SEARCH

Web versus print—what are the key differences business writers need to know about?

One of the questions I'm often asked is how writing for the web differs from writing for print. There are two key issues:

• Writing to suit the way people read online
• Knowing how to write links and metadata to help people find content on the web.

How do people read on the web?

Apart from entertainment, most people use the web because there's something they need to do. They may be looking for information they need for their job. They could be doing some research. Maybe they are comparing prices or trying to find out about a new government service.

Scan-reading is the norm

In all these cases, people are active. They're on the move. They want to get something done. Reading online is not like relaxing in bed with the Sunday paper or curling up on the couch with a novel. It is 'lean forward' behaviour, not 'lean back', as usability guru Jakob Nielsen recently said. People do not read web content closely—they scan it.

There are many reasons why people scan-read online. Everyone is busy these days. We want to get things done as fast as we can. We don't want to waste time on a site that isn't delivering the goods fast enough. We are often not interested in everything a web site has to say—we just want the piece of information we need. Plus, it feels harder to read from the screen than from the printed page. We don't want to read for any longer than we need to.

People move fast, read little and give up quickly

Research shows that we have less than two minutes to get people to the information they want (Nielsen & Loranger, 2006: 27). If we don't do that, they might go to a competitor's site. If there is nowhere else to go, users are more likely to email or call you than keep looking on your site. Why bother publishing content if people have to contact you to find it?

A recent study found that users might only read 20 per cent of the words we write (Nielsen, 2008). Another showed that the average time users spent on a page was only 27 seconds (Nielsen & Loranger, 2006: 35). Eye tracking research found that the top and left edge of the content area on a web page is the place most people look (Nielsen, 2007). Yet we often waste this important space by filling it with fluffy, feel-good, 'welcome to my web page' messages.

How do we write to fit this behaviour?

Researchers have tested different types of writing and layout techniques. They can tell us how to create content that works best given the way people speed through our web sites.

Use plain language

On the web, people are not likely to read dense, formal prose closely enough to be able to figure out what it is saying. We must write in plain language. The evidence showing the effectiveness of plain language is vast (Kimble 1996-1997).

Write at grade 8 level

We should write at about grade 8 level. This helps people find information quickly (Nielsen 2005). Microsoft Word has a readability-testing tool you can use to check the grade level of your content.

Here is an example from the Roads and projects page on the VicRoads web site:

Original version (88 words, grade 16.7)

VicRoads manages and develops major arterial roads and freeways (excluding tollways) which form part of Victoria's road network.

These roads are the principal routes for public, private and commercial travel, and for on-road public transport.

Effective development, management and maintenance of our roads contributes to the community by increasing safety, efficiency and comfort of road travel and by reducing travel times, fuel use and pollution.

Victoria's arterial road network comprises approximately 22,300 km of roads and 5,250 bridges and major culverts, and is valued at approximately $17 billion.

Rewritten version (47 words, grade 6.9)

We develop, maintain and manage Victoria's $17 billion main road network of around:

• 22,300km of arterial roads and freeways (not tollways)
• 5250 bridges and culverts.

Our work helps the community. It makes road travel safer, comfortable and efficient. Good roads cut travel time, fuel use and pollution.

Write concisely

Our content must be concise. People want answers, not essays. Deadlines force many of us to take content written for print and put it online without proper editing. In these case, it is always too verbose.

In Don't Make Me Think, Steve Krug says we have developed some bad habits when writing for the web. One of these is writing happy talk. Krug says:

We all know happy talk when we see it; it's the introductory text that's supposed to welcome us to the site and tell us how great it is, or to tell us what we're about to see in the section we've just entered (p. 46).

The trouble with happy talk is that we put it on the most important part of the page—right at the top.

In this example from the Visiting the museum page on the Australian Museum website the happy talk takes over the whole screen. It begins:

Information for first time visitors and for those coming back to visit. Find out what is on at the Australian Museum this month, our exhibitions, activities, special events and programs. This site will also help planners for education groups, preschools and childcare centres.

Then under each sub-heading there is more happy talk:

General Visitors
Find out what's on this month. Explore our exciting range of exhibitions, events, holiday programs, guided tours and Indigenous programs.

Education Groups
Find out how to use our resources and services. Book your students into programs where they can engage with real objects and unique exhibitions in natural history and cultural heritage.

5s and under
Find out what's available for young children at the Australian Museum. Book activities, workshops and Kids' Island - a specially designed area for learning through play.

What's on calendar
Find out what's on at the Museum…

We need to cut this type of content back and allow users to get straight into the information they really want.

Do not write instructions

Krug also warns us about writing instructions on web pages. Given the pace that users move through web sites, any page that needs instructions probably needs a redesign. Many web pages also have useless instructions, telling people how to do the obvious. Consider this one:

Please fill out the relevant parts of the form below and then press the Submit Button at the bottom of the page.

Everyone knows that when you see a form on a page, you can type into it. They know that you need to press a button at the end. These sort of instructions just waste space. What matters most is that the form is well designed.

Here are two more:

Simply select from the topics below or from the left-hand navigation to begin.

How to browse. Click on a sub-topic on the left to narrow your selection.

It is hard to imagine anyone who couldn't use the page if we deleted this kind of text.

Delete unnecessary information

Another way to waste words is to include information that is not really needed. In the VicRoads example above, I left out the detail about different types of road users. Anyone who has travelled on main roads will already know this. Including it is a waste of time and space.

Wordiness is never a good idea for any medium. On the web, we have to be ruthless about cutting words that are not doing any real work.

Writing links and metadata

Web writers need to be able to produce good links and metadata. Both help people find the information they need.

Links need to be meaningful

When someone looks quickly at a web page, one thing that stands out is the links. That's because they're usually underlined and a different colour to body text (and if they're not, they should be).

There's no point writing links that say 'click here' because people already know they can click on a link. It is more important to tell people where the link will take them. It's also a good idea to tell them when the link will open a PDF document, new window or is an email address. These warnings should be included within the link.

Do this	Don't do this
Annual report 2008 (PDF 888 kb)	Click here for our 2008 annual report
eBanking help (new window)	Read our eBanking help page
customer-service@company.com.au	Email our customer service team.

Metadata—page titles are important

Search engines crawl through our pages, collecting information about our content. They look at the words we use on the page, any metadata (key words or descriptions) we have written, and the page title.

Page titles are important because most search engines usually give them more weight than key word metadata or the words in the body text. They are also important to users who rely on them on search engine results pages, and in browser favorites.

We need to write good page titles to get good search results and help users find the pages they need. Page titles need to use key words that are meaningful to our users. Will users search for 'tip' or 'refuse station' when they're looking for the nearest place to take their household rubbish? Will they click on a search result that says 'Leisure centre' when they are looking for the local swimming pool?

Page titles need to provide context. Will 'Starting a business' be meaningful enough for someone in Melbourne to realise it is meant for someone starting a business in Canada? Does 'About us' tell anyone who 'us' is referring to?

References

Kimble, Joseph (1996-1997), Writing for dollars, writing to please, Scribe Journal of Legal Writing

Krug, Steve (2000), Don't Make Me Think, Que

Nielsen, Jakob (2008), How little do users read?, Alertbox

Nielsen, Jakob (2006), F-shaped pattern for reading web content, Alertbox

Nielsen, Jakob (2005), Lower-literacy users, Alertbox,

Nielsen, Jakob & Loranger, Hoa (2006), Prioritizing Web Usability, New Riders

Published: 4 September, 2009