Deadwood refers to redundant words that add no meaning.  Cut it to increase the impact of your website copy.

One of the most challenging tasks in editing is cutting extra words that sneak into our writing.

These words emerge in the thoughts that generate prose.  But thinking and conversation are more verbose than writing can be.  A conversation may meander, but writing that does loses impact.

The only way to rid your writing of deadwood is to edit.  First drafts have deadwood because you’re generating ideas without care for precise language.  After, you take an axe to it…

Axe is a good metaphor; not scalpel.  Novelist Stephen King cuts half of his first drafts.

You’ll know it’s deadwood when you can omit the word or phrase without loss of meaning.

Consider:

The service is currently unavailable.

vs.

The service is unavailable.

How about:

Peperoni ice cream is a rather unusual flavor.

vs.

Peperoni ice cream is an unusual flavor.

What is the difference between absolutely nothing and nothing?  Already established and established?

The above words add unneeded bulk to the sentences.

With web writing, you also want to avoid unimportant phrases at the beginning of sentences that push important information farther from the start, such as:

As a matter of fact,

In the same way,

To begin with,

The point is,

Avoid the use of just; which weakens the idea.

If he just gives it a little more time, he’ll lose the weight.

If he gives it more time he’ll lose the weight.

Use direct verbs and imperatives:

You can learn more by reading our blog.

Learn more by reading our blog.

You can choose to eat lobster or crab.

Eat lobster or crab.

Delete make a constructions:

To make corrections to your order, you can call our sales team.

To correct your order, call our sales team.

Here are other words you can usually cut without loosing meaning:

• Actually
• Always
• Any
• Automatically
• Easily
• Existing
• Extreamely
• Particular
• Previously
• Quickly
• Really
• Several
• Simply
• Totally
• Very

The list goes on.  You’ll improve the power of sales copy by removing weak qualifiers and using imperative at the beginning of sentences.  You can just tell people what to do.  Ouch…I mean:  Tell people what to do.

Cut deadwood to front-load the main idea in sentences.  Be concise to sustain the reader’s interest.

Writing ideas start as thoughts.  But to communicate those thoughts, cut every useless word.  If you don’t, your message won’t reach your audience.