Ladies and Gentlemen,
I am officially the proud owner of The Yahoo Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World.
The book expands on all things blogging, newsletters, email, UI text, SEO, mobile, HTML and copyright in its 512 pages. Mind you I have only made it to page six, but this is what I’ve learned.
Three guidelines for effective online writing:
1. Keep it short.
- Make sure your words, sentences, paragraphs, and pages are short! It’s a good idea to include bulleted lists for organization.
- Slim down your copy as if you’re making and brochure but for an online format.
2. Front-load your content.
- Put most important content in the upper-left area of the screen (this is where the eyes naturally go first).
- The most important elements of your content should be emphasized with headlines, boldface type and or other visual cues.
- Make sure to use keywords that people might search for.
3. Keep it simple.
- Only include 1-2 ideas per short paragraph.
- Use simple language that is easy to scan opposed to more technical and sophisticated terms.
…And that’s just the start of the book! I can’t even wait to get into more!
Do you have any of your own personal guidelines for effective writing?
Share with us in the comments below!
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