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Online Writing vs. Print Media:

You see it so often – websites that have taken text from print medium and placed the content straight onto their website… Even some of the most popular websites from well known organisations do just this – produce a great piece of print medium and simply place a carbon copy onto their website hoping that it’ll be well received online.

Research has shown that this doesn’t necessarily work – website users read differently to reading a press or print article. Considerations such as user’s time constraints (users wanting to find information fast), the plethora of choice online, screen ergonomics and the ever changing nature of the online website environment mean that readers approach websites very differently to a ‘physical’ medium such as a magazine.

Keywords:

Website designers should ensure that their text is easily readable online by providing various keywords (for users to scan over) that build a body of text around them. For example, if you’re trying to attract readers who are interested in information on the Empire State Building those keywords should be easily found within the text body so that it attracts the eye of the online reader to the text around those words. Readers online will scan copy and then pick up reading around words that interest them, so keywords are important.

Headings:

Another way to ensure that your message is put across well is to use headings. Breaking the text down is perfectly acceptable online (whereas in a print of press article it may be taboo). Headings help the reader to identify areas of interest quickly and increase the chance that they’ll stay and read the entire article.

There are other important methods of helping webmasters write for the internet in the April 2008 edition of NETT# magazine (Australia), pp. 62, which is very useful.