A beginner's guide to writing for the online environment and an increasingly time-starved digital audience.

1. Your guide to writing web copy
By Charl F. Mijnhardt
Owner, copywriter and cat-petter-in-chief at For Our Love of
Writing

2. 2
Charl Mijnhardt is acopywriter and content marketer who writes about copywriting and content marketing, which worked out quite nicely. He spends most of his time wondering what to write
about next, but usually just ends up petting his (awesome) cat, Gizmo, instead. If you like his work, please validate his sense of self-worth by liking his Facebook page.
About your humble
author

3. 3
Foreword
Writing for digital media is a world apart from writing
for traditional media such as print. Many writers from the
old guard who cut their teeth writing for sales brochures
and magazines now find themselves feeling out of place
and disillusioned in this Brave New Digital World.
It’s understandable.
I find myself thinking of a Latin phrase I once read in
high school that has always stuck with me: omni mutantur
nos et mutamur in illis. All things change and we with
them.
This reality is often a bitter pill to swallow, especially
when it comes to adapting the craft that you’ve been
practicing for many years.
But fear not, fellow copywriters. In this eBook, I’ll be
sharing with you some of my secrets for writing great
web copy.

4. 4
Your audience: what you need to know
When it comes to writing for the online
environment, there are a couple of things you need
to keep in mind regarding your audience.
The same copywriting tactics and approaches
that work for traditional audiences can’t necessarily
be applied online, and you’ll need to keep these
unique traits in mind when crafting your copy.
What are the characteristics of online
audiences?
•They are starved for time;
•They visit websites with a specific goal in
mind;
•If they don’t find what they’re looking for
almost immediately, they’ll leave your site;
•They are impatient;
•Their reading behavior differs from that of a
traditional audience.

5. 5Title of the book
Keep copy concise
Fact: online readers have a short attention span
and it’s very easy for them to lose interest. They
find huge blocks of text tedious and they definitely
don’t want to scroll in order to get to the crux of
the page.
Try to keep paragraphs and sentences as
short as possible and restrict each paragraph to
one or two main ideas. The generally-accepted
rule is four to five sentences of no more than 20
words per sentence.

6. 6
Make use of bullet points
Bullet points are a great way to break up ideas, and
they are generally better digested by online audiences.
Especially if you intend on listing multiple items, a
bulleted list is definitely the way to go and has been
shown to be favored in online environments.

7. 7
Bold keywords and phrases
Online readers tend to scan web pages for relevant
information (as do search engine crawlers), and their
eye will be naturally drawn to words and phrases
that stand out.
Bolding your key copy points is one of the simplest and
yet most effective ways of drawing your readers’
attention to important information on the page.

8. 8Title of the book
Include important information above the fold
The “fold” is the location on a web page at which a
reader is required to scroll in order to read the rest of
the page.
If a visitor to your site has to scroll to find the
information they are looking for, chances are they’ll
just lose interest and navigate away from your site,
which is precisely what you don’t want.

9. 9
Ensure easy readability
Online copy needs to be a lot more concise
and easier to read than traditional copy. As
I’ve mentioned before, readers in online
environments want to be able to quickly scan
the page to find what they’re looking for.
The Flesch-Kincaid reading scale analyzes
English text to determine its readability and is
included in Yoast’s Free Content Analysis Tool.
If you don’t know Yoast, I strongly suggest
checking it out as it provides an excellent
indication – and gratis feedback – regarding the
suitability of your content for online syndication.

10. 10
Always write in the active voice
Your main reason for wanting people to visit your
website in the first place is to get them to do
something, to take some action. This could be to
make a purchase, sign up for a newsletter or fill out
a contact form.
I therefore encourage writers to always write in the
active instead of the passive voice.
Check out the two example sentences below and
then decide for yourself which one is the most
compelling:
Passive voice
My eBook can be downloaded at the following link.
Active voice
Download my ebook at the following link.
It’s a no-brainer, right?

11. 11
Use headings and sub-headings
Employing this tried and true tactic makes your copy
skimmable; in other words, it makes it easy for the
reader to find the section of interest within the larger
text.
For example, say you are writing copy for a web
page about a specific breed of dog. Instead of
lumping all the information together in one huge,
impenetrable block of text, you could break it up into
the following sub-headings:
•Appearance
•Behavior
•Common ailments and injuries
•Personality
•History

12. 12Title of the book
Adjust your tone and give your writing some
rhythm
Another fundamental way in which web copy differs
from traditional copy is that it’s generally more friendly
and conversational. It should feel like a genuine
dialogue and not just a one-sided delivery of content.
Get a nice rhythm going in your writing. Your reader
should feel like you’re right there with them, chatting
over a cup of coffee.

13. 13
Use simple language
The purpose of your writing isn’t to show off your
extensive vocabulary, penchant for fancy wordplay
and other linguistic gymnastics.
Create a textual environment in which your reader
feels engaged yet relaxed.
Avoid using unnecessary jargon and
bureaucratese unless the context really calls for it.
Finally, remember this rule and stick to it wherever
possible: don’t say in ten words what can be said
just as effectively in five.

14. 14
Use positive statements
It’s no secret that marketing involves a fair amount of
psychology.
I’m not talking about intermittently flashing suggestive
images to movie audiences to make them want to buy a
particular soft drink.
But readers do respond to copy that involves positive
statements and language that makes them feel
empowered.
Consider the following examples:
Negative
Never miss out on a great deal.
Positive
Get all the greatest deals daily!

15. 15
Include a call-to-action
If your copy is the symphony, then your call-to-action is
the crescendo to which it builds.
You can write the most compelling and eloquent copy,
the kind of stuff that would make Don Draper weep
tears of sheer amazement, but it’s all for naught unless
there’s a clear call-to-action to take the reader to the
next step.
Make your CTA button stand out from the rest of the
copy, and make it clear what clicking on it will lead to:
Some examples are:
•Sign up for free
•Download your eBook
•Get more sales
•Click here to subscribe
•Take a tour
•Act now
•Join our mailing list
•Like us on Facebook
•Follow us on Twitter

16. 16
Bonus: Web copy infographic

17. 17
Photo credits
Copyright: garagestock / 123RF Stock Photo
Copyright: andreycherkasov / 123RF Stock
Photo
Copyright: alphaspirit / 123RF Stock Photo

18. 18
charlm@forourloveofwriting.com
www.forourloveofwriting.com
Facebook.com/forourloveofwriting