Writing well for web
How to write well for your audience.
On this page
Writing well for the web
Writing for the web is different to writing for print.
Our guidance on writing for nottinghamshire.gov.uk is based on research by GOV.UK into how people read online and use government websites. It explains what each rule is based on.
When you write for nottinghamshire.gov.uk you should:
- use writing for the web best practice
- follow our style guide and writing guidance
Meet the user need
Do not publish everything you can online. Publish only what someone needs to know so they can complete their task. Nothing more.
People do not usually read text unless they want information. When you write for the web, start with the same question every time: 'What does the user want to know?'
Meeting that need means being:
- specific
- informative
- clear and to the point
Finding information on the web
An individual’s process of finding and absorbing information on the web should follow these steps:
- I have a question
- I can find the page with the answer easily – I can see it’s the right page from the search results listing
- I have understood the information
- I have my answer
- I trust the information
- I know what to do next, my fears are allayed or I do not need anything else
A website only works if people can find what they need quickly, complete their task and leave without having to think about it too much.
Good content is easy to read
Good online content is easy to read and understand.
It uses:
- short sentences
- sub-headed sections
- simple vocabulary
This helps people find what they need quickly and absorb it effortlessly.
The main purpose of nottinghamshire.gov.uk is to provide information - there's no excuse for putting unnecessarily complicated writing in the way of people’s understanding.
Writing well for specialist audience
Colleagues often say that because they’re writing technical or complex content for a specialist audience, they do not need to use plain English. This is wrong.
Research shows that higher literacy people prefer plain English (GOV.UK) because it allows them to understand the information as quickly as possible.
For example, research into use of specialist legal language (SSRN) in legal documents found:
- 80% of people preferred sentences written in clear English - and the more complex the issue, the greater that preference (for example, 97% preferred ‘among other things’ over the Latin ‘inter alia’)
- the more educated the person and the more specialist their knowledge, the greater their preference for plain English
People understand complex specialist language, but do not want to read it if there’s an alternative. This is because people with the highest literacy levels and the greatest expertise tend to have the most to read.
Technical terms
Where you need to use technical terms, you can. They’re not jargon. You just need to explain what they mean the first time you use them.
Legal content
Legal content can still be written in plain English. It’s important that users understand content and that we present complicated information simply.
If you have to publish legal jargon, it will be a publication so you’ll be writing a plain English summary.
Where evidence shows there’s a clear user need for including a legal term, for example ‘bona vacantia’, always explain it in plain English.
If you’re talking about a legal requirement, use ‘must’. For example, ‘your employer must pay you the National Minimum Wage (NMW)’.
If you feel that ‘must’ does not have enough emphasis, then use ‘legal requirement’, ‘legally entitled’ and so on. For example: ‘Once your child is registered at school, you’re legally responsible for making sure they attend regularly’.
When deciding whether to use ‘must’ or ‘legally entitled’, consider how important it is for us to talk about the legal aspect, as well as the overall tone of voice.
If a requirement is legal, but administrative, or part of a process that will not have criminal repercussions, then use: ‘need to’. For example: ‘You will need to provide copies of your marriage certificate’.
This may be a legal requirement, but not completing it would just stop the person from moving on to the next stage of a process, rather than committing a more serious offence.
Footnotes and legal language
Do not use footnotes on documents. They’re designed for reference in print, not web pages. Always consider the user need first. If the information in the footnotes is important, include it in the body text. If it’s not, leave it out.
Know your audience
Your writing will be most effective if you understand who you’re writing for.
To understand your audience you should know:
- how they behave, what they’re interested in or worried about - so your writing will catch their attention and answer their questions
- their vocabulary - so that you can use the same terms and phrases they’ll use to search for content
When you have more than one audience, make your writing as easy to read as possible so it’s accessible to everyone.
Our audience
Our audience is potentially anyone living in the Nottinghamshire, UK, British citizens living abroad or people abroad who want to do business in or travel Nottinghamshire. This means we must communicate in a way that most people understand.
The best way to do this is by using common words and working with natural reading behaviour.
If you’re writing for a specialist audience, you still need to make sure everyone can understand what the content is about.
How people read
Knowing how people read means you’ll write in a way they can understand easily and quickly - so you do not waste their time.
All of this guidance is based on the learning skills of an average person in the UK, who speaks English as their first language. This guidance also applies when you’re writing for specialists.
Common words
By the time a child is 5 or 6 years old, they’ll use 2,500 to 5,000 common words. Adults still find these words easier to recognise and understand than words they’ve learned since.
By age 9, you’re building up your ‘common words’ vocabulary. Your primary set is around 5,000 words; your secondary set is around 10,000 words. You use these words every day.
Use short words instead of long words
When you use a longer word (8 or 9 letters), users are more likely to skip shorter words (3, 4 or 5 letters) that follow it. So if you use longer, more complicated words, readers will skip more. Keep it simple.
For example:
“The recently implemented categorical standardisation procedure on waste oil should not be applied before 1 January 2015.”
The ‘not’ is far more obvious in this:
“Do not use the new waste oil standards before 1 January 2015.”
Reading skills
Children quickly learn to read common words (the 5,000 words they use most). They then stop reading these words and start recognising their shape. This allows people to read much faster. Children already read like this by the time they’re 9 years old.
People also do not read one word at a time. They bounce around - especially online. They anticipate words and fill them in.
Your brain can drop up to 30% of the text and still understand. Your vocabulary will grow but this reading skill stays with you as an adult. You do not need to read every word to understand what is written.
This is why we tell people to write for a 9 year old reading age.
Explaining the unusual
We explain all unusual terms on our website. This is because you can understand 6-letter words as easily as 2-letter words – if they’re in context. If the context is right, you can read a short word faster than a single letter.
By giving full information and using common words, we’re helping people speed up their reading and understand information in the fastest possible way.
Short sentences
People with some learning disabilities read letter for letter - they do not bounce around like other users. They also cannot fully understand a sentence if it’s too long.
People with moderate learning disabilities can understand sentences of 5 to 8 words without difficulty. By using common words we can help all users understand sentences of around 25 words.
Capital letters are harder to read
When you learn to read, you start with a mix of upper and lower case but you do not start understanding uppercase until you’re around 6 years old.
At first, you may sound out letters, merge sounds, merge letters and so learn the word.
Then you stop reading it.
At that point, you recognise the shape of the word. This speeds up comprehension and speed of reading.
As writers, we do not want people to read. We want people to recognise the ‘shape’ of the word and understand. It’s a lot faster.
Capital letters are reputed to be 13 to 18% harder for users to read. So we try to avoid them.
Block capitals indicate shouting in common online usage. We are Local Government. We should not be shouting.
Ampersands can be hard to understand
Ampersands are allowed in logos – the pictorial logo at the top of an organisation page – but not in body copy.
The reason is that ‘and’ is easier to read and easier to skim. Some people with lower literacy levels also find ampersands harder to understand. We cannot exclude users in any way.
How users read web pages
Users read very differently online than on paper. They do not necessarily read top to bottom or even from word to word.
Where users just want to complete their task as quickly as possible, they skim even more out of impatience.
Web-user eye-tracking studies show that people tend to ‘read’ a webpage in an ‘F’ shape pattern (NN/G). They look across the top, then down the side, reading further across when they find what they need.
What this means is: put the most important information first. So we talk a lot about ‘front-loading’ subheadings, titles and bullet points.
For example, say ‘Canteen menu’, not ‘What’s on the menu at the canteen today?’
Good example
At the activity centre you can:
- swim
- play
- run
Bad example
At the activity centre:
- you can swim
- you can play
- you can run
Titles
Most people who use our website start with a search engine. Use the same vocabulary as your audience so they can find your content. This begins with your page title and summary.
If people cannot find your page or understand the content, they will not be able to act on it or know it’s for them.
Make your title unique
Titles must be unique and informative so that users know which page they are on.
Duplicate titles can confuse users - for example if they have more than one page open. This is particularly true for those with visual, cognitive or mobility impairments.
In our CMS, you should check whether the title is already in use before you publish your content for the first time. You can tell if this is the case by checking if the url it creates has a number at the end (for example ‘/news-story-1’).
In our CMS, you will not get a warning that the title is already being used. You’ll need to search for the title you want to use to check it’s not already in use.
Check your title makes sense
Your title should make sense:
- by itself – for example ‘Regulations’ does not say much, but ‘Regulations for environmental waste’ does
- in search results
Titles do not have to reflect the official publication title. Make them user focused, clear and descriptive so that users can distinguish if it’s the right content for them.
Find out what the public calls your content. Your scheme, organisation or process’s official or internal name may not be what the public calls it. Once you know the most popular keywords you can prioritise them in the title, summary, introduction and subheadings
Example
Good title example: Bereavement Allowance (previously widow’s pension)
Good summary example: Bereavement Allowance (previously widow’s pension) is a weekly benefit for widows, widowers or surviving civil partners - rates, eligibility, claim form.
Keep your title short, where possible
Your title should be 65 characters or less (including spaces).
You can use more than 65 characters if it’s essential for making the title clear or unique, but do not do this routinely because:
- Google cuts off the rest of the title at around 65 characters
- longer titles are harder to understand
Make your titles clear and descriptive
The title should provide full context so that users can easily see if they’ve found what they’re looking for.
By being general about a topic, you leave the user asking ‘what is this in relation to?’
Example
Give the user context around the topic and what this content will tell them:
Bad title example: Hazardous waste - new process
Good title example: How to dispose of hazardous waste in your area
Avoid saying the same thing twice (tautologies)
Repeating yourself in the title uses up valuable characters that could be used to give more information.
Example
Bad title example: Using and submitting your business expenses
Good title example: Submitting your business expenses
Using ‘ing’ in titles
Use the active verb (‘Submit’) if you use the page to do the thing.
Good form title example: Submit your business expenses
Use the present participle (‘Submitting’) if the page is about doing the thing, but you do it elsewhere.
Good guidance title example: Submitting your business expenses
Summary
Along with the title, the summary is usually what users see in search results so it should give them a clear indication of what the content is about. Make sure people can see quickly whether the page will have the information they need.
Keep all summaries to 160 characters (including spaces) as Google usually only shows the first 160 characters in search results. If your summary is longer, make sure you cover the main point of the page in the first 160 characters.
Summaries should end with a full stop. It can help people who use assistive technology like screen readers.
Use plain English to avoid confusion
Use plain English to make the purpose of the content clearer, and write like you’re talking to your user one-on-one.
Bad summary example: Implementing the government’s strengthened approach to budget support: technical note
Good summary example: How the government is making budget support more effective in countries supported by the UK
For more examples of words not to use in summaries, read the words to avoid list.
Avoid redundant introductory words
Do not repeat the content type in the summary - for example, do not say “this consultation is about…” or “a form to…”.
Use as few words from the title as possible, and include keywords that you’ve not used in the title.
Use active language
Keep summaries active and include a verb. You can use words like ‘How…’, ‘What…’ and ‘When…’ to introduce active words, for example ‘When applying for a…’.
