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While academic writing and feature article writing for traditional media may require large amounts of writing the digital realm requires shorter and snappier pieces for its readers. If you are writing for the internet you need to think about how you read online as well. Do you spend a long time reading long winded articles or do you browse through reading bits and pieces. For most people a quick browse is the answer.
Condense!
Condensing information should be your first goal (not removing information) as people have come across your writing looking for answers they need immediately. Here are some good ideas:
- Put things in bullet point (like this).
- Work on 'top tens' to limit the amount of important information you use.
- Remove unnecessary words and sentences.
- Read it yourself, how long does it take you?
All of these are merely suggestions but ones that I find helpful when targeting my writing to an online audience. I am spoiled a little as I concentrate a lot on poetry which is ideal for the casual internet browser as it is naturally a condensed form of writing. For those of you writing technical articles like this one you should do a search of similar and popular writers in that niche and you will find most of them have very short posts and articles.
Use Your Word-count!
While most writers will use a word-count in their word processor you should get a feel for your own “perfect” length depending on where it will be published. For my own site I aim for around 500-800 words and although this seems short you will see that you can cram a lot of information into it. For blog posts I generally try and write even shorter posts around the 500 word mark as my blog is focused more on providing insights and news for my main website.
While speaking of short and snappy pieces it is also important not to make them too short as it does affect search engine performance. Shorter pieces of writing may not be as highly favoured on search engines but then again this may be overcome if they are snappy enough to have people linking to them. My own optimal word count is more an editorial decision for the site and you need to find your own comfort zone as well.
Write right!
Because you are limiting your writing online to a smaller size than usual you need to write it right! In a way this helps you out because you have less room to manoeuvre and little need to use article 'padding' (I.e pointless sentences and paragraphs you don't need). As I mentioned before check out whose writing is working online and you will see a common attribute SHORT AND SNAPPY!
KJ Halliday is editor of kjwriteleft.com, a poet and photographer as well as a website designer.
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