The inverted pyramid is a diagram that all writers should picture in their minds, and have a good knowledge of, should they want their web copy to be read, digested and then understood.
In its simplest form the diagram illustrates one of the most important rules in writing, and that is to cram as much of the critical information to the top of the page, and then as the story develops so too does the density of valuable detail.
Quite often with web copy you have just a few seconds to engage with your reader, so burying important information at the end of a page is wasteful. Work out what it is you want to get across to your reader, and then use the inverted pyramid concept to prioritise what is going where and when.
Literally list the points you want to make in the order of their importance before you start writing. If you read a news story (as opposed to a longer feature article) in a national newspaper you’ll see the inverted pyramid in action. The first sentence of a story will typically have the ‘who’, ‘what’, ‘where’, ‘why’ and ‘when’. Then as the story progresses the detail becomes less exciting.
So, next time you sit down to write some web copy, whether it’s for a newsletter, your website or a blog, consider the inverted pyramid and make sure you pack the first few lines with the kind of detail that you would not want your reader, and potential client, to leave your site without knowing.
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