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Blog posts tagged website content
Writing for websites
July 07, 2011
A funny thing comes over some businesses when they start putting together their web copy. Rather like having a posh “telephone voice”, they write about themselves in an artificially “proper” way.
Instead of saying, “we run coaching workshops for new businesses”, they’ll write “we facilitate training sessions to leverage success for business.’” It’s a bit like having Hyacinth Bouquet answering your office phone. More than a little off-putting.
When I’m writing web copy, I imagine I’m telling someone in the same room. My tone is conversational. I use the same words to explain something that I’d use if you were sitting next to me. Good web copy makes a connection with its reader. Lacing your sentences with unnecessarily long words puts your readers at a distance, and that’s not where you want them.
Sometimes I think it’s a confidence thing. People don’t feel they’ll be taken seriously if they talk in everyday language. Big words are good for hiding behind. My advice would be to take a deep breath, and just tell it how it is.
Top five web writing tips
1. Be clear. Say it out loud before you write it down.
2. Use short sentences. They’re easier to understand.
3. Keep technical language to a minimum. Of course some pages demand it — especially if your offer is a technical one. But your Home page and About Us copy should certainly be straightforward.
4. Be accurate. A conversational tone doesn’t mean you can forget your grammar. Good grammar ensures your writing makes sense.
5. Get to the point. There’s no room for rambling digressions in web copy. Users want information fast, so cut anything superfluous and give important stuff room to breathe.
Sharon Tanton is an expert contributor to Marketing Donut, a freelance copywriter and marketing consultant and a Valuable Content associate.
Read more on writing copy for your website:
Create local landing pages and gain new customers
June 14, 2009
If you have a website and want to gain new customers, why not build landing pages optimised for search terms with geographic modifiers. If that sounds like gibberish, I’m talking about creating special pages to attract potential customers who enter (for example) ‘copywriter Norwich’ instead of just ‘copywriter’ into search engines.
Because location searches are more specific, there’s generally less competition for them, increasing your chances of achieving good SEO results.
For example, as I write, my page on Copywriters in London ranks at #4 in Google and #1 at Yahoo, outperforming the sites of dozens of other copywriters who really are in London!
When visitors click through to the page, it explains that they could get practically the same level of service from a copywriter in Norwich and save money, since our overheads are inevitably lower.
Is it ethical? Am I bending the truth? Believe me, I’ve agonised over this. But I only considered it when I saw competitors doing the same thing. And all I’m really doing is creating a page about finding copywriters in London, not masquerading as a London copywriter.
Does it sell? I believe so, although I don’t always grill my new clients on how they found me (I know I should). You’ve got to be realistic. Drop-off rates will inevitably be high when people seeking local suppliers twig that you’re 100 miles away. But some are bound to be convinced.
If you want to do something similar, just create a web page with 300-500 words of text talking about finding your product or service in your target location and linking that to your own offering. Explain how you can easily reach customers in the location and, if appropriate, mention any clients you already have there.
Make sure you use your keywords in your HTML page title, heading tags and throughout the text. Aim for a keyword density of around 5% - you can check it here. Use keywords in the document name too (Yahoo likes this).
The ‘description’ meta tag carries no weight for SEO, but may still appear in search results. So you can use it to grab searchers’ attention with a punchy message like ‘Looking for an electrician in London? Call our national helpline to find a reliable, affordable contractor.’ (For more help with SEO writing, see this guide to SEO Copywriting.)
Remember, your page is primarily aimed at search engines. You don’t really want people to read it! So make sure people who arrive at it can easily click through to your home page, perhaps via a link in the first sentence.
To boost rankings further, link to your page from blog posts and online PR articles. The only thing you can’t do is get listed in local online directories for your target locality - although you could always make that possible by investing in a virtual office.
A final word of warning - if people do choose you, they’ll be expecting you to match the service a local supplier could provide. Make sure you can keep your promises!
Learning from the competition
January 30, 2009
Whether you run a business yourself or are involved in business support, it doesn’t take a genius to recognise that businesses are interested in marketing. (Marketing, business planning and grants have consistently topped the charts since BHP started producing business advice in the early ‘90s.
But the Marketing Donut only makes sense if there’s a gap to be filled. Looking through hundreds of websites offering marketing resources convinced us that there is – and gave us a few key lessons on what we should be aiming for.
Not surprisingly, a lot of sites are driven by advertising. Fair enough, but sometimes it’s difficult to tell where the advertising ends and the content begins. Webpages that look like The Million Dollar Homepage and advertorial whose sole purpose is to get you to hand over your money are absolute no-nos.
Some sites do a great job covering a specific topic, but are far from comprehensive. Fine as far as it goes, but if you’re going to have to look for the right site each time you want a piece of marketing information you might as well stick with Google.
Then there’s a whole range of sites catering to marketing professionals in big corporates (and marketing students who hope one day to be marketing professionals in big corporates). Nice theory, shame about the reality.
SMEs need to understand the issues that matter and how marketing principles apply in practice. Overviews need to be backed up with detail while detailed explanations need to sit comfortably in the bigger picture. Tools that actually help you do the job are even better.
And however good a website’s content may be, if you can’t find the information you want it might as well not be there.
These key principles have informed the development of the Marketing Donut. Have we delivered? – we’ll soon know.
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