Answering the Question Instead of Circling It

The shape of a page that circles

It opens by establishing that the question is a good one and that many people ask it.

It then explains that the answer depends on several factors, and lists them.

It notes that every situation is different and that a proper assessment is needed.

And it closes by inviting the reader to get in touch for a personalised answer, which is the moment the reader realises the page was never going to tell them anything.

Why writers do this

Two reasons, and only one of them is bad.

The honest one is that the answer genuinely does depend on circumstances, and stating a figure feels misleading.

The commercial one is that withholding the answer is believed to produce an enquiry, since the reader must contact you to find out.

The second is mistaken in almost every case. A reader who cannot find an answer leaves and finds it elsewhere rather than making contact.

Withholding works only where the reader has no alternative, and on the open web they always do.

Answer first, then qualify

The structure that resolves the honest objection completely.

Give the answer in the first two sentences, with whatever range or caveat is genuinely necessary.

Then spend the rest of the page explaining what moves it, when it does not apply, and what to check.

A reader who has the answer will read the qualifications, because they now have a reason to.

A reader who has to read the qualifications first to earn the answer will leave, because they cannot tell whether the answer is coming.

The information is identical and the order determines whether it is read.

What a direct answer looks like

• A range, with the common case named.
• A yes or no, followed by the exception.
• A duration, with what extends it.
• A recommendation, then the reasoning.
• An honest cannot say, with the reason.

The last is a legitimate answer and is entirely different from circling. Saying we cannot give a figure without seeing the roof, because access determines most of the cost, is direct. It tells the reader something true immediately.

A worked example

A page titled how much does this cost opened with three paragraphs about the factors involved and gave no figure.

It was rewritten to open with a range, the typical figure for a standard job, and one sentence naming the two things that move it most.

The remaining content stayed, unchanged, beneath.

Time on the page went up rather than down, because people were now reading the explanation instead of scanning for a number.

Enquiries increased and arrived pre-qualified, with people saying they had seen the range and it was within their budget.

The page had lost nothing except the delay before the answer.

The first sentence test

A quick check for any page you have written.

Read the first two sentences and ask whether somebody who read only those would have learned the answer to the title.

Where the answer is no, the page is circling, however good the rest is.

Apply the same test to each section heading, since a page can answer the main question and then circle on every subsidiary one.

A reader who scans headings and first sentences, which is most readers, should be able to extract the whole page that way.

Words that signal circling

Worth listing, since they are recognisable and their presence is diagnostic.

It depends. Every situation is unique. There is no one-size-fits-all answer. A number of factors come into play. That is a great question.

None of those is false and each is doing the work of delaying an answer rather than giving one.

Where a page opens with any of them, the answer is usually either further down or absent entirely.

Delete them and see whether anything is lost, which it rarely is, since the qualification they promise is usually made properly later anyway.

Headings should be answers too

A structural version of the same principle.

A heading reading Factors Affecting Cost tells a reader nothing and requires them to read the section to find out whether it is relevant.

A heading reading Access is usually the largest single cost has already delivered something.

That makes a page scannable in a way a page of topic labels is not, and it means somebody who reads only the headings has still learned the substance.

It is also harder to write, which is why most pages have topic labels instead.

The same applies to email and quotes

Since the habit is a writing habit rather than a website one.

A reply to an enquiry that opens with thanks for getting in touch and explains your process before answering the question has the same problem on a smaller scale.

Answer first: yes we cover that area, it is usually around this figure, we could come Thursday. Then the pleasantries and the detail.

A quote document that buries the total on page three is the same failure again, and the customer will find the number first regardless.

Put the figure where they are looking, then explain what it includes, which reads as confidence rather than as an attempt to soften it.

The counter-case

Some questions genuinely should not be answered directly.

Anything where a wrong answer causes harm, particularly medical, legal, or safety questions, needs the qualification before the answer rather than after.

Some pricing is genuinely unquotable without an inspection, and inventing a range to seem direct is worse than explaining honestly why you cannot.

And a business whose competitors all publish figures may have a legitimate reason not to, provided it says so rather than pretending the question is unanswerable.

Answer first where you can, explain why you cannot where you cannot, and never pretend that circling is the same as caution.

What to do

1. Put the answer in the first two sentences.
2. Qualify afterwards, not before.
3. Give a range rather than nothing.
4. Say plainly where you cannot answer, and why.
5. Delete the delaying phrases.
6. Write headings that are answers.
7. Read the first two sentences of every page.

Step two resolves the honest objection entirely, since a caveat placed after an answer is read and one placed before it prevents the answer being found.

Writing outside your knowledge is covered in writing about something you half understand.

Frequently asked questions

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