Writing for the web 101: Creating great content – the fundamental techniques.

Why do you need this course?

Too many websites still display a basic lack of skills when it comes to writing web content. Jakob Nielsen's 2005 survey of top 10 web design mistakes lists content that's not written for the web as mistake number 4. Here's what people are doing wrong:

• Their content is too hard to understand
• They hide the most important information
• They don't focus on what their readers care about
• They ignore what search engines are looking for

What we'll cover

• Why content is so critical
• Why people don't read online
• The 5 Golden Rules of writing for the web
• What to do about PDFs
• The key elements of structuring a page
• Simple and effective techniques to make content stand out
• What language and writing style is appropriate for your website
• The essentials of how to write a good link
• Why every page should have a call-to-action
• The simple secrets of writing content that gets found on search engines

What you'll get out of it?

After attending this course, you will be able to:

• Distinguish between poor, average, and exceptional content on the web
• Identify the steps you should go through to create good content
• Transform bad content into good content
• Structure a web page to promote scan-ability
• Write links that improve your site
• Create content that's Google-friendly
• Develop a writing style that works for your site

When you go back to your desk at work, you'll find that you've become a critic yourself -- savouring web content that's done well, and easily spotting those sites that clearly haven't grasped the reality that content is still king, so you'd better do it right. Most importantly, you'll be confident of what you need to do to make your content sing.