Provide clear content signposts

A news website must be rich in calls-to-action designed to guide the target audience deeper into the site and ensure they return time and time again.

It's about creating a compelling content offering, a crisp writing style, clear signposts to the best content and plenty of must-click links.

A few simple tricks can make a massive difference to audience retention and dwell, and all are to do with presentation.

And don't forget to offer plenty of opportunities to enable your audience to help with distribution and reach.

Please add your own tips in the comment box below - all welcome

30 tips for online news presentation

1: Action

Create compelling calls-to-action. Create signposts that stimulate a conversation. If the topic is about alcohol consumption a call-to-action must-click headline might be 'are you drinking too much?'

2: Clarity

Tell people why they should watch video; don't just put a link on the page.

3: Distribution

Enable the audience to help with distribution - tweet about all your good stuff and add a 'tweet this' link to encourage re-tweeting.

4: Social

Include the most popular social networking tags so the audience can save the item to their favourite social networking site.

5: Tempting

Drive people deeper into the site with must-click compelling text that tells them why it's important they invest their valuable time clicking through to another page on your site.

6: Relevance

Explain the relevance of related content, don't just point to it. Invite the audience to let you know what they have found to be related on your site (user-generated internal linking).

7: Return ticket

Give users a compelling reason to return. Does your site interest you? Does it make you feel like settling down and clicking on the links? Would you use it if it wasn't yours? Make sure you can say yes to all the above.

8: Fresh

Ensure you have regularly refreshed content to ensure it is up-to-date.

9: Unique

Aim for either unique content, or a unique tone and presentational style, even when the content may be a bit lame.

10: Focused

Be sure you know who your target audience is and relate all you offer to that audience in the language they use.

11: Engage

Never talk AT your audience, but find ways to engage your readers and allow them to participate and enrich the news production process.

12: Searchable

Perfect a writing style that works for the audience and works for the search engines. Keep it simple, don't make it hard for the search engines to figure out what you are about. Headlines should contain the names or key words that people are likely to be searching for on Google etc. Use key words often in copy, but use common sense to avoid making an article unreadable. Repeat key words in image alt tags.

13: Clarity

Keep headlines concise but clear. Labels are not great, nor are questions. Sentences work well. For example: Replace: "Hope and happiness" with "Donor joy for Becky". Replace: "Sparks fly at factory" with: "Hoover axes 500 jobs".

14: Style

Steer clear of too many facts, figures or stats. Sentences should be a maximum of 20 words, but mix up lengths.

15: Puns

However clever a pun may seem, it will have been used before and probably many times.

16: Simplicity

Make your text easy read - help the audience get to what you want them to see, the video and opportunities to engage.

17: Direct

State what is contained within the article/video. Avoid abstract copy.

18: Shorten

Re-read copy and consider whether fewer, simpler words can be used.

19: Rewrite

Don't repeat headline words in the intro. If better headline words are in the intro, steal them for the head and rewrite intro. Keep the preamble short and refer to the main players right away.

20 Quotes

Pull out a key quotes quickly.

21: Active

Copy works best when it follows the simple grammatical construction - subject, verb, object. "I killed him" not "he was killed by me".

22: Accuracy

Copy must deliver what is promised, failing will lose audience trust. At a basic level, "Exclusive video footage" should not be available elsewhere.

23: Language

Use everyday language. As Winston Churchill said: "Short words are best and the old words when short are best of all."  Use "buy" not "purchase".

24: Honesty

Convey a sense of energy and urgency, but remain honest.

25: Importance

Don't inflate importance if the topic doesn't merit it.

26: Authoritative

Informal and friendly but remain authoritative.

27: Respect

Do not sweeten with respect where none is due.

28: Ownership

Whatever you write, make sure that the words are your own - cutting and pasting from other sources is legally dangerous and easy to spot.

29: Time

Acknowledge that you are asking them to invest their most precious resource, their time, in your creation.

30: Integrity

Treat your brand with respect - remember that every word you write can boost or damage your brand's (and your) reputation.

Image by Eric Magnuson and released under Creative Commons