Research shows that the average reader only reads between 20% and 28% of the text on a web page. It is important to get the point of your content across as concisely as possible.
We have templates for you to use to create article types and bulletins. These will help you to follow the set structure for each release type.
The most important information in your content must be at the start – this is called frontloading.
We use the inverted pyramid to achieve this, placing information in order of importance on the page. This is the best practice style when writing your content.
The main information of the content – who, why, what, where, when and how – appears in the first paragraphs so that most users will see it.
The inverted pyramid structure is:
Use the active voice – this is when the subject of the sentence is doing something, rather than having something done to them. Use plain English when writing. For example:
“The statistics were scrutinised by the experts”
Should be rewritten as:
“The experts studied the statistics.”
Using “studied” instead of “scrutinised” is plain English and accessible. Having the “expert” doing the action as the subject of the sentence makes it active and easier to understand.
As with the overall structure, each paragraph and sentence should be frontloaded with the most important information at the start.
When writing your content, your paragraphs should:
Individual sentences should be no longer than 25 words. If they are any longer, they may need to be divided into two.
A sentence should not start with a figure. If it does, the sentence should be restructured. For example:
“47% of people in the population of the UK are left-handed.”
Should be rewritten as:
“Left-handed people make up 47% of the UK population.”
We are constantly improving based on research and best practice. Any significant changes to our guidance are available on the Updates page.
Next section: How we read online