How to Write an Article for the Web

Writing for the web is a different discipline from writing for print, and a different discipline again from writing for academic journals or business documents. The format rewards directness, short sentences, clear structure and a tight first paragraph. Most "blog posts" published by Irish small businesses fail one or more of those tests.

The opening paragraph

The first paragraph has to do three things. Tell the reader what the article is about. Make it clear why they should keep reading. Get to the point.

If you can't write this paragraph in three sentences, you don't yet know what the article is about. Stop, write a one-line answer to "what's the headline takeaway?", then come back.

Subheadings every 200–300 words

Web readers scan before they read. Subheadings tell them whether the section is worth reading at all. Don't dress them up — they should be plain descriptions of what's in the section, not clever or alliterative.

Short sentences

If a sentence has more than two clauses, break it. Sentences over 25 words read on a phone like an obstacle. There's a place for the long, branching sentence — narrative writing, a deliberate effect — but the average web sentence should be 12–18 words.

One idea per paragraph

Each paragraph carries one thought. Two thoughts make the reader work to separate them. Three is rude. The discipline of one-thought-per-paragraph is the single biggest improvement most small-business writers can make.

Lists where lists belong

Use bullet points when the content is genuinely a list — discrete items of equal weight. Don't use them as a substitute for prose when the content is actually flowing argument. Over-bulleting is the most common rookie mistake in business writing.

Concrete examples beat abstract advice

"Make your website faster" is forgettable. "A Galway B&B owner shaved 1.2 seconds off their checkout flow by removing four unused fonts" is memorable. Specific, concrete, verifiable examples beat the generic equivalent every time.

Format for the medium

Mobile first. Most readers are on a phone. Test what your article looks like on a 6-inch screen before publishing.
Avoid walls of text. Five-line paragraphs maximum on mobile. Break long paragraphs even if it feels weird.
Subheadings, not bold. Heavy bold text loses meaning fast. Subheadings are for scanning; bold is for emphasis on a single phrase per paragraph.
Internal links. Two or three per article, to related pages on your own site. Helps the reader and helps SEO. See our SEO tutorial on why internal linking matters.

The closing paragraph

End with one of two things: a clear next action ("Read this", "Try this", "Buy this") or a clean summary of the article's argument. Avoid hedge words like "hopefully" and "I think." If the article is worth publishing, you have a position; state it.

Why this matters for a small Irish business

Articles are how your website earns trust before a customer ever picks up the phone. A page of useful, well-written content does more for conversion than three pages of marketing fluff. It also drives organic search traffic, which compounds over years (see our digital marketing strategy guide).