I’ve been doing a lot of web copy editing for clients lately. As part of my copy editing services, if the client has a Content Management System I generally also make the updates to the website once they’ve been approved.
Every time I add copy to a website, I take time to format it and make the layout look as good as possible.
Because it’s not just the words that impact how many people read your copy and how much of it they read; it’s also the look and style of the copy.
For example if the words are all the same size and colour, and if they are all scrunched up together, your web visitors aren’t going to be too inspired to keep reading, no matter how great your content is.
This is the copy from my home page, badly aligned and without the formatting:
How far did you get before you stopped reading? I can’t blame you if you didn’t even start!
Although I never question the fact that you need to provide quality words on your web pages, to make the most of your efforts, they should also be nicely designed words.
I’m fortunate to have some great web designers working on my current projects who take care to make sure the copy that’s added to the website looks as fabulous as the overall design.
Here are some copy related things that should be included as part of your web design:
Text Styles
-
Heading 1
-
Heading 2
-
Heading 3
-
Heading 4
-
Heading 5
- Paragraph
Dot points
- Dot Point 1
- Dot Point 2
- Dot Point 3
Quotation boxes
Link Text that links to other pages of your website and also to other websites
These different styles of text can all have different font sizes, colours and level of boldness.
Obviously you don’t want to go too far in the other direction by having too much colour and variation. This can be distracting and makes your copy harder, rather than easier, to read.
Take a fresh look at your website.
Do the text styles, sizes and colours add value to your web copy and make it look fabulous?
Or do they bring down the fabulous design of your website header and the rest of your website, much like an ugly dress totally detracts from a fabulous hat?
Until next time
Melinda
P.S. Thanks to Melbourne’s Spring Racing Carnival for inspiring this article. I’m looking forward to seeing hats galore out and about in the city over the next week or so. And I’m hoping that they will be fabulous hats. Fabulous hats that aren’t bought down by ugly dresses… or shocker Barry Crocker fake tan!
