Back to basics. Forget funky design, good writing is the key to a clear and intuitive website.
By Glenn Murray*
Are you losing business because of your website? More and more customers are logging on to the Web to decide where to spend their money because it is quick and convenient, and they can jump from site to site instead of walking from store to store.
Web savvy customers don't need to be patient, studies have shown that you need to engage a potential customer very quickly by giving them easy, fast access to the information they need. Otherwise they will simply move on to the next site.
Appealing design and speedy functionality are important but they don't ensure that your site is well structured (intuitive) or well written (clear). If clear and intuitive is what you want, there are two golden rules:
* Write first, build later.
* Be brief and clear.
Write First
The real message on most websites is in the writing, and so it makes sense that the writing should determine the structure. Unfortunately, this is not the usual case. Most businesses choose the structure and design of their site first and then try and fit the writing around that structure. This flies in the face of commonsense. When you speak to someone, you structure your speech around your message, you don't decide on a structure then change the message to suit. So you need to plan what you want to say before you create the site. Maybe even write the whole thing first and then use the message to determine the structure.
When deciding what to write, think about what your customer wants to know rather than what you want to say. It's a subtle difference, but it is the key to engaging a potential customer.
Most customers will want to know the basics:
* What do you do?
* What benefit can you offer them?
* Why should they choose your service or product?
* What does it cost?
* How can they contact you?
* Where are you located?
Brevity & Clarity
Your website has to communicate a lot of information and to make matters worse, you are going to have limited space. Ideally, your customer won't have to scroll on any page (all your information will fit in a single window) and that single view will need to contain more than just words. The design and navigation elements take up about a third of a window, and you should leave a bit of room for white space (you don't want to overwhelm the customer). As a rule of thumb you should expect to have about half the window free for text.
How you are going to fit all your information in such a confined space? This is where writing skills come in - choose your words very carefully.
Websites can be an extremely powerful piece of marketing collateral. You can reach millions of potential customers for as little as a few hundred dollars. Unfortunately, your competitors are all doing the same thing - it's a level playing field but there are a lot of players.
It is important that your message is structured and well thought out, otherwise your site will be a mess and no-one will bother to read about your business. If your message is clear, your site will be simple and easy to use. It's all in the words.
* Glenn Murray heads copywriting agency Divine Write. He can be contacted on (02)43346222 or at glenn@divinewrite.com. Visit www.divinewrite.com for further details.
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
If you're reading this and your web site doesn't contain any body text on the home page, give yourself a good smack and go to your room without supper. When you're ready to behave and design your site with the search engines in mind, come back out and read this article.
The simple truth is this: search engines read text and not much else. You absolutely, positively need to use text on the pages of your site that you want indexed and ranked highly. Not graphical text that you created in your fancy design software, but actual, visible body text. Not sure if your site uses graphical or body text? A good rule of thumb that I learnt from search engine guru Danny Sullivan is to try and highlight the text with your mouse. If you can drag your mouse over the text when viewing it in a browser, chances are this is body text and the search engines can read it.
Ok, so you've created your body copy and your site pages are loaded with good old-fashioned text. But your job's not over! Now you need to get targeted. Search engines aren't going to rank your web site about socks highly if your body copy talks about foot sizes. You need to get specific. If you sell socks, then for heaven's sake, make sure your site copy has plenty of references to the word socks! At the risk of sounding like Dr Seuss, if you want to be found for, big socks, small socks, cotton socks and wool socks, then mention them all. Better still, sort your copy into categories based on your products and services. If you sell blue socks AND red socks, then have a page dedicated to each kind. This allows you to target niche keywords within your copy and meet the relevancy guidelines for logical search queries.
It sounds so obvious, but I'm constantly amused by the number of web sites I see selling particular items without once making reference to those items in their body copy. For example, there are thousands of sites on the Internet promoting web site design services right? Next time you see one, take a look at their body copy. You'll be surprised how often you'll see flashy looking sites without a single mention of the phrase "web site design" in their page copy. Instead they'll use fancy all graphic pages or Flash movies. Or if they do use body text, it might include cryptic jargonised language like "Internet Solutions" or "online brand building".
What the heck does this tell a search engine about their business? Absolutely nothing. Are these sites going to be considered a relevant match for search queries about "web site design"? No way! The creators of these sites might think they're being clever, but they are really missing the boat entirely. What's the point of having a web site if you are going to sabotage its ability to be found?
Anyway, back to you and your web site. So now you've added plenty of text to your pages and the copy flows well for the reader. You've researched your keywords and phrases using WordTracker or something similar and now you're faced with the dilemma of integrating the keywords into your carefully written copy. So how do you satisfy the search engine's craving for keywords without interrupting the copy flow for the reader? The answer is: very carefully.
Let's take a look at a practical example. We have a client that specializes in luxury adventure travel. Before I optimized their site, part of the home page copy read like this:
"We specialise in providing vacations for people who want a personal service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top travel providers. We can put together packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Extensive WordTracker keyword research for the client had determined that the home page should target the following key phrases:
· adventure travel · best adventure vacations · tailored travel · overseas adventure travel · luxury travel packages
So taking our original home page text, the challenge was to integrate these keywords carefully and naturally so as not to disturb the logical flow of the copy and lose the interest of the visitor. Here's how I did it:
"We specialize in providing the best adventure vacations for people who want a personal and tailored travel service. We bring to our efforts a fanatical obsession with quality and exclusivity. We also bring a freshness, an outward-going passion for discovery which justifies our growing reputation as one of the world's top overseas adventure travel providers. We can put together luxury travel packages that include all adventure activities, accommodation, transport and food".
Note that the key phrase "overseas adventure travel" accommodates the phrase "adventure travel" too. Voila! The search engines are happy because the site contains text content relevant to related search queries, the client is happy because we were able to integrate the keywords without distracting the visitor and I'm happy because I know the site is going to rank highly for the client's target search terms.
Now go and apply the same principles to your own site...
Copyright © Kalena Jordan 2002
About the Author: Article by Kalena Jordan, CEO of Web Rank. Kalena was one of thefirst search engine optimization experts in Australasia and is well known and respected in the industry worldwide. For more of her articles on search engine ranking and online marketing, please visit http://www.high-search-engine-ranking.com
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
I am constantly bombarded with all sorts of advertisements, single-page sites, and sites offering very little real content but some wonderful new "product" or "service" for sale that purports to make its customers wealthy beyond their wildest dreams.
For the purposes of this article, let's refer to Amazing Formula (http://www.amazingformula.com) as an example of such a site. (Note: I have never purchased this product and can make no claim, verification or guarantee one way or the other as to its effectiveness. The sole purpose of my mentioning this site is as a study of the ad copy within.)
There isn't very much in terms of "content"; the marketing of the "bribes" is confined to a single page, with a hyperlink to "testimonials" which may or may not be legitimate. Yet, this site has been around in some form for nearly four years, according to The Internet Wayback Machine (http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.amazingformula.com), with the same basic "content" and no significant updates. Why? Because it works.
What makes this website and others like it profitable, even without a significant content update in 4 years? The sales copy. The sales copy of this page uses simple, but effective techniques to trigger the user into buying the product, in this case a CD-ROM indicating how to sell anything to anyone at any time. Let's look at some of these techniques now.
That's right, I, Adam Senour, am going to give away millions of dollars' worth of secrets to you and I'm going to do it WITHOUT CHARGING YOU A SINGLE RED CENT!!! No e-books to download, No expensive CD-ROMs to purchase, No courses to subscribe to, NOTHING! You too will be a website copy writing genius, able to sell your goods and services at will!
Short paragraphs. Users traditionally don't wish to read long blocks of text. They like information concise, simple, and to the point.
"You" words/second-person perspective. This is arguably the most misunderstood and underrated aspect of copy writing. When reading sales copy, users are looking not for general information on the product. They want the answer to one simple question: "What's in it for me?" Using words such as "you", "your", and "yourself", while being generic in nature, go a long way toward establishing a website rapport with your customers.
Bold, Underline, Italics. Highlighting important phrases with bold, underline, and italics allows your customer to quickly scan and decipher the nature of your copy and the key elements of it. Bold, underline, and italics can be used in conjunction with colour to further distinguish vital elements of your marketing message. However, it is strongly advised that you use bold, underline, and italics sparingly in order to ensure that only your most important points are receiving the full attention of your customers.
The colour coding of important words, and the selection of those colours. "Cool" colours such as Blues and greens are traditionally used to relax the user and put him/her in a positive mood conducive to sales; and "hot" colours such as reds, yellows and oranges are meant to incite the user into making a purchasing decision.
Headings and subheadings. Headings and subheadings should be used to break up long blocks of text into shorter and easier-to-read sections. In the case of the Amazing Formula website, graphic headings are used to break up the content; however, for search engine reasons, you may wish to consider text-based headings to split up your content into sections.
Bullet lists. These lists can be numbered, as this one is, or they can be unordered, as the Amazing Formula ones are. There doesn’t seem to be much difference in either event, as long as the copy for each bullet remains concise and to the point as in point 2; although the unordered list bullets can be stylized with graphics, as the Amazing Formula website has done.
A call to action. What do you want your customer to do? Where would you like them to go next? Give your customer at least one clear and understandable path to follow to make the appropriate action. In the case of the Amazing Formula site, there are not one, but 2 "Click to order via our secure server!" buttons as well as an order hyperlink in the menu on the top of the page. The garden path, albeit a very short one in this case, is clearly laid out for the customer to follow.
These are the seven secrets of The Shriekers. Implementing them on your website should lead to a significant increase in sales and profits.
Adam Senour is the owner of ADAM Web Design, a leading web design and development company in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
You give away something for free and suddenly you have a bunch of leads for your business opportunity,a ton of sales for your web store and a successful online business. That is what internet marketing is all about.
The internet giants like Yahoo,Google and Microsoft are living proof of this philosophy. Millions of people visit these web sites everyday . These web sites provide free content which in turn equals tons of sales.
Yahoo started out as a hobby web site and is now the number one most visited web site on the world wide web. Microsoft created hotmail which currently allows thousands of internet users to create a free e-mail account. Google is one of the best search engines on the internet providing highly relevant results.
Here are some examples of free content provided by these highly successful web sites.
1.News
2.Sports
3.Business
4.Technology
5.Entertainment
6.e-mail
7.Directories
8.Tool bars
9.Limited Trials
10.Chat Rooms
If you currently have a web site producing small results, you may be trying too hard to sell your products, services, or business opportunity.
Your web site will become successful when you realize that the large majority of people surfing the internet are looking for information. Become a provider of information and you will create viral traffic to your web site plus build long term relationships with clients.
Tips to promote your web site:
- Give away a free course or report in exchange for an email address.
- Have a trial for a limited time for some of your products and services.
- Write articles to promote your web site and create a resource box in the bottom of your article.
- Give away an e-book in exchange for an e-mail address.
- Create a categorized links directory.
- Start your own e-zine.
- Give away free greeting cards.
- Offer a free gift or certificate to repeat customers.
With a little bit of thought and creativity you can implement any of these strategies into your marketing plan. Keep in mind that the whole purpose of giving away something for free is to receive something in exchange.
You want to create hundreds of prospects and collect their contact information. Build a relationship with these prospects and you will earn their trust which in turn will lead into hundreds of sales.
Finding content:
- Search any search engine for hundreds of free content and articles. Look for content that matches the theme of your web site.
If you have not started, start today. Remember this oxymoron: Giving away free Content yields lots in return: Long term relationships, repeat customers,Sales,Traffic,links and in conclusion,a successful online business.
Article by Benjamin Scott. Ben's main focus is to search the world wide web to find genuine and quality programs that allow individuals to conduct business online. Visit his website at http://www.1-marketingstrategies.com for internet marketing tips and a free email marketing course.
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
Webmasters generally make a larger deal of this then it is. What you must remember, is we're all people, we're all webmasters, we'd like to think we're all professionals, and we're all doing the same thing. So the question remains, how does one ask for a link exchange?
Well, let me ask you first, this. How would you ask for anything that would bring you personal gain? How would you ask for a girl's or guy's number in a night club? Or a prospective clients details? See, all you're doing is selling yourself, only to a much more polite audience then you're used to.
Focus
The focus of a link request is the other person and their site. Be honest, real, specific and explain how it will benefit them. Start off talking about their site, and end talking about their site.
Personalize Find their information in the website. Address them by their real name, or whatever part of it was avaible to you. Actually look at their website (Yes, I know, a novel idea), and make comments based on specific areas and features you liked, and why you believe it will be a good resource for your visitors.
Sell Sell your idea. Show them the benefits of linking to you. Maybe giving their users a real resource, or sending them traffic or PageRank.
Incentive Offer an incentive. Do you offer products and services on your site for a fee? If it's something intangible (an e-book, or access to your members area), maybe you can offer them this for free. If they are significantly larger then you, you could offer to bold their anchor text, or put their link near the top. Again, sell yourself.
Flexibility Be flexible. These days, Webmasters are extremely interested in adding certain keywords to anchor text. Let them know the way you have their link now can be changed, and you're more then willing to comply to any requests they have.
It's easier then you think. Be polite. Calm down. Have fun. Yes it takes time, yes it's tedious, but it's a must.
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
If you're going to sell any type of product or service online, you're eventually going to have to optimize your Web site for the Search Engines, in order to boost traffic and sales.
Many years ago, it was quite easy to draw effective traffic, as a good content-driven site, with good products, was enough to get a Web site ranked highly in the Search Engines. The competition has increased one thousand times over since then, with billions of Web sites existing online now, making for some very stiff competition in the area of Search Engine placement and rankings.
This increase in competition has given rise to many different styles, and many different methods of
Web site optimization. Optimization is simply the method of making a Web site "Search Engine friendly", by using methods of enhancement that will increase rankings and placement by placing the Web site higher in the SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).
Everything from software to increase rankings and placement, to
Search Engine Management and Marketing Firms exist, with many online merchants becoming confused about what or "whom" to use and how to effectively use the various services to increase rankings and placement.
The real battle seems to exist between those that favor "Organic SEO" as opposed to those that prefer "Non-Organic SEO". The term "organic" itself is defined by Webster's Dictionary as: instrumental; acting as instruments of nature or of art to a certain destined function or end (Webster's: 1913: 3).
"Organic SEO", also called "Natural SEO", is the most time consuming, and the most tedious method of optimization for placement and rankings. However, it is prone to longevity of results, as it has a focus on content, meta-tag enhancement using proper descriptions, keyword enhanced copy within the appropriate specified densities of the Search Engines, and link exchanges. In addition, keyword dense reports, articles, and other content materials are usually added in a routine fashion to a site to maintain the densities necessary and increase rankings and placement.
"
Organic SEO", if done properly in a step-by-step approach, can literally promote increased traffic and rankings for years. It can also contain overall marketing costs, as the use of PPC (Pay Per Click), is not needed as much with this method. The main drawbacks with this type of SEO, however, are the length of time it takes to properly implement all the steps necessary, and the length of time it takes the Search Engines to thoroughly spider and index a site that has implemented "Organic SEO".
"Non-Organic SEO", also called "Artificial SEO", can take many forms, and can use some "Organic SEO" coupled with other techniques. These techniques can include software generated keyword enhanced pages, some methods of re-directs, whereby traffic is shunted off from other sites, with their permissions, and software generated doorway pages and meta-tag descriptions. There are many different techniques that can be employed including rather controversial ones such as hidden text loaded with keywords, and tiny text.
Overall, "Non-Organic" SEO methods are quite popular, as it is a much quicker means to rankings and placement. Links might be purchased from "link farms" which are simply services that specialize in the promotion of links to others.
Although "Non-Organic SEO" can speed up rankings and placement initially, care needs to be given when using any of these methods. If keyword dense pages are automatically generated en masse, the Search Engines might view large sites, with large numbers of such pages as "Search Engine Spammers" and a risk of being banned does exist. In addition, pages may initially place very high, only to drop lower rather quickly, as the Search Engines still place a great emphasis on good content, which is not usually the focus of the "Non-Organic" type of SEO.
All in all, it really depends upon the overall purpose of a site, and the longevity of results desired by a Web master/site owner. It also depends upon how quickly results and sales are needed. For some seasonal sites, such as holiday-theme sites that only remain up for a few weeks or months, then the quicker method of "Non-Organic SEO" can be quite effective. On the other hand, if a Web master/site owner promotes a product or service to which they are committed for years, or perhaps a lifetime, then "Organic SEO" would definitely be the better choice of optimization method.
No matter which type of SEO methods are chosen or implemented, an ongoing campaign of optimization does need to exist, as the parameters that are used for the rankings and placement by the Search Engines, change frequently, and research into current methods needs to be done routinely.
As the old saying goes, "Different strokes for different folks", really applies to Search Engine Optimization and rankings and placement. The whole Search Engine Optimization process is really more "art than science", and continues to change daily.
- Vishal P. Rao is the editor of http://www.home-based-business-opportunities.com - A website dedicated to opportunities, ideas and resources for starting a home based business. He is also the owner of the http://www.work-at-home-forum.com - an online community of folks who work at home. -
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
Would you like to multiply your web site sales? Or course you would, who wouldn't? :) Then take a close look at the following 10 killer ways to multiply your sales...
1. When you make a sale, always follow-up with the customer. First you should follow-up with a "thank you" email.
Then, a few days later, you can follow-up up and as them if they are satisfied with their purchase or if they have any questions.
After a certain time, you should follow-up and ask them for their feedback, good or bad and possibly for a testimonial.
All your follow-up messages can include a small advertisement for other products you sell.
If you use a fn automated system to do this, it will not even take a minute of your time to do all the follow-ups.
2. You could upsell to your customers. When they're at your order page, tell them about a few extra related products you have for sale. They could just add it to their original order.
Or you can upsell your visitors from a standard version to a professional version of your product or service.
3. Tell your customers if they refer four customers to your web site, they will receive a full rebate of their purchase price. This will turn one sale into four sales.
This can be easily done placing a refer-a-friend form on your order "thank you" page.
4. When you sell a product, give your customers the option of joining an affiliate program so they can make commissions selling your product. This will multiply the sale you just made.
For example... do that in one of your follow-up messages mentioned in the first point above.
5. Sell the reprint/reproduction rights to your products. You could include an ad on or with the product for other products you sell. You could make sales for the reproduction rights and sales on the back end product.
You could also product licenses in bulk at a discounted rate to resellers. Then they can sell it at retail price and keep to profit.
6. You could cross promote your product with other businesses' products in a package deal. You can include an ad or flyer for other products you sell and have other businesses selling for you.
This is a great way to joint venture with other businesses as it is mutual beneficial for both sides.
7. When you ship out or deliver your product, include a coupon for other related products you sell in the package. This will attract them to buy more products from you.
Of course you can also include coupon codes in one of your follow-up emails.
8. Send your customers a catalog of add-on products for the original product they purchased. This could be upgrades, special services, attachments, etc. If they enjoy your product they will buy the extra add-ons.
If you create an online catalog for delivery by email (again, this is good for another follow-up email), I recommend to use Adobe Acrobat to create a PDF catalog.
This way your customers will be able to read it, no matter what operating system they use on their computer.
9. Sell gift certificates for your products. You'll make sales from the purchase of the gift certificate, when the recipient cashes it in. They could also buy other items from your web site.
To do that online, you could simply send the customer a personal coupon code, that they can on to the lucky person.
10. Send your customers free products with their product package. The freebies should have your ad printed on them. It could be bumper stickers, ball caps, t-shirts etc. This will allow other people to see your ad and order.
Online you could give them free versions or trial copies of your other products, together with their paid product.
Resources:
Follow-up autoresponder system: Add2it AutoRespond Pro http://www.add2it.com/scripts/autorespond-pro.shtml
Refer-A-Friend system: Add2it ReferThem Pro http://www.add2it.com/scripts/referthem-pro.shtml
-
Frank Bauer is the owner of Add2it.com - Scripts & Services for your Web Business and the publisher of the More4you Newsletter. To see how he can help you, visit: http://add2it.com/about.shtml
Reprinted from
Zongoo.com Daily Press & Consumer Information
