Improve Your Communication Skills, 2nd Edition

and this message is just like the messages you can 
create in any other document. 
• Provide
 
supporting information
 in fewer than 100 words 
per paragraph. 
• Create hyperlinks
 to other pages. No page should be 
without a hyperlink to take you somewhere else – even 
if it’s only back to the front page or home page. 
Cues for action 
Cues for action keep viewers from running away, help users to do 
what they want to do, and encourage readers to explore the page 
further. 
There are various actions you might want your reader to take. 
For example, you might want them to: 
• search for information; 
• contribute to a discussion forum; 
• buy something; 
• contact someone; 
• move to another page. 
Explain explicitly what action readers can take. Whatever you 
want them to do, make sure that you keep the action simple: as 
few clicks as possible, with the most basic instructions. 
Always write as if you are talking directly to readers, using 
the word ‘you’. And provide an incentive for taking the action. 
The incentive doesn’t have to be financial! Simply telling readers 
what information they can expect to find by taking the action 
may be enough. 
( c) 2011 Kogan Page L imited, All Rights Reserved.

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163 Putting it in Writing
Hyperlinks 
Hyperlinks are a powerful innovation in web writing. Unlike 
conventional headings, they perform two functions: helping the 
reader to find their way around and acting as the transport to get 
them there. Hyperlinks might be: 
• keywords in the text; 
• names in the text; or 
• instructions: ‘Go to the semi-tropical zone’. 
Headings are the most important candidates for hyperlinks. They 
should act like departure and arrival signs in an airport – telling 
readers where to go and announcing when they have arrived. 
Hyperlinks can often use blurb to give just a little detail of 
what the heading is promising – and encouraging the reader to go 
there.