Planning and writing Web content
- Plan your Web page
- Organize your content
- Write your content
- Proof and review your work
- Style guide
- Resources
1. Plan your Web page
Decide what you need to communicate and why
Why do you want to create a Web page? Is it to inform people? Is it to get them to do something or stop doing something (like smoking)? Before you do any planning or writing, determine what you need to communicate and why. Don't simply post volumes of content to the Web, just because it's available and you think you need a Web page. The Web Development Coordinators can help you plan your Web pages.
Who's your audience?
For your Web page to be successful you'll need to target your communication to a specific audience. While a technical or professional audience can often benefit from a general public Web site, the public won't be able to use a Web site written for technical audiences.
You may decide that you need to do two Web pages; one for staff and one for consumers.
Determine the format for the information
Should your content be an HTML Web page (like this one)? Should it be a downloadable Word document? Should it be in portable document format (PDF)? How about an Excel file? How do you know? Here are some tips.
- If you want your content to be readily available to the most number of people, use standard HTML pages. These pages don't require the reader to have any special software or to take any additional steps to be able to read your content.
- If you have a large document and you need it to look exactly like the print version, you can use a pdf file. Acrobat version 5 has accessibility features that can make pdf documents readable by people who use screen readers (usually people who are blind).
- Is the document of interest to a limited audience who all have the same technology available to them? For example, an internal DHS committee whose members all use Microsoft Word. In this case, a Word file often will be fine.
- If you need your audience to interact with a great deal of data you may want to post it as downloadable Excel files.
Plan your updates now
It's your content; it's your responsibility to keep it current. You can do it or delegate it to someone else. Set up a schedule to review the content. If it should be deleted after a certain date, include that in your schedule. If it should be freshened up, include that also.
The Web Support Specialist's job is to help you get your information onto the Web, not to keep the content current. Don't rely on him or her to update your content.
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2. Organize your content
Writing is different for the Web
Typical writing follows a certain logical order, usually relying on chronology to tell a story. Here's a typical example: it starts with background information (why the project was developed, who supported it), gives details (how the research was done) then gives results or recommendations.
That kind of writing can be too long and sequential for Web users. Using an outline is a good way to plan a Web page. Do you have too much content for a single page? While there are no hard and fast rules about the length of a Web page, if the reader has to scroll a great deal, they probably won't finish reading your content.
Use a table of contents and break up longer documents
Your reader needs to be able to figure out quickly if your Web site has what they need. A good way to help them make that decision for long documents is to create a table of contents for the page.
Use the table of contents on the first page of your document. By using a table of contents you can also see where the page might logically be broken up into smaller pages. Breaking up a long document can make it easier for reading, printing and downloading.
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3. Write your content
Write like a journalist — use the inverted pyramid style
The journalism approach of starting with a summary of the story is a must for the Web. This puts the key information in the first paragraph or two and helps the user quickly decide whether this is a page to read.
Using the inverted pyramid style will force you to determine the most important elements of your Web page, which will help you determine if your page is meeting your goals.
Divide your information into chunks
Web content benefits from being "chunked" into short blocks of information. One approach is to make the chunks stand-alone information, of about 100 words, that requires no scrolling. Note that the chunks of information on this page are very brief and don't require the reader to scroll to read the chunk.
If you've planned your page using a table of contents you've likely accomplished much of this task already.
Users want to scan for information quickly
Even though you've worked really hard develop a good Web page, most people won't read everything on it. They scan-- They look for headlines, summaries and captions.
After they find what they want they may read it, or they may consider their scan to be adequate.
Write short
Since Web users don't read everything on the electronic page it's important to make sure they can find what they need. If your document is long, with long paragraphs, they either won't easily find what they want, or they'll give up and you've lost your opportunity to share your information.
Write short paragraphs. Typically one to three sentences is about all you'll want to include in each online paragraph.
Write simple
Users prefer simple language. They want information that is easy to understand.
Make friends with the grammar tool in your word processing program. If it says your sentences are passive, learn what that means and how to correct it. If your writing is at the 12th grade level and you're writing for the general public, learn how to make your writing more understandable.
Many parts of DHS are required to write client information at a sixth grade level. While Web content may not need to be at that level, we should shoot for about the 8th or 9th grade, which is often the reading level newspapers aim for. It will most likely be understandable by the widest audience.
Write conversationally
People interact with their computer and the content on Web pages. They expect the writing on Web pages to be more personal than what they read in print. One way to do this is to insert "we" or "our" where you normally would say "DHS" or some other part of the department. You should also use the word "you" whenever possible.
For example, instead of: The Department of Human Services' safety program helps Oregon citizens learn how to keep their homes secure. Try this: Our safety program helps you learn how to keep your home secure.
Be objective, don't promote
Objective writing makes Web sites more useful than promotional writing. Each time users have to question or wonder if some promotional claim is accurate, it slows them down and eats away at the site's credibility.
Skilled writers and editors are essential
To meet all these requirements, skilled writers and editors are essential. Contact the Office of Communications, Communication Resources writers/editors for help.
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4. Proof and review your work
Does your Web page meet the goals you outlined in step 1? If your goal was to get people to register for a conference, or fill out a form, will what you've written get them to do so?
5. Style guide
Unless otherwise noted, spelling, grammar, usage and punctuation follow The Associated Press Stylebook. See the DHS Style Manual.
6. Resources
If you need help in following these guidelines, please contact an Office of Communications, Communication Resources writers/editors.