If your online sales have taken a dip lately, your product or
service isn't necessarily to blame. Even the best products and
services can be hidden in obscurity when covered by a blanket of
bad website copy. So what can you do to make sure your copy
sings the praises of not only your product, but your business
smarts and credibility as well?
First of all, you need to start with the basics. Begin by
printing out all pages of your web copy. Then, grab a red
pen and go to work. Read carefully through each sentence of your
copy, correcting any mistakes in spelling, grammar, or
punctuation. If you don't feel you have the expertise to find
all those common little mistakes, have someone else do it for
you. Unless you have a degree in English, you're likely to miss
something.
Now, some of you might be taking this advice with a grain of
salt, thinking that most people don't notice or concern
themselves with grammatical errors in your web copy. It's true
that some people won't notice or won't care, but savvy,
intelligent people (which your customers likely are) will
notice, and those little mistakes can quickly add up to a gaping
hole 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 are
satisfied that your grammar is absolute perfection, read it
again. Better yet, have someone else read it. The value in this
is simple. If there's a sentence or paragraph that doesn't make
perfect sense or fully explain what you're trying to say, you're
less likely to notice it than someone who really NEEDS the
information. You already know everything you're trying to
explain to others, so clarity is not as big an issue for you,
than for someone who knows nothing about your business. So, ask a
friend, relative, or neighbor to read your copy carefully and
point out anything that isn't perfectly clear. If you want to
be successful, your potential customers need to have a clear
picture 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 your
main "overview" page include minute details that people don't
really 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 potential
customers, but do you have to do it all at once? Of course not.
Your main introductory page, for instance, should give a BASIC
overview of your product and its major benefits. On this page,
include links to pages where more detail can be found, such as
testimonials, ordering info, and features you want to mention but
aren't important enough to list on the main page.
If your pages must be long, be sure to use lots of headlines and
bold text to highlight your main points. When faced with a long
page to read, many people will skip down to those parts which
look more important, so make sure they stand out. Also, include
a link to your order page near the top, middle, and bottom of
each page. A customer who decides to buy after your first
paragraph doesn't want to scroll all the way to the bottom to
find out how to order. Placing order links throughout your copy
will help you capitalize on buyer impulses, which is just as
effective on the Web as it is in the supermarket.
Overall, be sure your copy is professional, credible, easy to
read, and simple to navigate. I can't tell you how frustrated
customers become when they have to search your site for 5 to 10
minutes to find what they're looking for. With this in mind, keep
your copy straightforward, and separate pages into logical
categories. When doing so, be sure to provide links to those
pages to help people find their way around.
About the Author
Meredith Pond is editor and manager of DrNunley's
http://CheapWriting.com. See her low-cost writing and editing
services for students and business people, including a web site
rewriting package. Reach Meredith at meredith@drnunley.com or
801-328-9006.