As a web editor, you play a key role in providing your audiences with a quality experience and ensuring your web content is:

  • targeted
  • useful
  • accessible
  • effective.

While web content can seem easy to create and publish, it is often challenging to develop user-focused content that achieve your website’s goals.

In the book The Elements of Content Strategy, content strategist Erin Kissane highlights that good web content is:

  • useful
  • user-centred
  • clear
  • consistent
  • concise
  • supported.

Keep these tips in mind when planning, writing and publishing your web content.

Understand your audience

When writing content, it is important to know your audience.

Ask yourself:

  • who is your audience? (e.g. prospective international, domestic or postgraduate students or current students)
  • what does your audience want to know? (e.g. event details, campus information, scholarship opportunities etc).

Research your content and keywords

Creating content isn’t just about putting words onto a web page. Research plays an important role in creating meaningful content.

  • Plan and research your page content thoroughly.
  • Research the best keywords for your topic. This can help boost your website’s search rankings. 
  • Create your content with a measurable goal (e.g. enquiry form submissions, PDF downloads).

Write with web best practice in mind

To help make your content align with web best practice, you should:

  • ensure your content meets organisational goals and writing for web guidelines
  • tailor your content to your audience
  • ensure your message is clear and specific
  • make sure your content has a clear purpose
  • only include one key message per paragraph
  • use the inverted pyramid method – put the most important message first.

Plan for accessibility

Great content is accessible content. Accessibility means creating web content or online experiences that do not exclude anyone because of their ability, situation or circumstance. Accessible content provides a better user experience and ensures all users can consume your content.

  • Ensure your content is easy to navigate and comprehend.
  • Provide text alternatives to audio and visual elements.
  • Write meaningful and descriptive link text
  • Structure your content with headings
  • Write a short text alternative (alt-text) for images

Check out our web accessibility guidelines for more information.

Include a call to action

Ensure each page includes a call to action. A call to action or ‘CTA’ provides your reader with some form of actionable task and usually appears as a button or link within text to ensure the audience can continue their journey.

Examples of CTAs include:

  • Register now
  • Enquire about our services
  • Contact us

Review and check your content

Not everyone’s first attempt at content is perfect. Here are some tools to help with your content creation:

  • Hemingway editor. A browser-based editing tool that helps improve your writing and view your content’s readability score (goal: Grade 8 and below).
  • Microsoft Word. Use the tools to check your spelling, grammar and check reading levels
  • Use the web content review checklist to ensure your content offers a good experience for all web users and meets La Trobe’s expected quality standards and guidelines.

Have questions about your web editing?

Remember, we’re always here to help! To reach out, please: