Inverted Pyramid Writing Lesson

Inverted Pyramid

As you have learned, the most important part of a website is its information. How that information is written and displayed will affect the viewership and web traffic. Too much of it and a lack of organization will cause customers to become disinterested; leading them to move on to other websites. Too little information will cause customers to feel disconnected.

To engage users to interact with your website and read its content, the information they want to find, and the message you are trying to convey, need to be at the forefront. The way you write and format information will need to be your focus for accomplishing this task. One way to accomplish this is by applying the Inverted Pyramid structure. This style of writing is great for the web. It matches how web users read content.

What is the Inverted Pyramid?

The Inverted Pyramid is a method of writing where essential information is introduced first. It is called an Inverted Pyramid because it is an upside-down pyramid structure with the most important points at the top and smaller details last. The important points answer the following questions upfront:

Who is involved?
What has or will happen?
When did or will it happen?
Where did or will the event happen?
Why did it happen?
How did it happen?

Take a look at the diagram to see how information is placed in an Inverted Pyramid structure.

Inverted Pyramid

Example of the Inverted Pyramid

Let’s imagine writing a company newsletter for the web. Pretend your fitness company is planning a grand opening of its second location. You would begin by detailing the 5 W’s and the ‘how’ if applicable.

Who: Your business
What: Hosting a grand opening of your second location
When: The fourth Saturday of next month at 4:00 pm
Where: Right beside the recreational park
Why: The business is in demand in more areas of the city

From here, you would add details about the grand opening. If you are writing several paragraphs, put the important information in the first two sentences of each paragraph. Next, go straight to the point with supporting details. For this example, your details may include information about a special you are offering to the first fifty individuals who attend the grand opening and tour the facility. Other details may include the type of entertainment that will be there along with the food you will be providing. You can also talk about how long your business has been around and how the impact of the community contributed to the decision of opening another location.

Benefits of the Inverted Pyramid

How people read on the web influences your content design. Most users scan for information. Your customers, when browsing your website, want the information fast and upfront. Therefore, your main details need to be at the beginning. The Inverted Pyramid structure does just that.

The benefits of using this structure are:

Readers can quickly access information.
Customers can skim and still have the main details and information without having to read each paragraph entirely. They can read the first sentence of each paragraph and skim the rest.
With the main points up front and then the next most important information, customers will more than likely scroll through the page.
The first few sentences will have keywords that will boost search engine optimization.

IMAGES CREATED BY GAVS