The art of writing effectively for the web

Would you like to make your website more visible on search engines such as Bing, Google and DuckDuckGo to increase traffic? Then search engine optimization^{footnote 1} (SEO) is what you need! It’s not enough to design an SEO strategy that targets specific search queries; a website ranks high on a list of search results only when its web pages have been optimized to meet the range of criteria used by search engines.

Writing for the web isn’t easy! No matter what your business is, if you want to establish your online presence, opt for concise, accessible,^{footnote 2} clear, well-structured writing. In doing so, you’ll preserve your corporate identity and your online reputation.^{footnote 3}

The Digital Transformation Office, which is responsible for the framework for structuring Government of Canada websites, understands the importance of writing effectively for the web and has created strict digital communications standards to enable communications teams to improve their skills and processes in the digital environment.

To learn more about the writing principles and techniques that will help you provide clear, adapted web content, check out the Canada.ca Content Style Guide, created by the Treasury Board of Canada Secretariat.

Here are a few helpful tips:

• Become an expert on your topic
• Create content that is easy to read, and structure your site in a way that allows users to easily find the information they need (here’s a guide on how to structure your content for Google)
• Don’t copy/paste existing content (read what Google has to say about duplicate content)
• Proofread your content to ensure that it’s free of grammatical errors and spelling mistakes
• Don’t include irrelevant keywords that won’t be useful to search engines (try different keyword variants to get an idea of how widely these words are used)
• Let your users see the content that is accessible to search engines (Google explains why on its Hidden text and links page)
• Make sure that your content meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines 2.0

Here are some useful links to help you with your writing:

• Writing Tips
• Mobile User Experience: Limitations and Strengths
• Resources of the Language Portal of Canada
• 7 Tips for Presenting Bulleted Lists in Digital Content
• TERMIUM Plus^®
• Watch Your Punctuation Online

Adapted by Natalie Ballard, Language Portal of Canada