Are you aware that when visitors come to your site the quality and style of your web content can have an enormous impact on how your visitors behave once on your site? In particular if you’re trying to promote a product or a service, the way you say what you have to offer is very important for your success. This is because you must not lose your visitor’s interest before they click through to that all-important order page. So carry on reading if you want to know how to write selling web content to ensure plenty of sales.
The first and probably most important rule is to stress the benefits of using your site early on and as often as possible. Don’t focus on what you want, always focus on what your visitor wants – whether you realise it or not, when someone arrives on your homepage, they are only interested in what’s in it for them. They came to your site because they are searching for something, and it’s your job to ensure they find it.
The stark truth is that your site visitors don’t give a stuff about you and your business, all they care about is finding out what you and your site can do for them. Think about it; when you do a search for say “pet beds” in Google or Yahoo you are intently looking for a site that will allow you to buy a nice comfy bed for your favourite dog.
So when you click on the first site, you don’t want to get bombarded with lots of sentimental information about the proprietor’s elderly dog and how much he enjoys his special pet bed. You want to know how you can find that special bed for your own pet. You are immediately looking for the benefits of the site, product ranges and descriptions and above all how quickly you can get a delivery.
If you are trying to sell a product or a service, you must always feed your visitors the benefits and give them what they want and in your site content make sure you use the all important word, “YOU”. Constantly bear in mind, you are not writing this site for yourself, you’re writing it for your potential customers.
Don’t assume that people will read every word on your site – the average person will only take in between 5% – 10% of your site. This is because most people are in a rush and try to find what they’re looking for within the first few pages, therefore if you’re trying to sell something make sure your selling points and vital information are listed upfront and are easily read.
Visitors certainly will not read every page on your site and they won’t even read every word on the pages. They will quickly scan for information exactly like when they read a newspaper which is why it’s important to make sure your pages have lots of concise paragraphs separated by subtitles. This makes it easier for them to scan and find the information they’re looking for. If they hunt too long to find something they’ll simply leave and go elsewhere.
For this reason alone it’s vitally important to include excellent and easy to use navigation, that is accessible from every page; this is to help your content be found. In addition put some kind of site search facility, good content is the life blood of your site but it will serve no purpose if it’s not easily to hand for site users and do make sure that your navigation is consistent and doesn’t change from page to page. Don’t forget search engines need to find their way around your content so be sure to include a proper site map to help your content be found and improve your page ranking.
Once you’ve written your copy, it’s a good idea to leave it for a few days and then look at it afresh, preferably through your visitor’s eyes. It is a good idea to pretend you are visiting your site for the first time and read over all the content. Better still get an honest friend or colleague to run a critical eye over the whole thing, ask them to read every page of your site and note down any questions or comments that develop as they go along. You’ll be amazed and possibly disappointed at what you’ll discover when someone else reads your work.
Ask yourself if you have explained everything clearly and make sure that the content will make total sense to a first-time visitor to your site. Consider what questions a visitor might have and check whether you have left out some important information perhaps because you assumed the visitor already knows it. Maybe there some terms or key phrases that you need to define.
Does your content flow logically or is it all about face? Have you organised your thoughts before you started writing or do they jump all over the page? Remember if you develop content in your head as you write, it’s all too easy to produce copy that is random and illogical. Keep sentences and paragraphs reasonably short and make sure you read everything over to check whether your paragraphs and sentences do in fact flow logically.
Every page on your site should have a headline so do write effective attention grabbing headlines that also contain relevant keywords to help your SEO. Bear in mind that as a headline is the first thing a person sees, it must make an impact and draw the reader into your copy. To write effective headlines always use the present tense, make sure your words consist of upper and lowercase letters – a headline written all in capitals is like shouting at people and looks very unprofessional.
Try to use strong verbs and call your visitor to action with titles or sentences like “Click here if you want to have beautiful skin.” Don’t use too many exclamation marks, they scream out desperate amateur and if you must use them, use only one at a time. Experiment with attention-grabbing words like Discover, Amazing, and Powerful but then back them up with good content.
Finally the golden rule of any money generating site is to stress the benefits of using your site and always tell the readers what’s in it for them. For example positive content like “With our amazing software you could be earning a useful second income within two months” is bound to pull in interested visitors and a good proportion of ready buyers.
