Ten Tips To Make Your Web Page Text Stand Out

Studies have shown what you already know to be true – reading a web page’s text is very different to reading a printed page. Many people dislike reading web pages so much that they print them out to read in greater detail later, however, most visitors to your web site will simply skim through your content and make very quick judgment as to whether or not it is worth printing and reading later.

If you are one of the many small business owners turned newbie web authors, you need to know a few simple guidelines for publishing reader-friendly, effective web page text that will have your visitors staying around for more.

Make Your Point and Make it Fast!
You have to grab your visitor’s attention immediately so that in those few precious moments that a visitor scans your web page to see if it is relevant to them, they can see that it is. How is this achieved?

Here are my top ten tips to writing effective web copy:

1. Bold/enlarge your subject headings so that they are clear.

2. Use short sentences and very short paragraphs – a few sentences per paragraph tops.

3. Break up long content and link it to bullet points at the top of the page.

4. Give concise information – get to the bare bones fast, don’t waffle!

5. Cross-reference your content with other pages.

6. Keep content relevant to the subject header – extraneous information should go elsewhere.

7. Make use of white space to make your text easy to read.

8. Format your page’s text content width to narrow – don’t make visitors scan long lines of text – they won’t for long.

9. Use your keywords in a manner that won’t bore the reader – don’t needlessly repeat them: Google might like you some, but your readers won’t.

10. Well written, relevant content is important – use a spell checker so typos don’t let you down.

Small business owners often leave their web sites full of old, stale content. If you are a small business owner in this situation, and you want to write standout web content but don’t have time to add new copy, take the above tips and re-work what you already have. You don’t have to spend hours cranking out new web content because often aesthetic enhancements can go a long way to making your web site an easy read.

Tweet This Post

Traffic Building Resolutions for the New Year and Beyond

With a new year we become all encompassed in new year’s resolutions and finding new ways to do things that maybe didn’t work so well for us before. But let’s use this time to go over some proven traffic building techniques that don’t cost anything, are easy to implement, and will bring more traffic to your website soon. Just make the scheduling of these techniques a resolution and let me know how they worked for you.

Open your lines of communication with the following:

Forums and Social Networking Community Sites.
Take advantage of online forums and online social networks and communities. The great thing about forums and online communities is that you can target a certain group that fits the certain demographic that you are looking for. You can discuss lots of things about the niche that you represent or offer. Another great advantage is that you know what you are getting into and you will be prepared.

With online communities and forums you can build a reputation for your company. Show them what you are made of and wow them with your range of expertise about your field. With that you can build a reputation and build trust with the people in your field of expertise and knowledge.

Send out Newsletters.
You can also make use of newsletters. Provide people with a catalog of your products and interesting and entertaining articles. If you make it really interesting and entertaining, more people will sign up for your newsletter and recommend it to other people. The more people who sign up for your newsletter, the more people there will be that will go to your site, thus increasing your traffic.

Link With Others.
Another great idea is trading links with other sites. You don’t have to spend a cent, all you have to do is reach an agreement with another webmaster. With exchanging links, the efforts of both sites will benefit both sites. Every visitor that goes to your partnered site could potentially click on the link of your site and visit your site as well. This works well especially when both sites feature the same niche.

Write Good Quality Content For Other Websites.
Write articles that could pique the attention of people that have interest in your product. Try writing articles that will provide tips and guides to other aficionados. Writing articles that provide good service and knowledge to other people can provide the necessary mileage your traffic flow needs.

Many sites offer free submission and posting of articles. When people have interest in your articles there is a good chance they’ll visit your website. Include a link or a brief description of your company with the article and there’s a great probability that they will go to your site.

Write Good Quality Web copy for Your Own Site.
Write good content for your site. Many search engines track down the keywords and keyword phrases your site uses and how they are used. It is not a requirement that a content should be done by a professional content writer. You could do your own but you have to make content for your site that is entertaining as well as informational. It should provide certain requirements as well as great quality.

Generally, internet users use search engines to find what they are looking for. Search engines in return use keyword searching in aiding their search results. With the right keywords, you could get high rankings in search engine results without paying for it

It’s very gratifying to find people coming to your website without having spent a lot of time to get them there. Of course work takes time, and there is a cost to your time, but if you are on a limited budget then these tips are especially geared toward you because these techniques won’t need you to open your wallet.

All of these methods will drive more traffic to your site for free, so get your planner out and schedule time in your day to putting these tips into action and watch your web stats improve.

Tweet This Post

Above the Fold? Re-Thinking Your Web Copy

Sometimes when I have a design job I am told, “We want all our text ‘above the fold.’” When asked why, often the answer is because somebody in the company had mentioned that they heard it was a good idea not to have any web content below the fold.

I can see the logic – text above the fold can be read without having to scroll, which makes it more likely to be read in those precious few moments a visitor’s eyes first meet your site, but where exactly is the fold?

On my desktop computer, with a regular 19 inch monitor, my browser window has several tool bars open and I still have several inches of screen space. Switch over to my laptop, with a 15.4 inch widescreen monitor, and nary a tool bar, and the fold hits almost immediately – there is barely depth enough for a header, a photo and a couple of paragraphs.

I like to keep the good stuff above the fold – but not all of it – because web copy is important and its importance doesn’t drop off because it is below a very hard to define area.

The word count on your web page needs to be high enough to impart information not only to your readers, but also search engine robots so they can ascertain how relevant your content is for their search queries.

You might think it a waste of time to write a lot on a web page because people don’t read the same way on the web as they do with print; but the fact is that with all things being equal, long copy will outperform short copy each and every time.

Now don’t get confused with long copy and boring copy. You don’t want boring copy – you want quality copy.

Very few people will read your entire web page’s content. They either have to be researching something, or they have plenty of time on their hands! Whichever is true, the longer your web page [when trying to get a sale] the much more effective it is than a short one.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you are your prospect. What might seem long to you, especially if you wrote it and edited it several times, may not seem that way your readers. You need time to build their trust through examples, testimonials and money back guarantees, for example. You can’t just expect to show up online and seal the deal within a few hundred words.

Now there have been many studies and split tests conducted on long copy versus short copy. The far and away winner is always long copy. But remember that’s targeted relevant long copy.

So, what kind of long copy are we talking about? Well here are some great online examples:

Google Ambush
The Magic of Making Up
Earth For Energy

Research on long copy has shown that readership typically drops off dramatically at around 300 words, which on this post was at the ‘Very few people will read your entire web page’s content’ part in paragraph eight, but interestingly it does not drop off again until around 3,000 words – and I am not going to write that much here, I promise, as I’d need to come up with another 2,500!

So let’s end with a brief word on your target readership, since that’s who you are lasering in on. Know who your true audience is. It is vital. Writing long copy and promoting something to an audience that has little or no interest in it is pointless – it’s a time and money loser for you.

Tweet This Post

How to Write An Article For Your Website

Article and content writing for your website is important because it is a guaranteed way to get better search engine rankings. Update your website frequently with fresh, original, captivating content that is more than just a couple of paragraphs long, and you will be the recipient of some pretty impressive Google love in a short amount of time.

Whether you need to write an article, paper or book you need to start with an outline – it’s your plan of action. You need more than just an outline though; you need a good outline – one that has ample points so that you can write enough about your subject.

Keep this in mind when you think about how to write an article for the web:  The delivery of the written word on a web page needs to be very different to that of a printed page because most people reading web pages scan them to see if the content is relevant to them.

So when writing an article for your website think about how you can make your visitors’ reading time as easy as possible, so they read more, get interested, bookmark your web page and come back again.

Think quality. Write quality articles.

If you really do not have the time or inclination to write yourself you can easily hire a copywriter to do the work for you, but think about all the knowledge on a subject that you have, that you can communicate to your reader. You have so much knowledge to share and it is just a matter of getting it down coherently on paper.

Unless you are a professional writer [and even if you are] you want to write an outline, then a draft, and then re-drafts, until your article is right.

If you are writing for a blog it is a lot easier to be a little casual with your writing style, and that is why blogs are so popular with bloggers, as well as their audiences; but if you are writing for business – mean business, and write in a professional manner.

Rome wasn’t built in a day and neither is a great literary piece. Sometimes an article can be knocked out relatively quickly, but take time not only to write, but also review.

A good technique for writing your best work is to outline and draft it, and then leave it for a day. By taking time away from your writing you can return to it with a fresh perspective and ideas.

So the next time you have to think about how to write an article for your website, take a little time to plan your content with an outline. And then allocate time for writing, as well as re-writing your work while anticipating the Google love getting ready to flow your way.

Tweet This Post