Plain writing for the web is about making information easy to read online. People don’t read website content the same way they read books or articles; they skim through it, which means they look for important information quickly and move on.
The specific things that make web writing different are that since people skim through website content, the writing for it should be as short as possible, clear, and straight to the point without having any extra fluff that has no reason to be included. (W8, Briscoe, Plain language, Writing slide #33)
Plain writing is really important for the web as well because it’s an essential tool for improving your search engine optimization and web content, making your content more engaging and shareable for your audience. We can also manipulate our writing so it fits with the personality of our audience such as using specific keywords or phrases that match their searches and language they use, as well as using catchy and clear headlines that we know will get their attention because we have already learned everything we need to know about our audience.
(W8, Briscoe, Plain language, Writing slide #26-27)
When writing in plain English, web writing follows the inverted pyramid style, which means that the key details are always written first, followed by any extra important information. That way, if someone only reads the first few sentences, they’ll still get the main information. (Briscoe, Writing Website content & plain language writing, slide #12)
Web content always needs a header, bullet points, and short paragraphs so people can easily scan through the content and find what they need without reading every single word.
This is why using the F-pattern is very important when writing web content.
(W8, Briscoe, Writing Website content & plain language writing, W25, slide #27)
Finally, a website should feel like a smooth conversation, not a textbook. My language helps keep things clear, friendly and natural somewhere people can easily understand what they’re reading.
Plain writing on the web is important because people will leave a website that has content that’s really hard to understand. For example, If the website is confusing and hard to understand because the writer is using jargon words, people will find something else that is written more easily. We should always stay away from jargon language because it’s harder to understand and people like simplicity, they don’t like reading big words that are confusing and don’t align with the reading level.
(W8, Briscoe, Plain Language Writing, W25, slide #63,65)
Even people who are great writers read faster and better when the content is simple and straight to the point. Plain language helps keep readers engaged and makes some more likely to stay with the whole thing.
If a person is visiting a website for the first time and can’t find what they need quickly, it creates frustration. By having clear, plain writing on your site it makes the navigation process smoother. It also helps more people understand what your content is about because some visitors might have different literacy levels, learning disabilities, or speak a different language. Plain language makes sure they don’t struggle to understand your content.
Another thing that makes it important is that Google will favour websites that use simple plain writing because more people can potentially visit your website more often because your information is valuable and easy to understand and this will help your site rank higher on search results which means more people can find you.
In conclusion, web writing needs to be clear and easy to follow because readers don’t read the same way online as they do in print. If a website has complicated written content, people will not care to stay and read the content.
(W8, Briscoe, Writing Website content & plain language writing, W25, slide #4-7)