A Short Primer on Writing for the Web

Writing for the Web differs from writing for print, in large part because there are two audiences for online writing: the human reader and the search engine. It is also complicated by the fact that the human reader reads differently online than in print.

Writing for Human Readers

People read differently when they read on a screen. Because it is harder on the eyes, people tend to skim or skip text, browsing for main ideas. Writing conventions are generally less formal online as well; for example, it’s more common to use second person, addressing the reader directly, as “you.”

Keep the following in mind when writing new content for the web or adapting existing content:

  • Beware the “wall of words.” Use short paragraphs and break up text with heads and subheads, boldface type, lists, and images.
  • Put the most important ideas first: start with your conclusion and follow with details.
  • Keep text short. The word count will ideally be about half what you would use in print.
  • Avoid the use of footnotes or endnotes, which are rarely used online.

Certain best practices apply to print and Web content. As much as possible, follow these basic rules:

  • Use active voice rather than passive. (“The city council organized the event” as opposed to “The event was organized by the city council.”)
  • Use strong verbs. Avoid “to be” or linking verbs, i.e., “is,” “are,” “am,” whenever possible. (For instance, “The city council allocates land to foreign investors” as opposed to “The city council is responsible for allocating land to foreign investors.”
  • Vary sentence structure.
  • Do not plagiarize. Cutting and pasting text from other sources, such as Wikipedia, violates copyright laws and also results in lesser quality content. Ideally, digest the information and put it in your own words, being sure to give credit for any ideas you borrow from other sources, usually by naming the source and linking to them.
  • Keep your audience in mind. Everything on the site should speak to the investor and reflect his or her interest. (“Tabora offers ample opportunities for investing in the tourist sector” versus “The city council is interested in developing the tourist sector in order to boost revenue.”)
  • Avoid using local words if they could be unfamiliar to readers from outside the region or country, or explain them. Examples: Asantehene (king of the Ashanti region), boma (“camp,” “headquarters”), and Mwalimu (the honorary title of the late president Nyerere, meaning “teacher”).

In addition, the site should have one clear author: the office or organization that will be responding to queries. Refer to the same organization throughout, in the About Us section, the Contact Us page, in the copyright line, etc. If investors cannot determine who is behind the site, they may wonder if the city is effectively set up to help them.

For more on writing for users, see:

Writing for Search Engines

Searching with a search engine is by far the top way that people find websites. If pages do not come up in search results, it will not help you find new investors, i.e., people who are not already looking for you or do not have the URL.

The absolute most important thing, of course, is to provide rich, high-quality content about investing in the city. Search engines will penalize sites that unnecessarily repeat search terms. But there are techniques writers and developers can use to communicate to a search engine what a site is about, so the search engine can match your site to investors’ queries.

Search engines evaluate websites by looking for things like repeating terms — “keywords” or “search terms” — and then they decide how to rank the website in search results. So if someone searches for “invest in Kumasi,” the Kumasi website should come up high, if not first, on the list of search results. There are a number of ways to make this happen:

a)     Use your most important search term in the URL, also keeping in mind that the URL will be used in all of your marketing materials.

  1. Determine your primary search terms. For an investment promotion site, these will include the name of the city and/or country and “invest” or “investment.” For Blantyre’s website, for example, keyword phrases included “invest in Blantyre,” “investment in Blantyre,” “invest in Malawi,” “investment in Malawi,” and “doing business in Blantyre,” as well as sector-specific terms such as “manufacturing in Blantyre,” “manufacturing in Malawi,” etc.
  2. Optimize each page for a different keyword phrase, or search term. With each page, consider what terms investors will most likely be using as they research investment locations and then place these terms where the search engine will recognize them as being important. This is called “optimizing” the page. Key places include:
    • Meta title (see below)
    • Page title
    • Heads and subheads
    • Boldface type
    • End of first paragraph

Linking key terms on the site, such as “market access,” is also helpful, for the search engines and again for the human reader.

A word on meta tags: The meta tags, or meta data, do not show up as text on the Website; they are put in another field that the search engine reads. In the case of meta descriptions, the search engine also pulls them for the search results page. So if a site has meta descriptions, this is what you read on the page that comes up when you do a search — they help you decide which site best matches your needs. You have the option of providing this text to the search engine through the meta description field. It’s an opportunity to convince readers to click through to your site. How helpful this is in search rankings is up for debate, but it does not hurt.

Further Reading on SEO

Google’s Webmaster Tools: “Google Basics” and “Webmaster Guidelines”

Many media companies and SEO consultants offer advice on SEO as well. Moz’s Beginner’s Guide to SEO provides a particularly detailed overview. Also see “20 SEO Best Practices” and “SEO Best Practices: On-Page SEO Checklist.”