Many of my clients are writing books at the same time they are working with me to clarify their brand and write their website copy (especially professional speakers and corporate consultants).

A couple of years ago, a client’s proofreader saw my website copy and, as a favor to the client, took his red pen to the copy, following the Chicago Manual of Style. Unfortunately, this didn’t do the client any favors. In editing the website copy, he essentially tried to pound a square peg into a round hole – it just didn’t fit.

Website writing is marketing writing

Editorially, some things are different for marketing copy (including website copy) than for books or white papers, where you must strictly follow the Chicago Manual of Style. Now when I give my clients website copy to review, I always preface the copy with my Website Editorial Styleguide.

Writing for websites is different than writing for other marketing pieces

Ironically, we strive for great website copy knowing that no one reads websites! In reality, people skim website content, then sink their teeth into the details once they are snagged by content that is interesting and pertinent to them.

This means the copy must be extremely easy to read. It must be “visual.” And it must be presented in a way that anyone, including skimmers, can grasp the key messages.

Follow this Website Editorial Styleguide if you’re writing your own website copy

• Write hardworking headlines with a benefit statement and, where possible, include SEO keywords
• Sprinkle in a lot of subheads, so skimmers can get the full story
• Keep paragraphs as short as possible, with as few as 2 to 3 sentences each
• Use bullets to present a list of brief, yet important, points
• Present all numbers as numerals (instead of spelling out): 5, 10, 126
• Show symbols where possible: 5%, $10
• Write sentence fragments, where it feels right
• Uppercase titles (such as Professional Speaker & Author) and other stuff that feels important (Strictly speaking, titles don’t “deserve” to be in uppercase except in very particular instances. For website copy, I like to uppercase titles so they stand out to the website visitor who is skimming, not reading. Plus, this does add import.)
• Avoid using italics (Small-point italics can be difficult to read on computer monitors and laptop screens. Also, italicized copy will convert to Roman style when the website developer pours the copy into the website program. This means they must chase down italicized copy and make the changes one by one.)
• Liberally use dashes in the copy, especially in headlines and subheads (Visually, this breaks a phrase or sentence into chunks, making the chunks easy to read at a glance.)
• Use the n-dash [–] instead of m-dash [—] (Website programs don’t recognize the m-dash and will replace a weird symbol in its place. The programs do, thankfully, automatically recognize and translate the n-dash.)