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Help Me Write Better Website Copy

Help Me Write Better Website Copy
A website is essential to a business. The most convenient way to purchase an item or service is usually via the Internet, so your website needs to emulate the identity of your business in the most effective way. This article will assist you in creating a barebones website into a dynamic sales tool that draws in your intended audience and converts them into faithful clients or customers.

1) Apply the Rules of Plain English

It's alluring to use elegant words to present your services or products with panache. However, complex language can hinder your website viewers from relating to your business. To encourage new customers to buy they must understand the language on your website. Use basic English—the kind you use in everyday dialogue. A friendly, conversational approach will help you convey the perks of conducting business with you. Use complex words sparingly. If a word has over two syllables, then pick a simpler one.

2) Online Readers Like Brief Sentences

Overzealous business owners usually commit the sin of over-explaining stuff on their websites. Indeed, you do want to offer your customers sufficient info about your company. However, excessive words or excessive web pages might intimidate and confuse them. If you plan to "impress" and not distress your website readers, then use:

a) Concise sentences.
b) Short product/service details.
c) As few web pages as practical.

3) Use Specific, Concrete Words

Use appealing adjectives, not ordinary descriptions. Words like "vibrant" and "heavenly" will stimulate your viewers to invest more in your company than words like "good" and "cool." Again, avoid complicated language, as well as words sounding too plain and boring.

How else can you empower your words? With images, of course! Not really surprising, photos, pictures, visuals, and illustrations can coax people to read and navigate through your website. Website visitors can assimilate images more easily, so the perfect image complementing your text can quickly engage their interest. Position useful images near your content to pique your readers' attention.

4) Use the Homepage for First Impressions

Choose the most engaging aspects of your business and feature them on the homepage. To determine what attributes to feature, ask yourself:

a) What do clients love about my business?
b) What service or product do people demand the most?
c) What are three things that my clients must know right now?

You have a lot of flexibility in deciding what to feature on your homepage. The above questions will help stimulate your thinking. Sometimes it is more ideal to highlight two strong attributes of your business than to clutter the homepage with less important information. Spark your visitors' interests immediately and they'll remain longer on your website. Remember, the quality—not the quantity—of your words will drive people to buy.

5) Eliminate Gobbledygook

A lot of business websites teem with technical, inflated writing that does nothing but confuse people. Here's my advice to maintain clarity and coherency:

  1. Maintain an average sentence length of 8-16 words only.
  2. Keep all sentences under 30 words.
  3. Favor active verbs, not passive verbs.
  4. Use everyday, simple words.
  5. Trim excessive words.
  6. Minimize jargon, generic words, and slang.
  7. Explain difficult or ambiguous words.
Writing your web content in plain English is not dumbing down your writing; rather, it's inviting readers to understand what you are writing without having to ask questions.

6) Help Readers Scan Your Webpage with Ease

Because typical online readers like to scan a webpage for relevant information, organize your information from most to least important. Use headings in a pecking order of font sizes, bold weight, color, charts, graphs and images so busy readers can browse through your site to locate the info they want. Once they've located the specific text, they'll then stop scanning and start reading.

Here are more tips to help readers find their information:

  1. Explain in distinct words the purpose of your website on the homepage.
  2. Explain how your website is different from other sites.
  3. Place your information from most to least important on your webpage.
  4. Use short, specific headings that include both distinct nouns and action verbs.
  5. Begin paragraphs with main topic sentences.
  6. Keep paragraphs under 100 words.
  7. Use a list-style format to emphasize important information.
  8. Link to less important information.
  9. Favor white space between sentences, paragraphs, and margins.
  10. Use an easy-to-read standard webfont throughout the website.
  11. Use common-sense navigation to make your website simple to browse.




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