WRITING A WEBSITE THAT SINGS!

---

If your online sales have taken a dip lately, your product ...
isn't ... to blame.
Even the best products ... can be hidden in ...
when covered by a blanket ofbad website c If your online sales have taken a dip lately, your product orservice isn't necessarily to blame. Even the best products andservices can be hidden in obscurity when covered by a blanket ofbad website copy.
So what can you do to make sure your copysings the praises of not only your product, but your businesssmarts and credibility as well?First of all, you need to start with the basics. Begin byprinting out all pages of your web copy.
Then, grab a redpen and go to work. Read carefully through each sentence of yourcopy, correcting any mistakes in spelling, grammar, orpunctuation.
If you don't feel you have the expertise to findall those common little mistakes, have someone else do it foryou. Unless you have a degree in English, you're likely to misssomething.Now, some of you might be taking this advice with a grain ofsalt, thinking that most people don't notice or concernthemselves with grammatical errors in your web copy.
It's truethat some people won't notice or won't care, but savvy,intelligent people (which your customers likely are) willnotice, and those little mistakes can quickly add up to a gapinghole in your credibility. Don't insult your customers'intelligence by assuming they won't notice these mistakes.After you've made it all the way through your copy, and aresatisfied that your grammar is absolute perfection, read itagain.
Better yet, have someone else read it. The value in thisis simple.
If there's a sentence or paragraph that doesn't makeperfect sense or fully explain what you're trying to say, you'reless likely to notice it than someone who really NEEDS theinformation. You already know everything you're trying toexplain to others, so clarity is not as big an issue for you,than for someone who knows nothing about your business.
So, ask afriend, relative, or neighbor to read your copy carefully andpoint out anything that isn't perfectly clear. If you want tobe successful, your potential customers need to have a clearpicture of what you're offering.Next, consider the length of your copy and how it's distributed.Do you have ALL your information on one l-o-n-g page? Does yourmain "overview" page include minute details that people don'treally need, at least at first? Copy that is too long, boring,or hard to navigate is perhaps the worst enemy of online success.Sure, you might have a lot of information to give potentialcustomers, but do you have to do it all at once? Of course not.Your main introductory page, for instance, should give a BASICoverview of your product and its major benefits.
On this page,include links to pages where more detail can be found, such astestimonials, ordering info, and features you want to mention butaren't important enough to list on the main page.If your pages must be long, be sure to use lots of headlines andbold text to highlight your main points. When faced with a longpage to read, many people will skip down to those parts whichlook more important, so make sure they stand out.
Also, includea link to your order page near the top, middle, and bottom ofeach page. A customer who decides to buy after your firstparagraph doesn't want to scroll all the way to the bottom tofind out how to order.
Placing order links throughout your copywill help you capitalize on buyer impulses, which is just aseffective on the Web as it is in the supermarket.Overall, be sure your copy is professional, credible, easy toread, and simple to navigate. I can't tell you how frustratedcustomers become when they have to search your site for 5 to 10minutes to find what they're looking for.
With this in mind, keepyour copy straightforward, and separate pages into logicalcategories. When doing so, be sure to provide links to thosepages to help people find their way around.
Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .