Repurposing from print to web

Many organisations create content for print and then repurpose it for the web. While this isn’t ideal, these tips will help ensure that you publish content that’s fit for on-screen reading.

10 tips for web writers

  1. Don’t just publish it because you can
    Only publish the content if it’s useful. It must meet a need and fill a gap in the information already provided on your site.
  2. Convert to topic or task pages
    Long documents might need to be published as a mini website—a set of linked pages. Base each page on a topic or task, not length.
  3. Bring important information to the top
    Help users find the most meaningful or useful content by restructuring the original text. Re-order the sequence of pages or sections in a larger document, or rework the structure of a single page, or both.
  4. Make content more concise
    Review the content. Rewrite to remove unnecessary sections, paragraphs, sentences, phrases or words.
  5. Add headings
    Make sub-topics visible and improve on-screen appearance by adding meaningful headings.
  6. Re-write links
    Often print-based content will show links as URLs. Rewrite them using words that describe the linked content.
  7. Remove references to page numbers
    Search for and remove any references to page numbers within the original document. Add links to topic pages where relevant.
  8. Remove references to your website
    Delete statements such as ‘see our website for more information’, or rewrite them and link to the relevant page. Don’t leave links in the content that just take users back to your home page.
  9. Rework images and add text alternatives
    Resize images so they’re appropriate for the screen. Check colour contrast to ensure lines, labels and data are legible. Add labels or patterns to any images that rely on colour for meaning. Add appropriate blank, short or long text alternatives.
  10. Include a title and meta description
    Each page you create from your document needs a <title> and meta description that uniquely identifies it.