Websites are playing an increasingly important role in the success (or otherwise) of many businesses. It is therefore crucial that the content on your site is tailored to the needs of your audience and that they are effective in delivering your objectives for the site, whether that be to secure online sales or reduce calls to a helpdesk, etc.

It is known that people read web content in an entirely different manner to the way that they would read a promotional brochure. Web users tend to scan pages looking for key-words that link in with what they are interested in, and seldom bother to read large chunks of text. Many web users also automatically filter out anything that looks remotely like advertising.

There are many other key usability factors that you need to consider such as placing important content above the fold. However, the main focus of this article is on the actual way of writing your content.

Literacy levels / plain easy-to-understand English:
The chances are that your site is viewed by a mix of low and high literacy people. Lower literacy customers can read but may have difficulty doing so and, unlike higher-literacy users, they tend to read word for word rather than quickly scanning the page. Scarily, it is estimated that lower-literacy users make up 50% of the population and about 30% of online users!

To cater not just for your higher-literacy customers, therefore, you should use plain English, avoiding jargon, confusing abbreviations, and overly sophisticated terminology. These are actually just common sense elements that will improve the user experience for all customers, but especially for lower-literacy ones.

Informal vs formal language:
The way you communicate with your customers has to be reflective of your brand. Imagine that you were having a face-to-face conversation with them; what tone would you use and what level of formality? Using contractions such as We'll' rather than We will' is fine if you want to come across as an informal approachable brand. If you're a Private Banking entity, however, your customers might expect that extra level of formality.

Word and sentence length:
The basic rule here is that shorter is better. Sentences should certainly be no longer than 20 25 words and you should aim to only have about 3 or 4 sentences per paragraph. If you're listing product benefits in bullet point format, try to cover them in 6 bullets or less.

Remember, also, that sometimes a picture or diagram can convey

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