Guide to writing good copy
by Rob Mason ~ December 31st, 2008
The legendary Malarkey (aka Andy Clarke), has published an incredibly useful client focussed copy style guide.
Professionally written web copy is a very good idea for a website, however the reality is that many clients cannot afford to pay for a professional copywriter and so do it themselves. Which isn’t always a bad thing as they know their business better than anyone. Andy’s guide is aimed at clients who want to write their own copy and offers some guidance as to the best approach to take:
Avoid using abbreviated ‘and’ (‘&’) (an ampersand as it is properly known), as if you do your pages will not validate. Although breaking validation will not make the world fall apart, being valid is a mark of a professional web site. So you should strive for it as hard as possible. Ampersands are more acceptable in headings. If you really, really must use an ampersand, you must write it as
&.Do not type words in all uppercase letters. Just don’t. All uppercase words are bad for accessibility (a screen-reader reads each letter separately, not as a word) and are harder to read. They look, well, just plain unprofessional too.
Do not use exclamation marks (!) except, if absolutely necessary, in headings or for branding purposes. Exclamation points cheapen your content rather than enhance it and you should make your point effective by what you write. You should not need to use an exclamation point.
Choose your capitalization case carefully and stick to it. This is particularly important in headings. So choose to use sentence-case or title-case and then stick to your decision. I find that sentence-case is easier to read and easier on the eye. It is also less formal and friendlier in tone.
Avoid using numerals in your sentences as they make text harder and slower to read on screen. Instead of writing
Our course lasts for 3 days…use the word ‘three’ instead. Reserve numerals for dates and prices and other numeric data.Avoid referring to yourself in the third-person. So don’t say things like
[Stuff and Nonsense] are leaders in…. Instead refer to yourself and your company as ‘we’.We provide…,we love…etc. This makes you sound more personal and approachable.Avoid referring to your customers as
our customers, instead refer toyou. For example instead of writing[Stuff and Nonsense] provide their customers with the best experience…, say insteadWe provide you with the best experience…or possiblyAt [Stuff and Nonsense] we provide you with the best experience….While SEO is important to get visitors to your site through search-engines, it is also important to give them the best reading experience when they arrive. Keep your copy short and focussed. Keep repetition to a minimum, particularly of your company name. Above all, keep your copy short, content-rich and free from hard-sell or marketing speak.
Avoid confusing the issue. Try not to put too much or too varied information on a single page. If you do have a large amount of copy, break up that content into easily scannable sections through the use of headings and lists.
Keep your use of links focussed on the important calls to action. For example, if your page contains ten links and only one goes to the booking page, the visual importance of that booking link will be reduced. Try to avoid diluting your calls to action.
Good web copy is an essential part of making a website a success, just as much as the technical implementation and the marketing/promotion of it.
Merry Xmas from Sponge Project to all customers.
When times get tough and we enter a recession, a company’s usual knee jerk reaction is to start laying people off, particularly sales or marketing staff. At times like this however that is the last thing you should be doing. Instead try to think about the rest of your cost base. To help get that thinking started I’ve pulled together a list of free tools that should help manage your costs, there’s also a few non-technology tips that should be considered. 
Google Apps: this allows you to move your email, instant messaging and document sharing/Intranet to Google’s infrastructure. For free. Think about that for a second. You get a piece of the infrastructure that powers the world’s leading search engine…for nothing other than the setup time. Staff and colleagues can access email, chat to other colleagues, create and use a truly collaborative intranet or share documents from any machine, anywhere in the world. Did I mention it’s free?