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Content
Rules
In other media, some rules for content – the words and pictures
that make up a brochure, a print ad, a billboard or a radio commercial
– are time-honored, sensible and widely recognized, but what
are the content rules for Websites? To answer that question,
this column will focus just on the copy -- the writing -- and
discuss the "pictures" issues in another column. So,
is the Web so new we can just throw out the rules about writing
and make new ones?
The second question is easy to answer. Most rules still apply.
For example, when a specialty medical practice launches its Website with every word of body copy capitalized and bolded, those
two particularly bad choices make the writing uninviting and hard
to read. Add to that grammatical and punctuation errors on most
pages, as well as awkward phrasing, and one wonders what the physicians
in that practice are thinking. Would they let a brochure that
was this bad get handed out at the front desk? It's hard to believe
that they would.
In short, content rules -- content is vital -- especially when
the content's on a Website (that may or may not be printed out),
so the essential rules of good writing still apply. In evaluating
content for Websites and working with our clients, we see writing
that falls into about five categories: embarrassing, technically
correct but bad, acceptable, good and great. If the writing is
potentially embarrassing (as is the physician group Website),
then of course it has to be fixed, as should writing that is just
plain bad.
Next comes a tough question: is it better to have a Website
that covers all communication needs and contains acceptable writing,
or should all the writing be outstanding, as if it were written
for an ad with seven consecutive $25,000 ad placements like in
The New York Times.
The choice can be a tough one to make. Great writing takes time
and talent, and time and talent cost money. Here are a couple
of factors that suggest Websites require great, not mediocre,
writing: text on a monitor is just plain harder to read than writing
on paper and site visitors are harder to keep than hard copy readers.
On the other hand, if the visitor has a vital interest in the
information – say that person is reading "Pre-operative
Guidelines for Ambulatory Surgery Patients," then as long
as the instructions are clear, that's all that matters.
Even mediocre writing should follow some standards. Here's one
for the home page and other key pages. In the newspaper business,
editors and writers talk about stories being above the fold (typically
newspapers are folded in half) or below the fold. For Websites,
the copy turf is divided into what appears on screen when a page
is accessed, and what a site visitor has to scroll to get to.
Newspaper editors put the best they've got on the front page,
above the fold. Website home pages and other key pages should
feature the best copy on what appears on screen, above the scroll.
Another key issue to look at is how "deep" a Web page
should be. Because 15" monitors set at 800 x 600 don't reveal
all that much copy, it's impractical to design pages so that no
scrolling is required. On the other hand, Web pages that go four
printed pages deep may be a sign that the copy should be reorganized
for faster access.
Here's one last guide line. Because Websites tend to cut across
departments, the content for a given Website may come from many
places. That's fine for starters, but the copy must be edited
by one person for consistency. Bad copy will drive visitors away;
good copy can keep them coming back for more.
It's tempting to think that Websites, with the trillions of
pages of information they have generated, have devalued writing,
but it's impossible to prove. Plenty of organizations print brochures
and run ads that are badly written, so there's no sense in blaming
the explosion of Website information for the bad writing we come
across on Websites.
You may, of course, have a different opinion. If you have some
examples of particularly bad writing on Websites run, send them
in to me. Until then, I'll be pondering the issues that involve
the "pictures" on Websites and compiling some visual
content rules.
This article first appeared as a column written
by Dave Tedlock, NetOutcomes' president, for the Inside Tucson
Business, The New Mexico Business Weekly and the Idaho
Business Review.
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