William Strunk Jr., known for Strunk and White’s The Elements of Style, was adamant about the importance succinct writing. His brilliant quote, lifted from page 23, is as follows:
“Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts.”
When writing for the web, brevity is paramount. One false move and readers will hit the back button and disappear. Writer beware. Be verbose at your peril.