What to watch for with online copy writing
Traditional copy writing and online copy writing are essentially two sides of the same coin in most peoples eyes. But to a large degree they are wrong.
The base level intent of onilne copy writing – especially for SEO – is to convince the reader to take action in as short a time as possible. This means that there are a number of things that we need to look at when we are writing for online.
Sentence Length.
Probably the most important factor of online copy writing is sentence length. Readers need to be able to understand and grasp what you are saying quickly without having to re-read sentences a number of times.
Traditionally online readers are looking for instant gratification. They want the information they are looking for as quickly as possible and the quicker you can give it to them , the more likely they are to fill in a form or buy something right there and then.
Copy structure
The copy of all online copy needs to be written in such a way that as your reader moves through the content they are picking up on the relevant info as they go along. This is typically shown by writing your copy with a pyramid in mind.
- The main point you are trying to convey at the top of the copy.
- The key facts to support your point second.
- Lastly follow this up with less important details which will not immediately affect their decision.
Calls To Action
Online copy needs to encourage the reads to take action. This is achieved by” littering” your copy with calls to action which make it as easy as possible for them to, once they have the desired info, take the next step and give you dome info about them.
Quick Fire Tips
When writing copy online, it is important to make the article to your target audience as well as search engines. This means striking a balance between stuffing the copy with the keywords you want to be found under, and making it compelling for real people to read.
Always write for people first and search engines second.
Keep the sentence length short and make sure that you are writing at the correct level for your audience.
Use readability tools to check that your article meets with these guidelines. A great one to use is www.editcentral.com
This articles reading score.
5 Replies to “What to watch for with online copy writing”
How can one mend their writing style, read less like a report and more like a story?
Cool Post man. Please keep on sharing ‘tools/websites’.
Always nice to evaluate your own site!
Regards
Thanks for the great overview Jonathan. I always tend to make my sentences far too long…! And thanks for the heads up on the great readability tool, definitely worth using.
Hi there,
Thanks for the question!
There are a couple of ways in which to amend your writing style. The first of which is to really understand your audience and who you are writing for.
Once you have that, it becomes more like you are having a conversation with someone rather than a group of people which tends to read like a report.
Writing in the first person always makes it more conversational. Something that works for me is that I write in exactly the same way as I think (which is sometimes frightening); I then clean this up once I’ve read it through a few times to make it more grammatically correct and ensure that it has the right flow and tone that I am trying to achieve.
Nice readability score Jonathan 🙂
Cheers