Writing effective web copy isn't easy. But good copy is essential to ensuring that your readers - and your customers, if you run a business - can understand how your website works and what it can do for them.

People don't read websites the same way they read print material. There are three key characteristics that affect how web users react to online content (and consumer-related content in particular):

• Web users are active, not passive: One click and they're gone. If they don't see a reason to stay on your site, they'll leave - in as little as 15 seconds after they get there.
• The longer the text, the less likely they are to read it - and the faster they'll skim it, if they bother to skim it at all.
• They don't believe hype. If you want a web user to believe what you say, you have to back it up.

To be effective, your web copy must take these characteristics into account. There are four basic questions a user has that you must answer on every page: "What am I doing here," "How do I do it," "What's in it for me," and "Where can I go next?" If your site's navigation and design don't make the answers obvious to even a first-time visitor - which they should, if at all possible - then you should use copy to explain them.

Don't count on your site's visitors to figure things out for themselves - half of them won't bother to try, and half the rest won't succeed.