Web Writing Principle #4: Use active voice

What is active voice?

Active voice is one of the two ‘voices’ of verbs – the other being passive.  In active voice, the subject is doing the action.  In passive voice,  the subject is being acted on. The best way to explain active and passive voice is through examples:

Active voice: The boy hit the ball.  (subject action noun)

Passive voice: The ball was hit by the boy. (noun action subject)

In active voice, the person or thing that is the sentence is about comes BEFORE the verb.

Why is active voice important in web writing?

On average, you have less than 30 seconds per web page to get your message across to your readers.  It’s been proven that readers grab information more quickly and accurately from sentences written in active voice than from those written in passive voice. Active voice sentences are less convoluted, so your readers don’t have to think as hard in order to quickly understand their meaning. 

Active voice sentences also use fewer words than passive voice sentences.  Online readers only read about 28% of the words on a web page, so it’s important to make sure all your words count.  You can cut out unnecessary words by using active voice.

Who does what?

In order to use the limited time and space you have to get your message across to your website readers, use active voice whenever you can.  Tell your readers “who does what” – rather than “what, is done, by whom”.

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A case for long copy

I don’t stick hard and fast to short copy or long copy as a rule for website writing.  Each style has its proponents, and there are studies to support each as superior in converting readers to customers. (You can gain more insight into my view on website copy length in my post “How long should my website copy be”.)

What I’ve learned, though, is that there are some common instances which tend to warrant long copy.

Three of these cases are:

1. Expensive products: It takes prospects longer to commit to buying high priced products than inexpensive products.  Prospects need both more detailed information and more persuasion to be convinced to make the purchase decision.
2. Information based products: Prospects are looking for proof of the quality of information based products, and the way to illustrate it is by example.  Lots of examples – which generally means lots of copy.
3. E-commerce product pages in general: A recent study shows that 76% of online shoppers find insufficient content to complete their research or purchase online “always, most often or some of the time”.  Seventy-two percent of those shoppers then abandon the site and go to a competitor or research further online, typically finding what they want elsewhere.

The most important factor in determining the length for your website copy must be: Does it answer your prospects’ questions and provide the necessary information for them to be confident in making a purchase decision. 

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Quick Stats

…sourced from the research results of my web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen:

• 78% : how many web readers only scan, not read, the words on a page

• 28% : how many words on a page the average visitor reads

• 25% : how much longer it takes to read words on a screen than words on a print page

• 50% : the word count that should be included in web pages versus print pages

These statistics support the need for very clear and concise writing on websites. Forget the fluff and jargon; get rid of the ‘marketese’. Stick to getting a clear and meaningful message across. Readers simply don’t have the time or inclination to read anything that doesn’t really matter.