If you’ve got some juicy, informative ideas to share, I might want to read them. So please, help me out by making your online content as easy to read as possible.

I don’t mean writing in a style aimed at someone with a low reading age; I’m edumacated and all that. I’m just really busy and so will use visual cues to work out if what you’re saying is relevant to me. That’s what my other web buddies — other potential customers of yours — are doing, too.

Take a top down approach: important, benefits-led points first
Ask yourself ‘so what?’ and get rid of unnecessary information (or rework it into something your audience would care about)
Break up your layout into sections (with clearly defined headings to signpost what’s coming) and your paragraphs into smaller content blocks.
Give me links (contextually please) if you refer to something interesting and relevant from someone else

I want to know quickly if I should read what you’re putting down. This means you’re more likely to engage me, and less likely to have wasted your time writing something worthy but dismissible for its lack of readability.

For more quick tips on how to write for the web, check out our web writing guidelines.