Let’s get right to the point: yes, there is a difference between texts intended for print and texts that appear on the Internet. The core is the same: readable copy that informs customers, prospects, stakeholders, employees or journalists about your message. And yet offline and online copywriting are two different subjects.
To achieve a smooth, readable text, you need to take several aspects into account: what is the purpose of the text: what do you want to tell? Who are you going to write for and what are their interests? And what style and tone of voice do you want to use to captivate your audience? In that list belongs another question: where will your text appear? After all, an article intended for print is not something you just quickly put on the Internet.
Indispensable elements in a magazine, book or newspaper article are intertitles or indentations. A continuous text of a full page long, will be read from beginning to end by few – no matter how well it is written.
Online readers are even more critical: They often only see the beginning of the text, because they have to scroll to read the whole thing. So it’s important to trigger your online reader from the beginning and adapt the length of your text and sentences to the carrier.
What’s the point of publishing a gem of a text that no one will read on the Web? With online copywriting, it’s best to always keep two target groups in mind: the readers and the search engines. Because it is the latter target group that ensures that your online text is found.
Online texts have the great advantage that you can add relevant keywords and synonyms to end up higher in the list of search results. This is known as SEO copywriting. And there is an art to not letting your text suffer from this necessity!
You may still be wondering: can’t we just publish that original text online? Yes, we can. But that won’t have the desired effect, and then you won’t take advantage of all the benefits of the online platform. In an annual report, if you want to refer to a piece of text on another page, you refer to the correct page number. Online, it’s so much easier: use (hyper)links. Moreover, you can also add additional information, such as a video or a podcast with more interpretation or the surfers who prefer to watch or listen rather than read.
Everyone has spotted a spelling error, because to err is human. A harmless spelling mistake or a gross dt error, in print there is nothing to do but learn to live with it. Or there is information that changes and therefore becomes obsolete. If it’s black and white on paper, it can’t be changed! Online, an article stays alive (if you can edit it yourself, of course).
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