5. Writing for the web
Reading styles differ between printed and online content.
Online articles are often browsed and skim-read - you won’t hold an online reader’s attention with a large block of text.
Writing for the web therefore needs to be different to writing for print.
While all the information in this guide applies equally to website content as it does to print, your web content should additionally follow these rules for both internal and external online content.
Headings and sub- headings
Use regularly to break up long sections of text
Hyperlinks
Don’t use ‘click here’ but rather describe what it is the reader will be viewing, eg ‘To prepare for the cold snap, view our Getting Ready For Winter guide’. This makes your content more searchable. Hyperlinks are underlined and in a different colour.
Italics
Don’t use. Italics can be difficult to read online
Lists
Use a bullet-pointed list rather than a long paragraph to present a number of items For people with a visual impairment using a screen reader, we should help them understand an image on the screen even if they can't see it. They are also helpful if the image fails to load
Picture descriptions
Provide a short description of the image, which includes any wording pictured, for example:
Colleague chatting to a resident in front of a banner which reads ‘Providing homes where people love living in later life’
Website addresses
When writing on web pages what are clearly hyperlinks, you should drop the www. prefix. For example, anchor.org.uk
Anchor Language and Style Guide v20 300724
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