How to Write Great Site Text
Without Hurting Yourself
With the do-it-yourself web site construction tools available today, anyone with an opposable digit can design an attractive, professional-looking site complete with dancing animations, way cool graphics and even video downloads. Easy.
What’s not so easy is writing site text that sells - text with sizzle, as industry insiders like to say. And if you think what you remember from 8th grade English is going to get you through, it’s not. The world wide web has changed everything, including the way we communicate in writing.
They’re, their & there
Do you know which one is a possessive? Which one’s a contraction and which is an adverb? If not, you’ve just met your first problem.
Site text that’s loaded with spelling errors is not a site that instills trust, at least not in literate visitors. Grammar and punctuation are a different story.
In fact, the traditional rules of grammar and punctuation are ancient history on the Internet. Most of us were taught (though few remember) to never start a sentence with the words ‘And’ or ‘But’. Remember that? Well, throw that rule out the window. Not only do the conventions for developing site text accept sentences that start with ‘And’ or ‘But’, today it’s even okay to start paragraphs with these once-forbidden words.
But (See?) gross misspellings, improper use of words and garbled sentences aren’t going to cut it. Visitors click, they look, they leave when your text is confusing, loaded with goofs and knee-deep in typos. It’s not coolness; it’s careless.
What’s the purpose of the text?
Some text is intended to persuade the visitor to buy something or perform the MDA – the most desired action. Other text, like what you’re reading now, is intended to inform, elucidate and even educate. Can the two be mixed?
Sure. Informational text can sell a concept, the importance of your products or the value of your services. Conversely, sales copy often imparts a lot of useful product information. So, before you set pen to paper (or sit down at the keyboard) know the purpose of the text you’re writing – to sell, to inform or some combination of the two.
Who’s going to read the text?
The same text that appeals to senior citizens isn’t going to appeal to the neighbor’s 16-year-old skate-boarding, head-banging, green-haired kid. Before you write a single word, determine the ideal reader – your perfect customer or client. Serious businessperson, well-trained medical professional, hunting enthusiast or a shredder like the neighbor’s kid? Then, target the tone of the text to something that appeals to your market demographics.
Your Most Valuable Digital Property
It’s the home page of your site, above the fold. The space visitors first see without scrolling. Your most powerful text belongs right here.
Start with a compelling or intriguing headline – something that absolutely captures visitor interest. Words like ‘Discover’, ‘Save’, ‘Protect’ and ‘Free’ are all words that tend to attract attention. There are plenty of others. In fact, you can find books that tell you how to craft text for every page of your new site. Check out anything by Internet sales poo-bah, Dan Kennedy. He’s a god to many on-line business owners, though there are others with differing theories of what constitutes good site text.
10 Tips for Laying Out Site Text
1. Avoid long paragraphs. Break up the text into smaller blocks.
2. Use single sentences to highlight key points. Use bulleted lists for groups of important points.
3. Visitors scan web pages, they don’t read them. Provide headings and subheads to draw the reader’s eyes to the specific information they’re after. This also helps SEs determine what your site is all about.
4. Use negative (empty) space around text to make it stand out.
5. Place product descriptions close to product pixs. Product descriptions should be detailed and 100% accurate to reduce time processing returns.
6. Keep it simple. The average American reads at an eighth-grade level so don’t pull out the thesaurus to impress readers with your extensive vocabulary.
7. Provide visual clues. Dark blue text indicates a link. Mouse-over boxes also indicate links. Make sure all links are clearly labeled to avoid sending the visitor down the wrong search path.
8. Don’t use SEO text within graphics. Spiders can’t read graphics, only letter strings.
9. Select a simple font, one that’s easy on the eyes. Also, avoid placing yellow text against a white background, or gray text against a black background. If it’s hard to read, it won’t be read.
10. Finally, make sure to include a call to action on every page, usually toward the bottom of each page so it’s the last thing readers see. A call to action is something like “Call today” or “Act now before it’s too late.” The call to action is motivational text. It also provides directions on what the reader should do now. “Don’t’ delay. Call today”.
Write like you talk.
If a customer asked you to describe the benefits of your products, you could rattle off a dozen selling points, no problem. But sit down at the keyboard to write out those selling points for the home page and you freeze up. Writer’s block or plain old brain freeze.
So, don’t try to write it. Try to “say it” in writing. Forget spelling. Forget everything you were ever taught. Instead, sit down and type the exact words you’d say to a customer, face to face. This’ll make writing a million times easier. More importantly, it will make a personal connection with visitors, making them feel as though you’re talking just to them.
Good writing in the first draft; great writing in the final draft
No one gets it perfectly the first time. Shakespeare, Hemingway, Tolstoy – all the greats got that way through the constant writing, re-writing, editing and proofing of their text. That’s just the way it works and though it’s not a great deal of fun, it’s absolutely necessary.
Edit. Then edit again. Smooth out a sentence here; replace a word there. Bounce it off your friends and business associates to make sure you’ve captured the right tone for your market, you’ve hit all the key selling points, you’ve laid out the text for easy visitor scanning and you’ve proofed everything for errors that erode visitor confidence.
Visitors don’t expect transcendent prose that lifts their spirits and opens new paths of enlightened thought. They want the facts and the information in bite-sized, easy-to-digest nuggets.
So, give the customers what they want and watch your conversion rate climb.
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