Writing for the web: how to write pages people read

Writing for the web starts with an uncomfortable fact: most visitors do not read. In a classic Nielsen Norman Group study, 79% of test users always scanned any new page, and only 16% read word by word.¹ A later analysis estimated that on an average web page users have time to read at most 28% of the words, and 20% is more likely.²

The Australian Government Style Manual makes the same point in its plain language guidance: most users will scan content before they read it.³ Scanning is not laziness. People arrive with a question, often on a phone, and look for signs that the page will answer it. Your job is to make those signs easy to find.

Print documents often build up to a conclusion. Web pages should do the opposite. Nielsen Norman Group recommends the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion, and the Style Manual advises putting the most important thing first.¹³ Readers who want detail can keep going; readers in a hurry still get the point.

For a programme page, that means the first two sentences say what the programme does, for whom and where, and what has changed. Background, history and partner lists come later. For a news item, the first paragraph should answer what happened and why it matters. A reader who stops after one paragraph should still leave with the main point.

Headings are the map that scanners follow. The Style Manual advises headings that are clear and short, no more than 70 characters, with keywords in the first two or three words.³ Nielsen Norman Group found that people scanning lists often see only about the first two words of each item, so the opening words must signal what follows.⁴ Write "Apply for a grant" rather than "Information about our application process".

Accessibility standards point the same way. WCAG 2.2 requires that pages have titles describing their topic or purpose, that the purpose of each link can be understood from its text or immediate context, and, at Level AA, that headings and labels describe topic or purpose.⁵ Link text such as "click here" or "read more" fails readers who use screen readers and those who scan.

Plain language online is not dumbing down. It is writing for a specific reader. The Style Manual suggests asking who you are writing for, what they need to know and what they need to do.³ It recommends everyday words that most people understand, which also helps people with low literacy, people with disability and those reading in a second language.³ That matters in Rwanda and across East Africa, where many readers use English, French or Swahili alongside their first language.

Prefer active verbs. Active voice is more direct and often shorter than passive voice.³ Digital.gov warns that passive voice obscures who does what and calls it one of the biggest problems in government writing.⁶ "The ministry will publish the results in March" is clearer than "Results will be published".

Long sentences are hard on screens. The Style Manual suggests an average of 15 words per sentence and no sentence longer than 25 words.³ Digital.gov advises one idea in each sentence and cites guidance that paragraphs should be no more than 150 words, in three to eight sentences, and never longer than 250 words.⁷ On a phone, even 150 words looks dense, so we usually aim lower for web pages.

Structure helps as much as length. Nielsen Norman Group recommends highlighting keywords, using meaningful rather than clever subheadings, bulleted lists and one idea per paragraph.¹ The Style Manual adds that each paragraph should start with a topic sentence, and that bullet lists help users scan related information.³ Use lists for steps, requirements and options, not for every paragraph, and keep list items parallel in form.

The strongest evidence for editing comes from the same Nielsen Norman Group study. Compared with a promotional version of a page, a concise version scored 58% better on usability, a scannable layout 47% better and objective language 27% better; combining all three gave 124% better usability.¹ The study's advice was to use about half the word count of conventional writing and to avoid "marketese", the promotional language users distrust.¹

In practice, delete welcome paragraphs, mission statements repeated on every page and adjectives that make claims without evidence. Replace "a world-class, innovative programme" with what the programme does and what it achieved. Numbers, names and places persuade more than adjectives. When several people have edited a page, read it once more from the top and remove anything that repeats.

Read the page on a phone, because that is how many of your readers will see it. Check that the first paragraph answers the main question, that every heading makes sense on its own and that no link says only "here". Read difficult sentences aloud and shorten any you stumble over.

Then ask someone outside your team, ideally from the audience you are writing for, to find one piece of information on the page. Watch where they look and where they hesitate. A few minutes of this teaches more than any style guide, and it shows exactly which sentences still need work.

• Main point or answer in the first two sentences
• Page title that describes the topic
• Headings under 70 characters, keywords first
• Link text that makes sense on its own
• Everyday words and active verbs
• Sentences averaging around 15 words
• One idea per paragraph, with lists where they help
• Promotional language and repetition removed