You will be creating a website that has 5 pages – a home page (a.k.a. index.html) and 4 pages of content. Researching, writing, and editing the content for your site is a separate process from building the actual site. Webdevelopers spend a fair amount of time making sure the content they put on their pages is clear, well written, fact checked and referenced.
Create a Google doc and title it “Writing for a Website”. You will use this to collect information and images that you will later transfer to your website.
Before You Begin
Before you begin creating written and visual content for a website, ask yourself these questions:
- Who is your audience?
- What are the 4 topics you will put on your 4 pages? Will they be related or completely different?
- How will you use the home page (index.html) to introduce your content?
Topics
Your first job is to decide on 4 topics to to put on 4 different pages. Topics are your choice. They can be related or not, and can range from “Minecraft Tips & Tricks” and “The Saddest Video Game Deaths Ever”, to “All about Beagles”, or “My Favorite Things”.
Clarity
Be sure the topic of the page is obvious. Use a page title and heading tags to highlight the topic of the page. It’s a good idea to have some links related to your content on the sidebar or within the text of your content. Outside links help Google know how to categorize and index your website.
Keep it Simple
Your writing should be simple and straight forward.
- Write in a 7th grade voice. Your website should sound like it was written from a 7th graders point of view
- Write at least 200 words per topic. Word Count is under the “Tools” menu in Google Docs
- Do not use texting lingo (i.e. ur for you are)
- Use paragraphs to separate main points on a page
- Keep sentences short and to the point. Control for run-on sentences
- Use correct grammar, punctuation and spell check
- Capitalize the beginning word of sentences and all proper nouns
- Do not copy and paste from other sources unless you are using a definition or essential information from another source. Most, if not all of the writing on your site should be your own.
- Keep your content simple and straightforward
- Use terms your visitor will understand
