Seven deadly sins of web writing…and my own efforts

I found this posted by a number of blogs today. And no wonder. Its a good refresher course on web writing. Wait, we never got the course to begin with.

Seven deadly sins of web writing by Gerry McGovern: sample: “Headings are the single most important piece of content you will write on the Web”

In the last few days I have been cleaning up ‘brochure talk’ on my website, mostly on less popular products that few people click on. But what a difference. What did I do?

Targeted contents with the primary benefits of the product to the user

Added a header that summarizes the benefits

Made a bullet list of benefits

Put certain key passages in bold text

Added an in-line link to additional content about one feature

I look at what I did and think that a visitor will feel compelled to learn more about this model. Even if I’m too much of a fan of my own writing, the old content certainly didn’t have any compelling message.