obvious in the text. Instead, the text is built around one or more interviewees who make statements. The quotes are used to support the story and move it forward.

Well-founded reasoning

Another trick journalists use to give a credible impression is to refer to studies, statistics, research, reports and other things that can support the story.

Dialogue dash

Journalists use the so-called dialogue dash, not quotation marks. It is standard in Swedish-language newspapers (and books). Example:
– I heard brakes screeching, and when I looked up there was a crash, says Karin Larsson.

Good-to-have questions

Journalists learn to ask the following questions when they are going to write a text. They are good to have up your sleeve if you have to write or interview someone completely unprepared:

When – did it happen? will it happen? will it be fixed?

Where – did it happen? will it happen?

How – did it happen? could it happen? will you act now?

Why – did it happen/not happen? are/were you not doing anything?

What – happened? has happened? will happen?

For whom – is it good or bad?