The better you understand WHO you are writing your website for, the better you can tailor your words to make your audience feel comfortable, included and eventually persuaded – to do what you want them to do.

One way to make your readers – your potential customers – feel comfortable and included is to make sure you use the words that they use.  This is a simple, yet often overlooked, principle in website copywriting.  Why?  Here are 2 common reasons:

1. If you are writing the content for your own business’ website, you are probably an ‘insider’: you know the industry jargon; you may inherently write the way people inside your company or industry speak; you’re probably thinking about what you want to say – not about what your readers want to know.
2. You may think that using big words or “officialese” will make your website sound more important or informative.

Don’t use “insider” words

Think about your customers when you write, and make sure you don’t use industry terminology or insider jargon they might not be familiar with.  Such expressions can make your readers feel excluded at best, and at worst your readers won’t even understand what you’re talking about.  Remember, it just takes one click for a potential customer to leave your site in search of information they can easily understand. 

To keep potential customers on your site, make sure you use terminology they are familiar and comfortable with.  Use the words your customers themselves would use.

Use simple words

Long words, complicated phrases or “officialise” will not make you or your website seem more important.  They may even intimidate your readers and make them leave your site.  Website readers are busy; they are looking for specific information; they scan content.  Even the most highly educated website readers appreciate simple, easy-to-recognise words they can quickly understand and absorb.  Consider the words your customers would use if they were having a verbal conversation – in most cases they are straightforward, clear words.  Use the same on your website.

To persuade your readers to become customers, you need to make them feel comfortable and included.  Using clear, simple words and familiar terminology will make your readers feel at ease and help convert them into customers.

www.strongideas.com.au

contact@strongideas.com.au

We all know that ‘content is king’ when it comes to being found on Google and other search engines, the better your content and the more of it you can produce will be advantageous in an SEO war. However one area that is often overlooked by business is that actually ‘content is king’ for visitors of your website too.

What do we mean?

Well, statistically it is proven that longer text works better than short text for converting sales, so why do most companies assume that visitors will at best skim read their website text and pick up the phone for more info. Well in these days where the user is in control of ‘how they are marketed to’ then actually to have content rich information on your website should be a priority, because a well written piece will have prospects taking just the action that you want them too.

So what does a well written piece look like?

In our experience a good piece of copywriting will give your prospect all the information they require without being sold to, so think of it as a way of interacting with a potential client with out being pushy. Successful content will deliver consistent information to your target market to educate them on your products, services and benefits of doing business with you over and above your competitors.

However you also need to take into consideration that different personalities will require different parts of the puzzle to make their research complete, some visitors will need to know ‘how’ your products work, so technical fact sheets or white papers should be made available. Others will want to know that ‘you’ve done it before’ so case studies could take care of that angle. Remember different people have different buying criteria and your job is to identify all of them and persuade them that you are the best at solving their situation.

What else is involved in making your words work?

Well when writing content do bear these things in mind

1. Have you clearly identified your target market? – your visitor should read the first part of your content and think ‘yes that’s me, that’s the problem that I face’
2. You then need to grab their attention and really create a desire, using emotional words can be useful here (imagine is always a good one!)
3. Informative relevant content that picks up on all personality types should also be included
4. Does your content give the Eureka moment?
5. Is there a clearly defined action, tell them what you want them to do.

You can use this approach in all areas of your marketing, not just in the online world. It will leave a long lasting impression.
Most companies need help when it comes to professionally copywriting, if your website needs a revamp then get in touch with your local IRUN business after all we’re here to make sure your ‘phones ring!

What is active voice?

Active voice is one of the two ‘voices’ of verbs – the other being passive.  In active voice, the subject is doing the action.  In passive voice,  the subject is being acted on. The best way to explain active and passive voice is through examples:

Active voice: The boy hit the ball.  (subject action noun)

Passive voice: The ball was hit by the boy. (noun action subject)

In active voice, the person or thing that is the sentence is about comes BEFORE the verb.

Why is active voice important in web writing?

On average, you have less than 30 seconds per web page to get your message across to your readers.  It’s been proven that readers grab information more quickly and accurately from sentences written in active voice than from those written in passive voice. Active voice sentences are less convoluted, so your readers don’t have to think as hard in order to quickly understand their meaning. 

Active voice sentences also use fewer words than passive voice sentences.  Online readers only read about 28% of the words on a web page, so it’s important to make sure all your words count.  You can cut out unnecessary words by using active voice.

Who does what?

In order to use the limited time and space you have to get your message across to your website readers, use active voice whenever you can.  Tell your readers “who does what” – rather than “what, is done, by whom”.

www.strongideas.com.au

contact@strongideas.com.au

A West Oxfordshire pub, Eynsham’s The Talbot Inn, is maximising the potential of the internet and has just enjoyed its best week ever in terms of turnover, thanks to online marketing experts, IRUN, and its new package of internet marketing solutions.

Trevor Johnson, Landlord of The Talbot Inn takes up the story: “Although we previously had a website it was out of date as it was difficult to make changes. With a new accommodation suite having recently been completed we needed the website to achieve good rankings on major search engines to increase direct room bookings, rather than being heavily dependent on agencies which apply a fee of 15% of the booking value. Unfortunately, as the site had no professional copy or search engine optimisation work this wasn’t being accomplished. I felt the old website was of no value to my business and knew I needed a new solution, so I contacted Lynne Jones of IRUN Oxford.”

Trevor continues: “I already had a professional relationship with the Lynne, spanning several years. Having worked together in the past, I was confident with Lynne’s proposal for a complete internet marketing package, including a new website, search engine optimisation and a customer relationship management system would help boost business.”

The first stage of the process was to build an interim website using IRUN’s WebBuildPRO package. The WebBuildPRO system is 100% internet based includes a full set of management tools which would allow Trevor to update the site whenever he needed to.

Lynne comments: “Having this new site live quickly meant IRUN’s Customer Relationship Management system, InTouch, could be integrated straight away. InTouch enables the Talbot to efficiently manage customer information and communicate with them quickly and easily by sending out a monthly email newsletter with details of special offers and upcoming events.”

Lynne continues: “The Talbot’s website has recently been upgraded to IRUN’s fully flexible solution, iCMS. This system allows for future adaptability of the site so the pub’s future aspirations and growth can be managed easily and effectively. We have also provided a complete web-to-print service for all printed promotional items including advertisements, brochures, business cards, menus, wine lists and customer comment cards.”

Trevor comments: “Providing good service is not enough, to be successful you need to work to attract new customers, look after them, find ways to stay in touch and persuade them to visit more often – either that or become one of the 40 pubs going into liquidation each week”.

He has also had an increase in direct room bookings, and has received many fabulous compliments about both the site and the email newsletters being sent out.

Trevor concludes: “IRUN is very straight and direct in their approach which I appreciate. Lynne and her team have been absolutely fantastic with the delivery of their package of services, as well as providing a level of ongoing support, which is second to none. Although it is very early stages for the whole marketing solution I am very excited to see how it progresses.”

The historic Talbot Inn in West Oxfordshire offers beautiful en-suite accommodation, an award-winning restaurant and all the charm of a traditional English inn. As the Talbot is part of the Swindon-based Arkell’s Brewery, it is expected the marketing products and solutions provided to them will be rolled-out to the entire Arkell’s pub network, and beyond, as a vertical market solution.

A website copywriter’s mantra is: “audience, audience, audience”. If you’re writing your own website copy, you should adopt the mantra for yourself, too. Why? To convert your audience into customers you need make sure your website copy is about “them” – not about “you”.

Writing copy for a website is not an exercise in ego-boosting

Contrary to popular belief, your website is not about what you want to share with the world about yourself, your business or your services. It’s about the information your audience wants to find, the problems it wants solved, and the benefits it wants to attain.

Your audience doesn’t really want to buy accounting services, for example. But they will feel compelled to save money and get a bigger tax return. Your audience isn’t looking for broadband internet; they just want fast downloads at a cheap price. Basically, your audience doesn’t want to know about your product or service – they want to know what it can do for them. To compel your audience to become customers, you need to express your features as benefits which will meet your audience’s needs.

Connect with your audience by telling them upfront what’s in it for them. The human brain is wired to consider the needs of the self first, so whether conscious of it or not, your audience will be looking to have its needs fulfilled. If your copy doesn’t clearly do that, your audience won’t connect and won’t feel compelled to convert.

Audience, audience, audience

 In order to make your website copy benefit oriented, you need to start by knowing your audience well. You need to know who they are, and what they want. The tighter you can define the demographic of your audience, the better you’ll be able to sell to them by knowing what they are looking for and what appeals to them.

Does your audience want to make more money? Have a simpler life? Impress the neighbours? Have more time? Spend less money? Be the most technologically advanced? Get greater return on their investment?

Once you know your audience, you can figure out what motivates them and what benefits will appeal to them.

Can you tell the difference?

Which of these statements is benefit oriented?

1. At Strong Ideas, we provide specialised website copywriting.
2. With Strong Ideas’ specialised website copywriting, you’ll save time and gain customers.

You got it right if you chose the one that talks about “you”.

A simple test

A straightforward way to ensure you’re talking about benefits to your audience and addressing their wants and needs is to count the number of “we”’s and the number of “you”’s in your website copy. Benefit oriented copy talks about “you”; ego oriented copy talk about “we”.

Don’t tell your audience what you do; tell them what you can do for them

Benefit oriented copy shows your audience that you understand their problems and that you know what they want and need. Benefit oriented copy will create rapport with your audience, and it will compel them to become customers.

www.strongideas.com.au

contact@strongideas.com.au

Buzzwords is now offering one-to-one copywriting training at its Cheshire (south Manchester) base.  (More details are on Buzzwords’ website at:  buzzwords.ltd.uk/copywriting_training_courses.htm – add the  ’www’ prefix)

Half-day modules focus on specific aspects of copywriting (such as website copywriting, SEO copywriting or copywriting for PR) and use a personalised coaching model.  The training is particularly useful for:

• Ambitious would-be copywriters who want to start a new copywriting career (as well as those with some copywriting experience – in a marketing department, for instance – who want to improve their skills and move on to more challenging copywriting roles)
• Those who run small or medium-size businesses (SMEs) who want to save money by taking the copywriting function in-house
• Individuals in larger organisations looking to boost their effectiveness at work by increasing their knowledge and confidence in dealing with external suppliers of copywriting services

An initial two-hour Assessment is provided at Buzzwords’ Knutsford premises to find out exactly what is expected of the training.  This is a departure from the standard training approach where one-day courses deliver a ‘one-size-fits-all’ solution – which, in many cases, is no solution at all!

Mike Beeson will take into account an individual’s aims, timescales and natural aptitude before setting out recommendations in a written Report.  This approach will ensure that those who move on to the actual training modules have exactly the training they need, thus saving precious time and money.

An initial Assessment costs £295 + VAT. 

Half-day training modules cost £495 + VAT.

To find out more, call Mike Beeson on 01565 654023

- or visit Buzzwords’ main website:

buzzwords.ltd.uk/copywriting_training_courses.htm (adding the ‘www’ prefix)

It is possible to have an excellent website, dramatic Flash animations, world class advertising campaigns but still no business conversions. One of the crucial factors that come into play here is ‘Copywriting’ or Content Development. It is content that promotes the relevance of your products and services to your target customers. Content-rich websites that are customer focused, creative, easy to read and innovative in their approach retain visitors and convert them to customers.

ITSolusenz provides effective SEO Copywriting services that help you improve your client base and enhance your business opportunities. Through our custom SEO Copywriting services, we help you present your company and its services in a way that would elicit positive responses from online visitors. Our Copywriting services will be in tune with your search engine optimization needs as well, thereby, creating higher level of relevancy to search engines that are content-conscious.

ITSolusenz’s SEO copywriters create persuasive, informative and effective website content. We have an enthusiastic team of full time, professional content developers endowed with exceptional writing skills and capable of developing compelling content.

It  happens every day. A copywriter creates beautiful, compelling marketing copy that is then pushed through the corporate review process…first to the marketing manager, then to the director, then to the VP, possibly the company president, back through another round of edits and then it is presented to the website designer or webmaster to be pasted into the website.

Copying Marketing Copy to Website Content is one of the biggest copywriting mistakes you can make…here’s why:

1. People don’t consume content on the internet the way they will read offline marketing material, such brochures, reports or ads.

On the internet, you have only seconds to engage the user and prompt them to act, whether it be to another page, pick up the phone, or respond to a call to action on the site via form, survey or sale.

How To Translate Offline Copy to Website Content:

• Break content into bite-sized pieces.
• Leave white space to allow the eye to find what they are interested in reading.
• Use the interactivity of websites to let the reader continue the “pre-qualifying” process by giving them choices.
• Integrate interactive calls to action.

Remember, the Internet is a highly interactive medium that we have truly just begun to leverage. The more control you give the reader in consuming the content, the more relevant their experience will be on your website…And the easier it will be to convert them from a visitor to a customer!

Next Post: Making the Case for Search Engine Optimization of Website Content

Buzzwords now offers bespoke website design services for clients looking for more than the website copywriting and SEO copywriting services currently on offer. Many clients – especially SMEs – prefer to deal with one supplier rather than having to source and co-ordinate an army of website professionals. Buzzwords has worked with website designers and programmers for many years so it makes sense to roll it all up into an optional turnkey service. 

(Buzzwords’ website copywriting and SEO copywriting services continue to enjoy great popularity and are still provided as standalone services.)

Manchester-based copywriting agency, Buzzwords Limited, has introduced three web development packages to complement its website copywriting and SEO copywriting services:

• Bespoke website design – Everything from a five-page ‘brochure’ website to an an all-dancing e-commerce catalogue.
• Content Management Systems - Buzzwords will manage and write the copy and content for your website.  Design and hosting are all part of the CMS package.
• WordPress blog development - Add a blog to your existing website.  Or create a standalone blog ‘website’.

“A choice of one-stop solutions is what more and more clients want when it comes to their online marketing, especially the smaller company which often doesn’t have the time or the know-how to shop around and co-ordinate all the website services ” says Buzzwords’  Director, Mike Beeson.  “With this new service from Buzzwords, clients get expert website copywriting and SEO plus whatever type of website or blog suits their needs or their budget.”

New SEO copywriting content has been added to Buzzwords’ copywriting website (buzzwords.ltd.uk/seo_copywriting.htm).   ‘SEO Copywriting – 10 steps to SEO success!’ is all about the various steps that Buzzwords goes through when conducting an SEO copywriting makeover for a client. These include:

• STEP ONE – Analysing the website structure and sitemap
• STEP TWO – Keyword appraisal
• STEP THREE – Optimising every page with the appropriate keywords
• STEP FOUR – Including keywords in URLs
• STEP FIVE – Optimising for business leads from the immediate locality
• STEP SIX – Writing for people, not robots!
• STEP SEVEN – The time lag between SEO copywriting changes and visible search engine results
• STEP EIGHT – Results and the limitations of on-page SEO copywriting
• STEP NINE – The need for strategic off-page SEO copywriting
• STEP TEN – Persistence pays off with free online advertising!

Easy HTML Editor - XSitePro

Do you think that the text on your website isn’t important? Then you should reconsider that! A very important aspect of your website is the copy. If you have lousy copy on your website then don’t expect very good success. No matter how great the graphics look or the products are copy that isn’t good enough and will make your website fall short in seconds of a visitor arriving. To somebody who is trying to sell their goods using their website it’s not very good news. How are you going to create even a few sales if the visitors won’t hang about on your site to discover why they ought to buy from you?

It is essential that you catch the visitors’ attention in the first few seconds of them landing there or they may leave. In order to keep them reading you must grab their attention right away. You have to continue to keep their attention or else they’ll click the back button within a few seconds.

Potential customers are usually searching for information about a certain topic. They will browse your site as soon as they’ve gotten there to see if you have the information they came looking for. You must grab their attention quickly before they leave your site, and you lose a sale.

Websites are doomed to fail if they have badly written web copy. Those that do fail usually use the following mistakes: boring text, provide information not related to their website topic, fancy or small style fonts, and or contain several spelling errors. There are a lot more mistakes you could make concerning your copyright, but these may give you an idea of how bad copy can hurt your business.  If you build your website with Xsitepro SEO, you may be ahead of the curve as this software has a built in spell checker, SEO and much more.

Think like your visitor. What copy would you like to see on the site, if you were browsing to buy the same goods that you presently offer? Would you like to read unrelated material that’s boring or something that grabs your attention?

You will want something that gets your attention most likely. You can accomplish this by… You always need to think who your target audience is. What do they enjoy and what do they despise?  Learn more about your visitors. Provide the visitor with interesting copy to keep them reading.

Your target market is moms with young children, for an example. They’re more than likely too busy to read a lot of text. Its highly probable that they’re going to quickly glance through the information and pick out parts of text that interests them. So would you want your copy aimed at scientists? Now way! Try not to use big words that they are not likely to relate to, or that they won’t understand or they will probably just leave your site.

If you write simple English they will want to read more. The text on your site is very important. It gets the visitors attensionand keeps them there. By using poor copy you are losing customers and potential sales. Provide them with what they would like to read and enjoy the profits you could make from them.

When thinking about the Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Content Writing, one may think, in the first instance, of placing the keywords in their content to achieve a certain keyword density. However, the algorithms used by search engines have improved over time to a point where they, now, look for more than just the frequency or positioning of specific phrases. These days, the search engines look for clues as to the quality and relevancy of the content. Ideally, your content should be strong enough for other sites to link to. These links work as a vote for your contents.

Today, keyword density is not an important factor anymore. Instead, you want to craft a search engine friendly contents that incorporates keywords at important places, something called the keyword prominence. The writer of the content must work to achieve the highest possible standards in terms of quality and the keyword prominence to satisfy both people and search engines bot. The following tips should help writers achieve this goal.

1. Keep a Theme

Your website should maintain a consistent theme throughout all of the pages. Each page should be a reflection of or somehow related to that theme. For example, you might choose to write about insurance as your theme then have different sections of your site dedicated to each major type of insurance. Just make sure the main theme of the site is explained clearly on your home page.

2. Know the Keywords First

Before you do any type of writing, you should have a firm grasp of which keywords you are going to use. These keywords can be selected using free tools on the Internet that can help you pinpoint good choices.

3. Write Relevant Content

When you’re trying to grab the attention of the search engines, you need to make sure your content is not only laced with keywords but is also going to provide relevant valuable information. Just throwing a bunch of keywords together won’t do the trick. The content should be about the title and theme of your site – this is something the search engines look for.

4. Use Title Tags

When you add a new page to your web site, make sure to provide it with an original title tag. Don’t just reuse the same ones for every page. And try to include your keyword in that tag. Search engines look at these tags when they are ranking your site so don’t miss out on an opportunity to impress them. Remember that the title tag should be keyword centric yet catchy.

5. Pick Prominent Spots for Keywords

The idea is not to put keywords on as many places as possible into the content but to strategically sprinkle the words in places where they are most likely to be seen by potential visitors. For example, you can use them in your titles, headers, image captions or ‘alt’, linking text, bulleted text and more. By having your keywords show up like this, search engines are going to be more likely to give you a top ranking.

6. Put Keywords in Important Parts

Another good reason to start choosing keywords early is that ideally your keyword is going to show up in the domain name, in the names of your pages, and even in the taglines for your company. The nice thing about taking this step is that when people link to your site they are also more likely to include your keywords in their links because of their placement in these areas. And that’s going to help your rank, too.

7. Use Keyword Synonyms

Another trick to boost your SEO results is to incorporate keyword synonyms into your content. These are words or phrases that could easily take the place of your keyword phrase. Throwing a couple of these into your content is always going to be useful in boosting your ranks. It’s called stemming.

8. Add Meta Tags

Adding both description and keywords meta tags is a good idea, too. Meta Description is often shown up in the search engine results. It provides valuable information for visitors and increases click through rate (CTR). Still some search engines take keywords meta tag into consideration so it worth adding that. But do not sped much of your time in writing meta keyword tag.

9. Use Text not Images

An important rule to remember is that search engines don’t read content in image formats so stick to plain text if you want that content to influence your ranking. Even, when you use an image, do not forget to add alt and title tags to it.

10. Keep Content Original

One thing search engines frown on is duplicated content. If you’re trying to convince search engines that you have a lot of content just by repeating the same couple of pages, it’s not going to work. You’ll probably even end up lower. Make sure each page has fresh, informative content. Also, keep your pages updated, too. New content regularly is a big plus in the eyes of search engines.

11. Optimize the Whole Site

Some people only use optimization techniques on the home page but don’t stop there. Almost any of your major pages could appear in the search engine results and by optimizing them you’re increasing your chances of landing a high spot with different keywords.

12. Use Linking

An important part of SEO is the use of internal and external links. With internal linking, you are able to spread the visitors to your site over many pages instead of having one page keep all of the traffic for itself. Plus, these links help guide readers to appropriate information on the site. External links show that your site is providing more resources for visitors which search engines also like.

13. Have the Right Number of Words

While 200 to 1,000 words may seem like a big range, that’s the word count you want to shoot for on every one of your web pages. Most people tend to shoot for the average – 500 words – when it comes to articles and a little lower than that for other pages.

14. Choose Relevant Keywords

Make sure that your choice of keywords is relevant to what you’re hoping to do with the site. If you’re going to be selling a product, avoid any keywords that might have a negative connotation towards your product. Just using words that have high search volume isn’t enough. Those words need to be connected to your site’s theme and purpose. Consider adding a few “long tail” words which are longer phrases that also include descriptive terms.

15. Create a Landing Page

The landing page’s purpose is to immediately provide visitors with a clear, attention-grabbing overview of your site. These are great for optimizing because they can help drive traffic to the rest of your web site easily.

16. Check Statistics

Your site’s analytics, provided by the hosting service, may provide clues as to what needs to be done on your site. Analyze those statistics and see what you can learn from them. Then make adjustment in your keywords and apply what you’ve learned to the site.

17. Submit Content to Link Back

Creating articles and other social media that will drive people back to your web site is a good idea. Just make sure to submit them to trustworthy sites.

Flying in the face of the recession, a new page has been added to Buzzwords’ website today: Construction Industry Copywriter. This complements the other building industry page on the Buzzwords’ site: Property Copywriter. Building is still continuing in the UK, even if at a much reduced level. Crucially, from a copywriting point of view, there are still thousands of people out there who are employed in what could be described as ‘construction industry support services’ – surveying, civil engineering, consultants and so on. Many major planning projects are either mid-stream or being discussed for launch in the medium-term once the major impact of this recession has passed. And there are of course parts of the economy, such as supermarkets, which are doing very nicely and which need buildings into which they can expand their business. And as with all businesses right now, everyone is fighting for market share. Fortunately for copywriting, this creates demand for website copywriting, SEO copywriting and e-mail/e-zine marketing – to name just a few disciplines.

The second principle of Web Writing is to make your words “actionable”.

What does that mean? It means you must use your words to take advantage of the unique interactive characteristic of the web. Unlike other communication mediums – print, radio, tv – the web allows users to take action right then and there. This distinction makes a huge difference to what you write and how you write it.

On a website, your viewers can click, subscribe, download, give you information, or – if your content is not compelling enough – they can simply leave.

Know your website goal

Before you sit down to write for your website, you should know what the goal of your site is. Commonly, the goal is either to convert visitors directly into customers or to convert visitors into named leads.

 Once your goal is defined, keep it in mind on every page, and with every word you write. Provide your visitors with opportunities to do things that will lead to fulfilling your desired end goal. And make sure the opportunities are enticing enough for your visitors to WANT to do them.

“Click here to subscribe to our enewsletter”, in order to get named leads to add to your database, is not nearly as enticing as “Subscribe to our enewsletter to make sure you don’t miss out on the latest techniques for influencing your web readers”.

Never “click here”

A key piece of advice on this topic is to never waste valuable website real estate with the words “click here”. Instead, use informative, compelling words that will entice your visitors to “click here” without having to tell them explicitly to do so.

“Keep it simple” is the number one principle to remember when writing online.

I keep in mind a quote by Martin Fischer, an author and psychologist, when I write for the web: “Knowledge is a process of piling up facts; wisdom lies in their simplification.”

When I write for the web, I endeavor to impart wisdom.

Why?

Most of my readers aren’t even going to read my web words. Seventy-eight percent of online users only scan the text, and on average a site visitor will only read 28% of the words on a page. (source: Jakob Nielsen alertbox reports, www.useit.com)

So, I need to make sure the messages and the words are simple, concise and to-the-point. I need to throw away the fluff and cut out the marketese. I try to cut what I would write for a hard copy page in half; and then cut that in half.

There are some proven techniques that help me transform ‘knowledge’ into ‘wisdom’ by simplifying the facts online. They include:

• Omit needless and redundant words

• Keep sentences short

• Use fragments rather than full sentences

• Limit paragraphs to 1 or 2 sentences

• Break up text by using headings, subheadings and bullet points

The real challenge is to do all that and to still make the words that are left convey useful, persuasive and enlightening messages.

It is a learned skill to retain core messages while keeping copy simple, short and to-the-point; and it takes a specific proficiency to do it using words that will compel website visitors to become customers.

Strong Ideas’ writers have learned the skills, and possess the proficiency. We can turn your ‘knowledge’ into ‘wisdom’ and your website visitors into customers.

www.strongideas.com.au
contact@strongideas.com.au

1. Keep it simple
2. Make it actionable
3. Be benefit-oriented
4. Employ active voice
5. Use your customers’ words

That’s the high level overview. In future posts I will delve into each principle in detail. In the meantime, if you’d like to know more about Web Writing Principles and Writing for the Web you can check out the Strong Ideas website, or even send me an email directly (dana@strongideas.com.au) with your questions.

…sourced from the research results of my web usability guru, Jakob Nielsen:

• 78% : how many web readers only scan, not read, the words on a page

• 28% : how many words on a page the average visitor reads

• 25% : how much longer it takes to read words on a screen than words on a print page

• 50% : the word count that should be included in web pages versus print pages

These statistics support the need for very clear and concise writing on websites. Forget the fluff and jargon; get rid of the ‘marketese’. Stick to getting a clear and meaningful message across. Readers simply don’t have the time or inclination to read anything that doesn’t really matter.

I’ve been asked to re-vamp Surfside Security System’s entire website. I’m working with my designer to re-design the structure and the words to be more user-friendly, and to incorporate online lodging of service requests.

My systematic approach to a website writing or rewriting request is to begin with a Client Briefing. At this meeting I use a questionnaire template to glean insight into the client’s business, business objectives, website objectives, customers, and most importantly their target website readers.

Based on my Client Briefing with Surfside Security Systems and on their current “About Us” page, I have transformed the words on their “About Us” page from this:

_______________________________________________________________
Surfside Security Systems specialises in the installation and service of electronic security equipment to High-rise, multi unit dwellings, commercial premises, estates and residential homes.

We don’t “just” install, we Project Manage from start to finish, inclusive of monitoring and future maintenance of all equipment, ensuring we provide a “one stop shop” for all your electronic security needs.

Since its formation in 1988, Surfside Security Systems has grown steadily and currently employs management staff, qualified installation and service technicians, clerical/coordination staff and technical support persons.

Our managers combine many years of technical experience together with a hands on approach to their projects enabling the development of highly professional work teams within the field.
To ensure our staff have the skills required for specific projects, we believe in training our staff and technicians in all aspects of services that we cover.

We are members of the following associations; ASIAL and the ECA, ensures that our quality, efficiency, service and equipment are governed by the high standards set by ASIAL. This in turn ensuring the best for our clients.

Surfside Security Systems are certified Innerange “Concept” Access Control installers.
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to this:

The “one-stop-shop”
for your electronic security requirements

Surfside Security Systems provides design, installation and service of electronic security systems to meet your unique security needs.

Local
Surfside Security Systems was established on the Gold Coast in 1988. Our clients in the Gold Coast and South Brisbane regions benefit from our local knowledge and quick response time.

Experienced
Surfside Security has been in business for over 20 years. That’s not just 20 years of experience, that’s 20 years of research into the best security solutions and how to service them. That’s why even when our competitors can’t fix your security system, WE CAN.

Efficient
We don’t just “install” your security system. We consult with you to make sure we understand your needs; we propose the best solution for you; and we project manage your system from start to finish, including on-going maintenance. So when we get the work done, we get it done right.

Expert
Our managers and technicians combine many years of technical experience and hands-on service with on-going training. And you can be sure you are getting top quality service from us because we are members adhering to the strict standards of ASIAL and the ECA.

Contact Us
Give yourself peace of mind. Contact us to take care of your security needs.

I often get asked to write “About Us” pages for clients. It’s an essential page for most business websites; it’s where readers have an opportunity to connect with you by getting to know your history, values, purpose, and brand background.

But how do you write an “About Us” page that still follows the usability guideline of customer-benefit-oriented writing? How can you make your “About Us” page personal, meaningful and persuasive? And how can you avoid the mistakes that many “About Us” pages make: providing useless ego-centric information, using hyperbole like “greatest” and “ultimate”, writing “fluffy” words and phrases instead of facts, and wording their way around what the business really does and who they do it for?

An “About Us” page needs to be scannable, concise, plain-spoken, and preferably written in second person (“you”, “we”).

A good rule of thumb is to structure your “About Us” page in an inverted pyramid style – that means putting the most important information first and then leading into less important and more detailed information as you progress.

A great starting point for the inverted pyramid style on an “About Us” page is a clear and meaningful tagline. Take out the fluff and succinctly state what you do or what you provide, from a user benefit perspective. Being catchy is great, but being concise is most important.

Follow your tagline with one or two summary paragraphs that provide a bit more detail about your business’ products, services or goals.

From there you can spread out into more facts or elaboration on key information.

Jakob Nielsen, a web usability expert, even suggests adding subsidiary pages with more depth for readers who want to learn more about your organisation.

A well-written “About Us” page will build rapport and credibility with your readers. A clearly written “About Us” page will help your readers understand you, and your site, as a whole. If you keep it mind the basic web usability principles and structure your page in an inverted pyramid style, you will be well on your way to utilizing your “About Us” section to really connect with your customers.

I’ve just posted an article on Buzzwords’ main website (see: buzzwords.ltd.uk/news_links.htm) which highlights the shaky ground on which the conventional wisdom of online ’search’ rests and how it relates to SEO and SEO copywriting.

Many people assume that the web pages which come top in a Google search are ’simply the best’, when in fact they are probably only the ‘best-optimised’. Of course, the search engines are working tirelessly to find an algorithm that delivers the ultimate search experience, while SEO types (including SEO copywriters) are working equally hard to manipulate their clients’ websites into pole position.

Whether the ultimate dream of matching round pegs with round holes will ever happen is doubtful.   Until then, clients looking for marketing success should embrace SEO and SEO copywriting with every dollar at their disposal!

You’ve done all the right things to get a solid online presence. Your site has a logical architecture and great design. It’s optimized for search engines and is ranking high on keyword results pages. Visitors are definitely arriving on your site to check it out. But then what?

If your visitors are not turning into customers, your website is not doing its job.

How can you tell if your website is working?

Have a look at your site statistics. What is your conversion rate? That means how many visitors are either making purchases on your site (if you are an online business), or how many visitors are turning into named leads? If your conversion rate is low – or nonexistent – your website is not effective, no matter how many people you get coming to it.

Your site statistics will also tell you what your bounce rate is. That means how many people arrive at a page on your website and then leave without doing anything. They don’t navigate through to any other pages. They don’t sign up for anything, or contact you, or leave their details. They don’t buy anything. If your bounce rate is over 40%, your website is not doing its job.

Get your website working.

The way to get your site working is to talk to your customers, call them to action, and make it easy for them.

You need to talk directly to your customers, and you need to think like them. They are at your site for a reason. What reason is it? What do they want? Are you giving it to them? And are you giving them an easy way to get it from you?

Your content needs to be customer focused.
• Use simple language and a conversational style
• Use first or second person (I, you)
• Be user-benefit oriented (talk about their needs and concerns, not about yourself)

Your content needs to be action-oriented.
• Craft relevant and compelling calls-to-action: special offers, online ordering, quote-request forms, downloadable ‘how-to’ guides, e-newsletter subscriptions
• Use calls-to-action on every page – don’t make users have to click through to action pages
• Use hyperlinks right in your copy to make navigation to other pages simple and compelling

Your content needs to be easy-to-use.
• Simplify any lead generation forms to make them quick, easy and comfortable
• Give users a way to contact you on every page instead of making them go to the ‘contact you’ page
• Make sure your phone number is visible on every page

Remember that your website is only effective if it’s actually working. Having lots of ‘hits’ and ranking high in search engine results won’t matter if your website doesn’t do its job when the visitors arrive. Try incorporating the methods outlined here, and watch your website work wonders!

I don’t stick hard and fast to short copy or long copy as a rule for website writing.  Each style has its proponents, and there are studies to support each as superior in converting readers to customers. (You can gain more insight into my view on website copy length in my post “How long should my website copy be”.)

What I’ve learned, though, is that there are some common instances which tend to warrant long copy.

Three of these cases are:

1. Expensive products: It takes prospects longer to commit to buying high priced products than inexpensive products.  Prospects need both more detailed information and more persuasion to be convinced to make the purchase decision.
2. Information based products: Prospects are looking for proof of the quality of information based products, and the way to illustrate it is by example.  Lots of examples – which generally means lots of copy.
3. E-commerce product pages in general: A recent study shows that 76% of online shoppers find insufficient content to complete their research or purchase online “always, most often or some of the time”.  Seventy-two percent of those shoppers then abandon the site and go to a competitor or research further online, typically finding what they want elsewhere.

The most important factor in determining the length for your website copy must be: Does it answer your prospects’ questions and provide the necessary information for them to be confident in making a purchase decision. 

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