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Guide to Web content: Writing for usability
Engaging your users and still writing for search engine optimization
By Haley Nelson
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One of the biggest challenges for anybody writing Web content is balancing usability with search engine optimization (SEO) criteria. Part of you wants to write compelling, thought-provoking copy that users will love. The other part wants to fill your content up with keywords, using all the SEO tricks you can think of. Unfortunately, neither of these techniques will get you the results you want. In this article, I'll offer some Web content usability ideas that will keep users on your site while still optimizing your site for search engines.
Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done
 Writing For Usability
In order to write effective website content, it is necessary to understand how web users read on the Web. Forget everything you learned in your high school English class. Web writing is entirely different than traditional writing.
I recommend: - Web users do not read a Web page - they scan it. Therefore, useable Web content should be scannable. This would include writing short paragraphs, implementing headings and writing in "chunks."
- Keep it short. A computer screen is not easy to read. Therefore, help your clients out by keeping content short. Very rarely should a page include more than 400 words. If you keep it between 200 and 250 words, you'll likely see page dwell time increase.
- Navigate. Consider yourself the tourguide of your Web site. Make it easy for people to navigate your site by including links in logical places. Make your graphic navigation easy to understand.
- One idea per paragraph. Web users are not expecting award-winning, thought-provoking content on a website. Keep sentences short, and limit paragraphs to one idea. Make it as easy to understand as possible.
- Who are your users? It is essential to identify your site's audience. Writing for adolescent children, for example, is much different than writing for a business audience. Once you've identified your user base, have a "representative" from your target audience read your content and give you feedback.
- Avoid the following... ALL CAPS, excessive italicized text, and hyper punctuation!!!???!?!?
Tips & Tactics
Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide
- Conduct usability tests -
Ask your peers to visit your Web site and talk out loud while they're browsing it. This could reveal many things about your usability, from illogical navigation to lengthy pages.
- Consider buying professional content - Before you considering writing your own content or hiring the neighbor kid to do it, considering consulting a Web content writer. Content really is the most important component of a Web site, and investing in it can pay off and get results.
- Work with a designer - Design and readable content go hand in hand. If your text is too small or too large, people won't read it. If paragraphs are unnecessarily long, people won't read them. Consider working with a designer to come up with a layout that is both visually appealing and readable.
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Armit Hallan is a well-known Web content writer. This Web site is full of useful information about Web writing.
Jakob Nielsen is the industry expert in Web content usability. This Web site is full of excellent information that is a valuable resource for anyone writing Web content.
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