Writing for the web differs from writing on paper in one fundamental respect: most people do not read the text continuously but scan it with their eyes, looking for whether it contains what they need. Good text is shaped accordingly, the main information comes right at the start, not at the end after a long introduction, paragraphs are short, subheadings name the content of the section that follows, and important figures are highlighted or set out in a list. It helps to use the customer's language instead of internal terminology and to replace general statements with specific data, a deadline, a price, a quantity, an example. Corporate texts are most often spoiled by what every reviewer added to them: cautious wording that says nothing, and sentences that a competitor could equally well have written. Cutting the text in half generally increases its effectiveness.
See also: Filler content, Microcopy, Typography and readability.
