Writing for the web is different from writing for other media forms. Visitors search and scan before reading deeply. This playbook contains tips and practices to improve your content, making it more searchable and useful for your audience.
Use this playbook when you are planning to write a new page of web content or rewrite/edit an existing page.
Process
- Everything you write for the web should help someone to do something. Write a sentence that describes who your content is for and what it’s supposed to help them to do. Connect all your content to that sentence.
- Write a short outline of how your content will help your reader to meet their goals. Be very specific, and use action statements, i.e. “Register for a swim program” and “Find directions to the facility”. Turn that outline into headings. Headings help a reader to scan a page, they improve search engine optimization, and they help visitors using assistive technology to understand the contents of a page.
- Ensure that your most important information is located at the very top of the page. As readers scan from page to page, they need to understand whether that page addresses their current task.
- Add helpful metadata to your pages.
- Write a descriptive page title, this is what will show up in search results and your readers’ browser history. Keep your title between 6-12 words. Use keywords in your title that your reader might use when searching. “About Us” is not a descriptive, unique title. “About the City of Mississauga” is better.
- Write a meta description. This should be no more than 160 characters. Use the sentence you wrote that explains who the content is for and what it helps them to do.
- Write meta keywords. These should be plain language terms that summarize the content. Separate keywords or phrases with commas.
- Talk to your readers. Use “you” and “we” not “residents” and “The City”. Always use active voice, “You must fill out this form” not “This form must be filled out by the resident”.
- Refer to the City of Mississauga style guide if you need more detail on voice and tone or formatting of city information (i.e. phone numbers or contact information).
- Do an editorial pass through your content.
- Look for jargon, internal language, and acronyms, and replace them with simple words.
- Look for content that does not help your reader to accomplish their goals and delete it.
- Look for paragraphs longer than 3-4 sentences, or sentences longer than 10 words and break them up, it will make your content easier to read.
- Look for places where you can turn paragraphs into bulleted or numbered lists, which are much easier to scan.
- Look for content chunks that are unique but don’t have an introductory heading and write one. Use H1, H2, H3… to show content hierarchy.
Principles
When you are writing for the web:
- Be concise. Once you are done your first draft, try to cut your word count in half.
- Don’t focus on “layout”. Focus on the structure of your content – Title, Headings, Paragraphs, Lists, Images. You don’t know the size or type of browser your reader will use, so you can’t guarantee layout anyway.
- Use the inverse pyramid structure, with your main point at the top, supporting information next, and background information last.
- Search engine optimization comes from using your readers’ language in titles, headings, and text. Focus on plain language and people will find your content more often.