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As well as writing for mobile apps, we’re getting requests for mobile website copywriting too. How is this any different to website copywriting? Well, when you’re scaling a site down to fit into the palm of a hand and be consumed on the hoof, your content needs to be as easy as pie to digest.
That means stripping out all the nice-to-haves, reducing the number of pages and condensing the essential information, giving users exactly what they need and nothing more. But, at the same time, you can’t forget about your other visitors, the search engines.
Every page, every link, every word has got to work damn hard. So, here are our top 10 tips to help whip your mobile site content into shape.
- Stop and think about what info your audience wants from your website when they’re on the move. If you have access to your website stats, take a look at the typical behaviour of mobile visitors (top search terms and pages) and use them as a guide to decide what to include on your mobile site.
- Walking to the car. Sitting on the bus. Waiting for a train. Grabbing a coffee. Whatever your mobile users are looking for, they want it fast, so give it to them. Cut to the chase with your home page. Keep it content free with a simple, logical navigation menu.
- Write page summaries to fit a 110-120 character limit – be ruthless with your editing, but make sure what you leave in can be understood in an instant.
- When users drill down for more detailed info, you still need to be mindful that they’re reading from a mobile screen. So for sub-pages, keep your character limit under 400 – delivering all the essential info on the subject selected without the need to send users back and forth to find out more.
- Don’t get clever with your headings and subheadings, be clear and informative. Make the characters count.
- Smartphone users keep search terms short and sweet, so you can do the same with your keywords – no need for complex longtail phrases here.
- Write an optimised page description, ideally around 150-160 characters (with spaces), just as you would for your main website.
- Add relevant links at the end of a paragraph or section, rather than cramming it in the middle of a bunch of text, making it hard to click on.
- Always give visitors the option to view your full site for more detailed info, by including a link on every page.
- Users skim content, so bolding the key points might prove useful.
You might also be interested in checking out our previous post – ‘11 copywriting tips for mobile apps in 125 characters or less’.
Jo Baker is the co-founder of Caboodle Copywriting, a team of freelance website copywriters in Australia.
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