Writing online content -- what's that?

Writing online content or web content. What does it entail? What is the scope of the work, in practice? This new professional field means different things to different people.

To some, writing online content essentially means online journalism. It means contributing articles to ezines and journals on the Web. Speaking broadly, this type of content writer needs to understand how to format text for the screen, how to use a style that is accessible to a wide audience, and how to send graphics in an acceptable form. But free lance journalists may not need to understand even the most basic HTML, let alone microcontent. They just send off the article and images, and the publisher does the rest. Everybody's happy, no problem.

You'll find another large group of online content writers working on government, corporate and small business sites. Whether full time employees or on contract, they are part of a team.

Writing corporate content
In practice, corporate web writing work varies enormously. Sometimes it is essentially online journalism. In other situations, a writer requires sophisticated technical skills that overlap with web design and marketing.

Web wordsmiths who really know their stuff are a natural choice for writing microcontent that would otherwise slip between the cracks. For example, most web sites lack meta keyword or description tags, and if they have any alt-text it is a terrible mess. (As a reformed alt-text philistine, I know whereof I speak.)

These important tasks need to be identified in somebody's job description, contract, terms of reference or brief. They require both verbal skills and a certain level of technical understanding. Either the web technician must have a sensitivity to words (and such paragons do exist), or the wordsmith must learn the nuts and bolts of online publishing.

Whenever you offer or accept a contract for online content writing, be clear about the details. Every web content writing job is different. But with trust, skilled writers can provide valuable support for their marketing, business systems and IT colleagues on the corporate web team.

Routine writing tasks include the following:

research, write and edit web and intranet content from scratch
write web content based on material supplied by client or employer
edit print documents for publication online
edit web pages for on-screen readability
write material for ezines
proofread final draft of web pages.

Every content writer should be competent in these tasks:

write titles
write content for meta keyword and description tags.

In certain situations the writer is expected to:

write HTML
write XML.

Content writers with specialist skills can perform these jobs:

write alt-text for images
write longdesc for images, frames and iframes tags
write content of noframes tags.
train other staff writers.

The astute employer will include a content writer in the following team jobs:

test and edit forms for usability
evaluate web sites for strategy, readability, legibility, findability, usability, interactivity and credibility.

This powerful procedure involves both designer and writer:

optimize web pages for search engines.

From the above list, you can see the advantages of either being or employing a specialist writer for online work. Expanding skills and keeping up with new developments can open up an exciting new range of work. It's a challenge, but one that brings professional rewards.

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