Is your business website worth reading?
Your new prospect will decide in seven seconds or less!
Writing for a website is unlike any other form of writing. That’s because people read websites differently from the way they read newspapers or books. Or even this blog.
Studies have shown that people visit a site for no more than seven seconds before they decide to stay or leave. Is your site immediately catching your reader’s interest and leading them to your call to action? A well-written website will do exactly that.
If you are writing website content, remember these tips.
- Direct copy toward the reader. Focus on words like ‘you’ and ‘your’ and not the words ‘we’ and ‘our’.
- Speak to the reader in a clear, straight-forward manner. They wants to get the information fast.
- Make your website scannable so readers can quickly find the information they want. Use bullets, numbers, lists, line breaks, capitalization, color or layout to do this.
- Give the reader the information they are looking for . . . not what you think they should be learning. Information such as the history of your company, and how you built it, should be on the site — but not on the home page.
- Provide easy-to-find links which readers use to find detailed information. Repair or remove broken links.
- Don’t leave the reader wondering what to do next. At the bottom of the website page, and possibly in other places, have an obvious “call to action.” Don’t make the reader search for it. Odds are, they won’t.
Now take a fresh look at your website. Pretend you’re seeing it for the very first time.
Ask yourself:
- As a new visitor, can you easily find specific information?
- Do you immediately know what the business or service is about? (At first, does it seem like you sell trucks instead of provide moving services?)
- Is it easy to find special services you offer, such as a great shipping policy, or that you take all major credit cards?
- Is there a clear link to your return policy, or to a list of the dress designers you carry?
- Is it clear what sets your product apart from the competition?
- Can the reader find the answers to their pressing questions without having to slog through information they doesn’t care about?
If you haven’t answered “yes” to all these questions, you are losing valuable business prospects every day.
