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Linda Kolker
Consultant, copywriter, content manager
Best practices for your website
lindakolker.com
linda@lindakolker.com
434‐984‐6619

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Audience profile
Motivations (benefits)
Action (s)
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People make decisions based on what they FEEL
Whole body is engaged, impulse to action begins in the body.
Justify decision with factual information
The mind evaluates whether the feelings can be trusted.
And then they take action
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Benefits– emotional—what would
motivate reader to take action?
Support with facts
Build trust
Provoke action
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Where to get info on benefits
 Interviews
 Testimonials
 Letters & email
 Others on staff
 Publications for target audience
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Find the benefit
 Congregation Beth Israel provides Charlottesville,
Albemarle and surrounding counties with a welcoming
Jewish environment in which people can study, worship,
socialize and take part in helping others. CBI offers both
Reform and Conservative worship services.
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CBIC Tech Tour: a day‐long event to introduce area high
school students to our region’s tech companies,
designed to expose students to the diverse career
possibilities offered by our regional tech community and
to help them envision themselves as technology
innovators.
Chaperoned groups of students spend the day traveling
to selected showcase tech companies for a hands‐on
visit to meet employees and experience the use of
technology in unique and specialized operations.
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Write a benefit
 After nine months of closure for repair, the Broad Street
Bridge reopened to traffic on October 31st, slightly ahead of
schedule. The project was managed by the Waynesboro
Department of Public Works, Fairfield‐Echols of Fishersville
served as the general contractor and Schwartz Associates of
Lynchburg acted as design engineer. The $2.6 million project
was funded, in part, by a Revenue Sharing Grant from the
Virginia Department of Transportation.
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Build trust
(credibility)
 Testimonials
 Success stories
 Members of board of directors
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Site easy to use (finding things)
Easy to see what you’re all about by skimming
Engaging writing
Correct grammar
Correct spelling
Site is visually attractive
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Exercise: Look at your own site
Audiences?
Action?
Benefits?
The MAIN benefit?
Facts?
Trust‐builders?
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Sitting down to write content
 (handout)
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Write an Outline
1. (handout)
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How to organize and write content
Good web writing = how Google looks at pages
Source: http://historyofjournalism.onmason.com
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Eye tracking
AND
Google tracking
Heat map
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What Google looks at
 Page titles (only available in html code)
 Headline (tags <H1>, <H2> etc. in html code)
 Page content, from top down
 Captions (& Image <alt> tags in html code)
 Links
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Page Title (Meta Title)
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Headlines & Sub‐heads

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Captions – grab reader attention
& Google looks at
(before)
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Captions
What’s important about this image / use keyword
(after)
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Use links liberally
Forest planning for the GWNF
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Engage skimmers
and improve Google search ranking
“Chunk” the page
• Subheads (<H2> tags>)
• Short sentences & paragraphs
• Bullets & numbering
• Boldface text (not underlines,
they’re for links only)
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Use subheads
 Tell the story on their own
 Capture essence of following paragraph
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before
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Partnering to make communities better places to live
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Bullets
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Fewer bullets, more paragraphs
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Use a chart; tell a story
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Shorten sentences
CBIC Tech Tour: a day‐long event to introduce area high school
students to our region’s tech companies, designed to expose
students to the diverse career possibilities offered by our regional
tech community and to help them envision themselves as
technology innovators.
Revised
The CBIC Tech Tour helps students envision themselves as
technology innovators. This day‐long event introduces area high
school students to our region’s tech companies. It exposes students
to the diverse career possibilities offered by our regional tech
community.
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Shorten paragraphs
3‐4 lines – no more than 6
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5‐second test
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Example: shorten paragraphs, use bullets
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5‐second test
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5‐second test
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Shorter paragraph, bullets, boldface (highlights)
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Readability
 # sentences
 # words
 Words/sentence
 Syllables/word
Less=better
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Readability Scores
70
60
50
40
30
Ease
20
Grade level
10
0
New Yorker
‐‐5th Grade
New York
Times
‐‐6th grade
Economist
‐‐8th grade
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Magic words
YOU (not “we”)
VERBS – lively, action
 Start heads, subheads & sentences
 Use ACTIVE verbs (avoid passive)
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The car was started by him
He started the car
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Sentences
 “Load” meaning in the first 3 words
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Capture meaning in the first 3 words
 Make meaning early
 Let rest of sentence branch to the right
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies by Roy Peter Clark
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“Companies keep saving, waiting for the economy to
improve…”
“The Pete Rouse era began shortly before noon on Friday.”
“The Americans moved ahead on Saturday, building a 6‐4
advantage…
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Paragraphs
Put most important thought at the
beginning – first sentence
Shorten to 6 lines or less
Optimum = 3‐4 lines
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Exercise
Work in pairs with someone from ANOTHER organization
Select a page you would like feedback on
Share FIRST IMPRESSIONS:
 Subheads
 Captions
 Paragraph length
 Sentence length
 Inverted pyramid
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Tell stories
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Ask clients, volunteers, staff
to write a story for your site
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What stories could you tell?
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Questions & comments
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Best Practices Guru
 Jakob Nielsen – Alertbox ‐‐
http://www.nngroup.com/articles/
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Audience scenarios and personas
Who uses your site
What they’re looking for
How they use what they find
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Words
 adjectives
 adverbs
 –ings
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Adjectives
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quantity ‐ few, no, one, two, three, four, little, several, many, all, some, every, each, ...
opinion ‐ good, better, best, bad, worse, worst, wonderful, splendid, mediocre, awful, fantastic, pretty, ugly, clean, dirty, wasteful, difficult, comfortable, uncomfortable, valuable, worthy,
worthless, useful, useless, important, evil, angelic, rare, scarce, poor, rich, lovely, disgusting, amazing, surprising, loathesome, unusual, usual, pointless, pertinent, ...
personality/emotion ‐ happy, sad, excited, scared, frightened, outgoing, funny, sad, zany, grumpy, cheerful, jolly, carefree, quick‐witted, blissful, lonely, elated, ...
sound ‐ loud, soft, silent, vociferous, screaming, shouting, thunderous, blaring, quiet, noisy, talkative, rowdy, deafening, faint, muffled, mute, speechless, whispered, hushed, ...
taste ‐ sweet, sour, acidic, bitter, salty, tasty, delicious, savory, delectable, yummy, bland, tasteless, palatable, yummy, luscious, appetizing, tasteless, spicy, watery, ...
touch ‐ hard, soft, silky, velvety, bumpy, smooth, grainy, coarse, pitted, irregular, scaly, polished, glossy, lumpy, wiry, scratchy, rough, glassy, ...
size, weight ‐ heavy, light, big, small, little, tiny, tall, short, fat, thin, slender, willowy, lean, svelte, scrawny, skeletal, underweight, lanky, wide, enormous, huge, vast, great, gigantic,
monstrous, mountainous, jumbo, wee, dense, weighty, slim, trim, hulking, hefty, giant, plump, tubby, obese, portly, ...
smell ‐ perfumed, acrid, putrid, burnt, smelly, reeking, noxious, pungent, aromatic, fragrant, scented, musty, sweet‐smelling,...
speed ‐ quick, fast, slow, speeding, rushing, bustling, rapid, snappy, whirlwind, swift, hasty, prompt, brief, ...
temperature ‐ hot, cold, freezing, icy, frigid, sweltering, wintry, frosty, frozen, nippy, chilly, sizzling, scalding, burning, feverish, fiery, steaming, ...
age ‐ young, old, baby, babyish, teenage, ancient, antique, old‐fashioned, youthful, elderly, mature, adolescent, infantile, bygone, recent, modern, ...
distance ‐ short, long, far, distant, nearby, close, faraway, outlying, remote, far‐flung, neighboring, handy, ...
shape ‐ round, circular, square, triangular, oval, sleek, blobby, flat, rotund, globular, spherical, wavy, straight, cylindrical, oblong, elliptical, zigzag, squiggly, crooked, winding, serpentine,
warped, distorted, ...
miscellaneous qualities‐ full, empty, wet, dry, open, closed , ornate, ...
brightness ‐ light, dark, bright, shadowy, drab, radiant, shining, pale, dull, glowing, shimmering, luminous, gleaming, ...
color ‐ pink, red, orange, yellowish, dark‐green, blue, purple, black, white, gray, brown, tanned, pastel, metallic, silver, colorless, transparent, translucent, ...
time ‐ early, late, morning, night, evening, everlasting, initial, first, last, overdue, belated, long‐term, delayed, punctual, ...
origin/location ‐ lunar, northern, oceanic, polar, equatorial, Floridian, American, Spanish, Canadian, Mexican, French, Irish, English, Australian, ...
material ‐ glass, wooden, cloth, concrete, fabric, cotton, plastic, leather, ceramic, china, metal, steel, silicon, ...
purpose ‐ folding, swinging, work, racing, cooking, sleeping, dance, rolling, walking, ...
Source: Enchanted Learning
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Adverbs
Weaken strong verbs.
“She smiled happily”
On Writing Well by William Zinsser
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Take it easy on the –ings
Use simple verbs instead
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“Wishing and hoping and thinking and praying”
(Dusty Springfield)
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies by Roy Peter Clark
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“Wish, hope, think and pray”
(With apologies to Dusty Springfield)
Writing Tools: 50 Essential Strategies by Roy Peter Clark
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