Writing for the Web

Writing a web page that will keep a viewer interested can be a daunting task. A study by Harald Weinreich, Hartmut Obendorf, Eelco Herder, and Matthias Mayer entitled  "Not Quite the Average: An Empirical Study of Web Use," basically states that users read at most 28% of the text on a page, but probably closer to 20%.

 So what can we do to captivate users attention. The following are some things I found doing research on www.useit.com.

1. Most people scan web pages in an F pattern, so if you align your text, or at least the important parts in this manner you are more likely to get your message across.
2. The English you use can be very important. Make sure you are not crossing British English with American English.  Example: theater vs. theatre
3. Make sure the tagline for you page identifies uniquely with what you are doing. Especially if the site is for a company. You want your tagline by itself to identify you and not be to vague.
4. Use well known words to help bring your site closer to the top of search results. Try to avoid lingo that is maybe more personal or complex. Think of what the average person would write when doing a search.
5. And finally keep the amount of text you use to as little as possible to convey what you are trying to get across. Given the proclivity of people to scan over a page this is important if you do not want them to grow bored quickly.

I hope this helps, for more tips head over to http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/