subject: Tweak Your Website -- Get More Leads and Sales [print this page] Tweak Your Website -- Get More Leads and Sales
So use white space; subheadings; bullets; keywords highlighted, underlined, italicized or in bold; ellipses (...) and en dashes (-) between words.
Also put parentheses around text (for eye relief) ... and have lines no longer than around 65 characters (including spaces).
2. "It's About ME" v. "It's About YOU"
You must focus on yourreader's wants, not on showing off your business or website. People don't visit your website to be told how wonderful you are - they come to get useful info that helpsthem.
3. Stunning Design and Graphics, but Little Content
The old saying "Content is king" is true for the Internet too.Words, not graphics, sell.
Do this test: take away the words from your website and see if the graphics alone convey your sales message. Now take away your graphics, but leave your words in place. Unlike graphics,your words alone can persuade a customer to buy.
Your best option - both good designand compelling text.
4. Trying to Sell Instead of Inform
People come to a website for solutions to a problem, not to buy. If they sense any sales pressure, you'll lose them in the click of a mouse.
Make your website look like aneditorial, not a sales pitch.
People want you to genuinely help them, not see them as just another sale.
This is very important, andmost websites make this mistake!
5. Full of Hype
"Hype" is an outrageous claim without evidence to support it. Visitors want info, info, info, and proof (studies, testimonials, credentials) to back it up, not a slick cyber salesman trying to manipulate them into buying the latest and greatest.
6. Spelling and Grammar Mistakes
Screams, "Unproffesional!" (See what I mean?) Cuts your credibility, and credibility is vital. People won't buy from you unless theytrust you.
7. Using Flash Animations
Your job is to inform, not entertain. People come to your website looking for info to solve their problems.
It's distracting and annoying trying to read text when a part of the page is moving. Slows people down, and most 21st-century visitors are in ahurry.
The last thing you want to do with precious visitor traffic that comes to your website is irritate them.
8. Using Pop-Up Ads
People don't visit your website to buy (not at first, anyway), but to getinfo, as I've already said a few times. If you annoy them with pop-up ads, visitors may click away to another site.
Your aim is to keep visitors reading your website as long as possible, so you must make it "sticky" - have useful, uniquecontentwithout annoying distractions that rudely intrude.
In a Gartner poll, 78% of respondents said they found pop-ups "very annoying."
9. Bad Page Titles
Page titles must say what's on each page - to help your visitor who wants to bookmark or save your page. Do all you can to make each visiteasy andmemorable.
10. Long, Dense Web Pages
Visitors are in a hurry - they don't want to scroll through long pages of dense text to find info.
So use plenty ofwhite space and put the most vital info at thetop of your web pages.
Web content should beconcise anduseful to your visitors - 50% the length of its paper equivalent.
To sum up: web usability expert Jakob Nielsen sayseffective websites areconcise,scannable, andobjective.
2006 Eldo Barkhuizen BA, HDE
Eldo Barkhuizen,http://www.arrowcopy.com, is a direct response and web copywriter based in the UK. Using tested, powerful strategies he will help you transform your website into a 24/7 money magnet.
