Day 5: Website Writing Guide

Written by Shannon Walker-Lembke | 10 March 2010

How do I get effective web copy?
Copy on a web site plays a critical role in whether search engines index your site properly, if directories include your site in listings, and most importantly, whether the people who visit your site take the action you want. Having a web site adds value to your business only if it delivers results. The web site copy drives those results.

Many books are available covering web site copy. But really, effective web site copy is all about marketing and communications. If you follow a few guidelines when putting your site copy together, you assure that you get as much as possible out of each page.

Here, you’ll find general guidelines that provide the basis for effective web copy, a process for using existing materials to write your web copy, and search optimization tips related to copy.

General Guidelines
The debate over whether online copy is different from offline still comes up every now and then. The answer is no and yes. Online copy still needs to be persuasive, its message clear, the language familiar to the reader, and the writing interesting enough to read—just like offline copy.

However, the Internet is a different medium from print, just as television and radio are different from print. So, yes, online copy does need to be different from offline.

To get a site live on the Internet, many businesses simply provide the web developer with a copy of existing marketing materials. Since web developers aren’t usually writers or marketers, they do the best they can with what they are given. Hardly a plan for success. Here are some general guidelines for effective online copy based on guidance from experts and what delivers results.

Use a headline
Headlines should get the attention of your users and tell them why they should keep reading. Effective headlines let people self-qualify for your products or services. If you decide to use a question as your headline, be sure the question doesn’t eliminate users who are truly viable prospects.

Use subheads
One reason for short sentences and paragraphs is because the Internet encourages scanning. Subheads help you quickly deliver information to the user scanning a page. Once users have scanned a page and see that you offer something they need, they can go back and read more detail or move on to the next step.

Put important information first
Internet users scan pages quickly and make snap decisions about staying on a site. Most people decide to stay or leave within three seconds. The first words in headlines, lists, and paragraphs need to be important because users are quickly looking down the left side of the page to see if the content is relevant.

Keep it short
Short words. Short sentences. Short paragraphs. If your product or service sells best with long copy, you can still provide users with all the information they need. But avoid using big blocks of text. Create bullet lists, call-out boxes, and tables to showcase some of the information.

Provide useful information
The Internet serves as a research tool for many users. Providing useful, relevant information on your site helps users make decisions, builds trust, and shows your business in a positive light. Useful content also gives users a reason to visit your site again, giving you another chance to make a sale or capture a lead.

Include links
Write your copy with links for people who need more, or different, information to reach a decision. This allows you to address prospects at different places along the buying cycle and to address multiple audiences.

Know the objective
Keep the copy focused on reaching the objective. Each page should have a single objective. Keeping your copy focused on one thing reduces the chances of failing to get the user to take the desired action. Multiple goals can conflict and reduce response.

Tell the user what to do next
Every page should end with a call to action. Don’t leave the user wondering where to go or what to do next. Long pages that require users to scroll through more than two screens to reach the end should include multiple points of exit to the next step. Not all users require the same information to make their decisions. Forcing someone ready to contact you after the first screen of copy to scroll through multiple screens to find the Buy Now or Contact Us button decreases response.

Be conversational and informal
Being conversational means using language and phrasing your target market knows and understands. Be careful about using industry or technical jargon. People who aren’t experts—but may be doing research for experts—may not know what you’re talking about. On the other hand, avoiding jargon completely may make the experts question your credibility. Try to strike a balance.

Be specific
Come right out and say what you mean. If your readers need to think about what you mean, the chances that they’ll hit the Back button to return to their search results increases. If you offer three storage products, don’t say

“We provide multiple solutions based on customers’ needs.”

Instead, say

“We stock three products to meet your storage needs:

• 2 cubic feet
• 5 cubic feet
• 10 cubic feet”

And make each product a link to a detailed description and purchasing information.

Be truthful
The impersonal nature of the Internet makes many people wary. Be sensitive to this by being truthful and establishing credibility. If your company is a start-up don’t take credit for projects your staff completed for another employer. Highlight the talent and experience of your staff and clearly state that you are talking about past performance of your new staff. Don’t make an example project sound like a case study. Once your company has been in business for a while, include samples, a customer list, testimonials, or pictures of your product in use on your web site.

Using these guidelines will help you avoid choppy, unfocused, uninteresting and incomplete content. The result will be content that is focused on the user rather than the author. The copywriter does not need to abandon the rules of good writing. The rules just need to be implemented differently. This is why writers with a journalism background or magazine feature experience are not always the best choices for writing copy to post on the Internet.

Magazine and newspaper writers tell stories that are entertaining. Copy on web sites needs to answer the users’ questions, provide the user whatever they need, and needs to be actionable. People searching the Internet have an objective. Your web copy needs to help them accomplish that objective.

MORE RESOURCES:

• Day 5: Website Content Writing Best Practices
• Day 5: Web Content With Value
• Day 6: Social Marketing - Four Things to Be
• Day 6: Social Marketing: Ten Reasons to be Transparent