Subject: Writing for websites
Date posted:10th May 2009

In general, when people view websites they are normally in a hurry and want to find the relevant information suited to them fairly quickly. What this means they haven't got time to scroll through acres and acres of text about your business; just because this information is on your literature doesn't mean it should be on your website. You need to find a way that allows this information to be delivered quickly and with absolute clarity. One of the most important factors is that your website looks interesting to read; to achieve this:

• Try and keep the sentences fairly short and no more than 20 words long
• Paragraphs should not exceed five lines, based on a line width of 8 to 10 words long
• These paragraphs should be interspersed by short subheadings every couple of inches down the page
• These headings and sub headings should be a maximum of 7 words long
• Pages on your website should not be any longer than a printable A4 page
• Make good use of the white space - don't fill the urge to fill every available square inch
• Use bulleted and numbered lists wherever possible
• Add spice, imagination and excitement to the copy

Remember web users don't have the patience and will only read 20 - 25% of the text on the page. The less you have on there the more they will read!