Good structure and structure makes content easier to read. People can find the information they are looking for faster. A good build and structure also helps search engines index content better. Stick to these guidelines when creating content:
Start with the conclusion or core message
Begin a text with who, what, where, when, why and how.
Readers often only read the beginning of the text, so this way you can quickly give them the core message, and they can decide whether they think it is worth reading the rest of the text for more details.
Start paragraphs with the most important information
The first sentence of the paragraph is the key sentence.
Again, readers often only scan the first part of a text to determine whether the paragraph in question contains the content they are looking for. If this does not seem to be the case, they will not read the paragraph further.
Group content into subtopics
Make sure the subtopics connect to the core message and put all related paragraphs on the same subtopic one after the other.
This ensures that your content is well-structured, so the visitor does not have to jump back and forth too much within a piece of text.
Use a logical text order
Choose the text order based on what makes the most sense given the topic:
- from important to less important;
- from general to specific;
- chronologically.
Use titles and headings
Titles and headings help both readers and search engines quickly identify what pieces of content are about. Your title tells what the content is about. Also consider situations where context is missing, for instance when a content item is shown as a search result or related content. Headings summarise the content in the following paragraphs. Follow these guidelines:
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Make titles and headings meaningful.
For example: "Master's programme in Biology" or "Shinto, nature and climate change: lecture by religious scientist Aike Rots".
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Make titles and headings concise.
Keep them as short as possible, but specific.
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Put keywords at the front.
The first words of a title or headline are more likely to catch a reader's eye. This is also important for internal and external search engines: the first words in a title or headline are given more weight. For example, "Prepare annual interview" or "Install EduVPN".
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Do not use question words (who, what, which, with which, how many...?).
This is because a question word takes the place of a keyword. So do not write: "How can I log into Brightspace?", but rather: "Log into Brightspace".
However, you can make exceptions to this guideline. Sometimes a question can actually encourage a reader to read the text further, like this title of a news item: "What the Song Contest says about integration Turkish migrants".
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Make titles and headlines action-oriented: let the reader know what they can do on a page.
This is especially applicable to the Service and Manual content types. For example, "Cancel parking subscription", "View figures in OSIRIS" or "Report data breach or security incident".
See also the conventions on titles.
Besides your readers, meaningful headings are also important for your colleagues. Content in Drupal is stored in a database and a meaningful title makes it easier to recognise the content.
Avoid dense blocks of text
Dense blocks of text put off readers. Therefore, provide white space in your text:
- make paragraphs about 5 lines long;
- add a subheading for every 2-3 paragraphs;
- use bullet points whenever possible.
Also read the guideline for language used in enumerations.
Use anchors in longer texts
Use anchors, also called bookmarks, in longer texts. This way, the reader can quickly jump back and forth to the text he or she finds relevant, or the reader can go back to the beginning. Read the input instruction for anchors.