This entry was posted on Monday, February 25th, 2008 at 12:43 am and is filed under Writing for the Web. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
When writing web content, always put the most important information at the start.
This is exactly what journalists do. It’s called the inverted pyramid. You’re letting your readers decide if the page they’re on – or even the paragraph – is relevant to their needs or wants.
Suspense works wonderfully in fiction and some types on nonfiction. But on the Web, you should not delay conclusions or your main point.
If you do, your readers, should they decide to invest more time scanning your web content, will be thinking: where’s this going? What’s the point here? Those questions will dominate their minds, not allowing them to focus on the important points you need to deliver.
When it comes to web writing, give the conclusion first and follow it up with the evidence. You’ll save your visitors grief and help your business.

