subject: How To Design A Website With Effective Copy [print this page] The Jones Company was founded at the turn of the last century. Unfortunately for them, their website looks like it was written at the same time. Being in business for decades is a testament to good business practices. However, The Jones Company needs to remember its a new century and their website should reflect that.
Writing effective web copy isnt easy. But good copy is essential to ensuring that your visitors can understand how your website works and what it can do for them.
People dont read websites the same way they read print material. There are three key characteristics that affect how web users react to online content.
Web users are active, not passive: One click and theyre gone. If they dont see a reason to stay on your site, theyll leave in as little as 15 seconds after they get there.
The longer the text, the less likely they are to read it: and the faster theyll skim it, if they bother to skim it at all.
They dont believe hype. If you want a web user to believe what you say, you have to back it up.
To be effective, your web copy must take these characteristics into account.
There are four basic questions a user has that you must answer on every page: What am I doing here, How do I do it, Whats in it for me, and Where can I go next?. If your sites navigation and design doesnt make the answers obvious to even a first-time visitor, then you should use copy to explain them.
Dont count on your sites visitors to figure things out for themselves, half of them wont bother to try, and half the rest wont succeed.
Unless a visitor arrives at a particular page on your site expecting to find something to read, he or she probably wont read more than one or two lines of text. And the longer the text, the less likely he is to read any of it. Dont add long copy to any page where your visitors arent looking for it.
The complexity of your copy matters as much as its length. Make sure visitors can understand short copy on its first reading, without stopping to think about it.
Think local. Imagine you are ready to buy something. It could be a car, a bicycle or simply a good cup of coffee. You do a Google search and realize that there is a store that sells exactly the item you want. Theres one problem thoughits in another state.
This is the problem that your customers run into when they are searching for you! Local Listings solve this problem because they are only displayed to local customers people who are searching in your own zip code or city.
Increase visibility. Consider the fact that mobile web usage has increased almost 500% from last year. You can bet most of these users are looking for services or products that are nearby. The same is true for regular computer users. If you arent optimizing for Local Search you may be missing on a tremendous opportunity and thousands of dollars in sales.
Most SEO companies will optimize your website for your local address (if they dont, drop them and call another SEO company), but most likely they are only optimizing for the natural listings and not for Local Listings. Trace Media can optimize your local listings to give you increased exposure on Google, Yahoo, Bing, etc. Traffic = Increased Conversion Rates
If you really want to take advantage of users looking for local businesses, you need to be submitted to as many local directories as possible. This will not only give you increased visibility across the web, but will also help improve your local Google ranking
So whether you have been in business for a century, a decade or a week, dont be one of those companies whose website looks like it is gasping its final breath. Instead be pro-active and give it frequent check-ups so it remains healthy and thriving.
