When I open a discussion with business owners about what kind of website content they think their potential customers would like to see, they often start with the great things they love about their company, but not why their clients come to them specifically. Try as I may to steer owners away from giving me brochure-type content for their websites, sometimes they are too afraid to deviate from the comfort zone of telling their clients who they are, instead of offering their clients solutions to their problems.
Please remember this one thing, if only this one thing about web content: The goal of your website content is to get your visitor to take action.
You want your website visitor to say yes to something on your site. Clicking forward on something on your website is the web version of visitors saying yes.
In order to engage your visitor with your content, you have to be able to tell them what’s in it for T H E M. Once you’ve hooked them by telling them how you will solve their problem, you then tell them where to click, or how to contact you immediately. With this in mind, it’s important to remember that reading a computer screen tires the eye. People read 25% more slowly on the web than they read print material. So your problem-solving web content has to be 50% shorter than print.
Let’s break web content down –
• Page Title: This should include the major keyword you want to be known for and searched by – not “Home,” “Welcome,” or “Hello.” The title should not be any longer than 60 characters, including spaces.
• Your USP: Your USP is the very essence of what you are offering to your potential customers and website visitors. Your Unique Selling Proposition needs to be so compelling that it can be used as a headline that sells your product or service on its own.
• Product or Service Description: This should be benefit-focused. You should also understand your client’s personality and what they feel comfortable with because you will want to write content that appeals to their personalities.
This is where you think like your customer and write content that answers:
What do your customers want from you?
What are your customers worried about?
Why won’t potential customers buy from you?
Benefit-focused content is all about the customer and should answer the question for them, “What will this do for me?” or “Why should I buy from you?” Feature-focused content is about your product (which can be your services) that answers the question for them, “How does your product or service operate for me?”
You must always take your features-focused content and turn it into a benefit for your customer.
Start each paragraph with a bang. Use words like “Careful,” “Warning” “Caution” – something that grabs the readers attention. Keep your paragraphs short – no more than three to four sentences per paragraph and use font size that your target customer can read. A simple list of three to five bullets or a set of headings works great for targeted content. It’s easy for your customer to read and they are more likely to pay attention to what you have written.
• Contact information: This should include telephone and electronic contact information – address and a map if you want people to visit your location. Note: If you are a business that relies on phone customers, be sure to have your phone numer at the top of every page and at the beginning of your meta description (what people see in search).
• Call To Action: Every page on your website should have a call to action – something you want your visitor to do. Do you want them to call you? Buy a product from you? Sign up for your monthly newsletter? Then tell your potential customer “What’s included” if they do what you want them to do. Make them an offer they can’t refuse.
• Use Testimonials: Always have testimonials. Always. Did I stress always?
And Remember –
Jargon is sin – don’t use it.
No “tech-speak”.
Don’t use humor unless your product or service is humor.
Don’t be afraid to offer a guarantee.
Keep it short and simple.
Images don’t sell unless you are a travel site, an art site or a direct-to-consumer product selling site.
Be sure that everything you do with your website content is geared towards achieving one thing: increasing your business.
Writing effective web content that engages your visitors may seem difficult at first, but as you work with us on the creation of your web content, it becomes easier. If you don’t understand how to successfully write effective content for your website, then I can help you by writing the content for you.
