Our friend and thought leader in church communication, Tony Morgan, recently wrote a post that gave a few pointers on how to write better content for your website/blog.  A blog for your church or non-profit can be important for a variety of reasons, including search engine optimization and as a principle avenue for communication.  Writing anything for the web can be a laborious and time consuming task, but if done well it can make a significant difference in how well you communicate on the web. In this post I wanted to pull from, and expound on a few of Tony's insightful ideas.

1.  Tell stories.  

The stories about YOU are the best.

Making a habit of telling stories is vital to a great website or blog, this is especially true if you are a ministry.  A story of restoration or healing, a narrative of grace and forgiveness, or an account of someone's life change is often more important and persuasive than any other content on your website.  Your church blog is a perfect place to post stories.  A compelling story will speak volumes about who you are and what you are trying to accomplish.

2.  Make it scannable.  

Think bullets, lists, bold type, subheadings, pull quotes, etc.

This truth cannot be overstated.  A majority of all the content on the web is skimmed, not read.  According to Jakob Nielsen, users have time to read, at most, 28% of your content on an average visit. You must adjust your web writing accordingly.  Here's a great list of web writing best practices. 

3.  Use pictures and video.  

Keep videos under 4 minutes whenever possible.

The web is a visual medium, and while descriptive text content can rarely be replaced with only photos and video, you should judiciously use photos and video to enhance your blog content.  Also, I agree with Tony, keep your videos under 4 minutes.

4.  Keep it brief.  

I don’t read long articles on the web no matter who writes them.

Writing for the web takes a lot of time and discipline, and writing succinctly is one of the more difficult disciplines to conquer.  A good piece of advice is to write 50% less copy for the web than you would a hard copy.  Keep it pithy.

If you run a blog or website, do you have any other advice that you could offer?