How to structure copy for the web: 6 copywriting tips

11 March 2024  |  Neil Hocking

Are you confident that your online articles, case studies and blog posts are attracting and inspiring readers? This article provides 6 tips for writing your content so that it makes both people and search engines happy.

Why is writing for the web different to other writing?

First, it is worth touching on why you need to write differently for the web than for, say, a magazine article.

It’s all to do with how search engines choose to rank and display content to their users. In the absence of an editor, search engines like Google use advanced (and secret) algorithms to decide which content best matches a user’s enquiry.

While the technology has come a long way since the early days of the web, search engines still rely on creators pointing out exactly what their content is about. This is largely done through the careful selection and placement of key words and phrases (collectively known as ‘keywords’ by search engine optimisation experts). See our companion article for a more in-depth overview of search engine optimisation

Fortunately, the tips to follow will make it easy for both search engines and humans to find and make sense of your content.

Tip 1: Keep your goals and audience in mind

This tip is fundamental to any persuasive writing, whether on the web or elsewhere. Always keep two things in mind: what is the goal of your piece of writing and who are you appealing to.

The first element will help keep your writing concise. If your goal is to inspire someone to donate money to a campaign, don’t wander off into a discussion about the benefits of volunteering.

The second element will help keep your writing relevant. Use language, examples and experiences that speak directly to your audience. For example, if you are addressing time-pressed parents, you could write something similar to: ‘I know you have little time, so I’ll get to the point. Taking one small action now could save a child’s life.’

After writing your first draft, go through each sentence and ask yourself two questions: Does this sentence help us to reach our goal? Does it speak to our audience?

You can even use visual prompts, such as cue cards, to keep you on track.

Tip 2: Craft a powerful headline

Your very first job when writing for any audience is to get them to read your piece in the first place.

The internet is a battleground for attention and we’ve probably all fallen for so-called ‘clickbait’ in our quest for information and entertainment. Annoying as this is, it does illustrate the benefit of adding a powerful hook to a headline.

BuzzFeed are renowned for their catchy headlines, so before writing your own, visit their website and scroll down to see which headlines make you want to click them. Work out why. Does the headline promise to reveal a secret? Does it tap into our natural curiosity about other humans? Does it make you feel worried about missing out? ‘How To’ articles, numbered ‘listicles’ and personality quizzes also entice people to click headings.

Once you’ve won that engagement, the next job is to keep your reader on the page. Success often comes down to how that page is structured.

Tip 3: Follow the inverted pyramid model

The inverted pyramid, borrowed from print journalism, is a time-honoured formula for structuring news items. It is designed to ‘front load’ a piece of writing with its most important information. This is both for for the benefit of readers and sub-editors who might need to shorten an article.

In brief, a piece of writing can be broken down into three parts: the lead, body and tail. You can draw three columns on a piece of paper or on an online document if it helps you to organise your content.

Into the lead you put a statement or question which relates to your headline and holds the attention of the reader. This could be a surprising fact, a warning or simply a confirmation. For a news or information piece, you also need to add in the classic ‘five W’s’ of journalism: who, what, where, why and when.

Now comes the tricky part: aim to keep the lead to fewer than 40 words. Here’s a fictional example: ‘Army veterans need your help! On 29th June, the rotary club will be holding a fundraising event at Hyde Park. All monies raised will go to supporting veterans across London.’

The body fleshes out the content in the lead and provides relevant supportive information. Here, you might want to include small case studies, definitions, quotations, interesting historical and social context and important links to additional content.

Any less relevant supportive information can go in the tail along with your summary, general links, references and any relevant contact information. In web writing, you will want to add your call-to-action (CTA) here although you can also place additional CTAs earlier in the piece.

Tip 4: Use headings, quotes and images to structure your writing

Structuring your online content is as much about visual appeal as readability. Your sentences could be concise and well-structured, but if they are presented as a solid block of text, readers are likely to be put off tackling it.

The solution is simple. Divide your content into headed topics, limit paragraphs to three or four sentences, and break up text-heavy passages with elements such as images, graphics, quotations (call-outs) and even empty space.

A note about copy length: It is more important that your copy is concise and well-structured than of a specific length. After all, you have to make sure that the reader has all the information they need, otherwise they may not react to your CTA. Copy under 300 words may also be regarded as thin content by Google, harming your search engine rankings.

Tip 5: Link to other pages on your website

An internal link is where you click some text (or another element) on one webpage to visit another webpage on that site.

For example, you might link an online article summarising your latest campaign activity to several specific case studies, so readers can visit those pages for more context. This keeps your webpages concise while helping them to rank on Google.

This article goes into more detail about using internal links to improve your visibility.

Tip 6: Take the time to create a meta title and description

The admin dashboard of your website platform should allow you to customise the heading and meta description for each of your pages, and you should definitely take advantage of this.

After all, you’ve put in so much effort to ensure your webpage ranks well on Google, it makes sense to fine-tune exactly how your entry appears to readers.

Your title and meta description have two jobs to do. First, they must contain the keywords you want that page to rank for.

Second, they function as a tool to persuade scrollers to visit your page. Think of the title as a headline and your meta description as an advert with a clear call-to-action.

If you don’t enter your own title and meta description, the search engines will generate one for you based on their algorithms, but these are rarely as effective as human-generated versions.

Bonus tip: Get some help from AI

There are many reasons why using artificial intelligence (AI) like ChatGPT or Gemini to write your articles is unwise (e.g., inaccuracies, unnatural tone, plagiarism, etc.)

However, it makes sense to draw on these tools to help streamline and improve your own writing. From suggesting headlines, writing meta descriptions and carrying out grammar and spelling checks, AI can play a supporting role in reaching your goals.

Do you have any web writing tips that you find useful? Are there tech tools that you would recommend? Please share your experiences.