Writing Best Practices

Editorial Guidelines

Campus communicators should use these best practices as a guide along with RIT’s Editorial Guidelines when creating copy for RIT.

Make Copy Scanable

You may spend hours carefully crafting your content, but the sad truth is that most readers spend just 15 seconds of their time reading webpages, brochures, fliers, ads, and other marketing materials.. Web and mobile users in particular don’t always read words from left to right, but rather they scan the page looking for phrases or keywords that capture their attention.

This is why it’s vital to make your writing scannable:

• Use bullets and short, concise phasing to get your points across.
• For instructions, use key language like “Step 1, Step 2, etc.” that make it easy for a reader to follow steps
• On webpages use link to other sources (if applicable). In most instances, a short phrase will do. But sometimes readers want more or we want to direct them to specific content. Give it to them by linking to a full source (webpage, a news article, a program page, etc.)
• Strategically use headlines and subheads to break content into easily digestible chunks.

Write with the End in Mind

Before you begin crafting content, determine the goal of your web page/website. Do you want your visitors to do something, such as apply for admission? Do you want them to seek more information? Be clear about how you are using your site so you can craft an appropriate content strategy.

These guidelines are based on industry benchmarks to help you write compelling content that visitors will actually read, and ultimately take the action you want them to take during the precious moments they spend on your site. Using best practices for writing for the web will result in:

• Lower bounce rate (the percentage of instances that people immediately leave your page after arriving there)
• Higher click-through-rate
• Increased authority/credibility
• Longer dwell time
• Better readability

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the practice of increasing the quantity and quality of traffic to your website through organic search engine results.

SEO is nuanced and strategic. And, perhaps more importantly, always changing. RIT’s Division of Marketing and Communications works with an SEO platform called BrightEdge. This tool provides valuable data on keywords, search volume, and opportunities to improve SEO performance on webpages. The Division of Marketing and Communications has a skilled team of writers who, along with the departments of Marketing Intelligence and Web Services, work together to execute an SEO strategy across RIT’s web presence. We welcome collaboration and the opportunity to work with you to reach your SEO goals.

Titles should match the page content, and should be neither too narrow nor too broad.

• Avoid acronyms in title pages – no one outside of RIT understands our abbreviations, so let’s leave them out
• Titles should be short.
• Never use periods or exclamation points.
• Do not use “a”, “an”, or “the” as the first word (e.g., Economy of the Second Empire, not The Economy of the Second Empire), unless by convention it is an inseparable part of a name (e.g., The Hague).

Don’t make generalizations without providing context or factual information to support your claims.

The best way to attack web writing is to offer bites, snacks, and meals (in that order).

Bite

Powerful headlines that draw attention.

New RoboBee Flies, Dives, and Swims

Snack

Concise summary of your content in one to two sentences.

Hybrid robot could perform search and rescue missions, research studies, environmental monitoring

Meal

The full content of your message presented in a scan-friendly manner (or linked to, depending on your website design).

Full content RoboBee news story.

Website Scan-Friendly Text

Reading and scanning behaviors are different online. Research strongly illustrates that people scan web pages and phone screens. They rarely read content word for word.

• Highlight keywords (But be careful not to overdo it—overemphasizing dilutes the impact of your message.)
• Use meaningful subheadings (not clever ones). They act as the informal outline of the page.
• Said another way, topload important information. Start with the content most important to your audience, then provide additional details.
• Cut the word count in half whenever possible.

• Focus on one idea per paragraph. Readers will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph.
• Use the inverted pyramid style of writing. Tell the reader the conclusion, results, or outcomes first, followed by the most important supporting information, and ending with the background.
• Use bullet points for optimal readability.

• Hyperlinks should explicitly describe what users can expect to find when they click on the link. Use the name of the website the link goes to.
• Short, concise link titles are best. Links should not exceed 60 characters.
• Do not use URLs as link text.
• Avoid using click here. Visually impaired visitors often use auditory browsers, which will read the text aloud rather than display it visually so the link should be meaningful when read out of context.
• Links to PDFs should use the title of the PDF as the hyperlink.