Posts filed under 'Content'
We often come across Websites with cryptic content, navigation menus and link titles. It is just difficult to figure out what these organizations do and how they add value to their customers and other Website users.
This usually happens because organizations get so caught up on their own internal language it becomes very difficult for them to communicate about their business in any other way. It can also happen because these Website developers believe that people coming to the site will get their message. Here are a few downsides to difficult to understand Websites.
- These sites do not convert as well and have high bounce rates.
- Users have no reason to refer people to a site they do not understand.
- The site is hard to read and not convenient for users.
- Competitors can build better sites and draw away traffic.
- Search engines do not recognize the content and the site gets less traffic.
- Sales people have a difficulty referring prospects to the site.
The bottom line is frustrated users and poor results.
The solution is to hire an outside Web copy writer that can see your business through the eyes of your target market and help you develop Website copy that gets results and is a pleasure to read.
Communicate in the language of our broadest target market and avoid your internal language on the Web.
March 18th, 2008
Website content can easily be the lost step child of Website development. In working with hundreds of clients over the past 10 years, this is the area most neglected in Web marketing.
There are several reasons for this. Budgets are not developed properly for content development and most people do not have good writing skills. When you combine this with the fact that even good writers do not know how to write content for the Web, you get bad Website content. The content either reads like brochure content, talks too much about the company, is too flowery sounding, is made up of large blocks of text or just poorly written.
For these reasons, most Web content is not read and we see this repeatedly in usability testing. Here are a few tips to get your content read:
1. Use fewer words to say the same thing.
2. Avoid blocks of text.
3. Make use of well-written headers and bullet points.
4. Focus on benefits, not features and learn the difference.
5. Write in a language understood by visitors, not internal speak.
6. Go to Amazon.com and read books on how to write Web content.
If you ask users to read your content and give you feedback, they are likely to say that it looks fine. It is better to have them perform a task on your site or look for something, this will give you a better idea of how users scan your Website.
Content is in many cases the most important part of your Website and deserves a solid budget, proper Web writing and feedback from user testing.
February 11th, 2008
For those of you that follow our Blog, Podcast and email newsletters we hope you have been patient. Since launching our new Website earlier this year and better defining our Intuitive Websites four step process, we have been very busy with new client work.
The good news is that we will soon be launching Webinars and an interactive slide presentation to educate Web marketing professionals on the four steps to success on the Internet.
In the meantime, keep listening to our Podcasts and look for a lot of new content coming soon about the four steps to online success.
Tom
August 14th, 2007
Here are a few items that can help your Website sell more products or generate more leads.
Make sure the Website has very clear call to action buttons or clear and easy to read phone numbers. Connect call to action items to the content on the Web page and make it useful or valuable, not a tease. Experiment with call to action items in your navigation system.
Are your navigation link titles intuitive? Make sure users understand where they are going when they click on a link in your navigation system. They should not have to guess.
Convey product and service value through photos, audio, video, written content, specs, testimonials, customer rankings, information on product uses, product care information and other ideas you can come up with. Set up a cross-sell and up-sell strategies and use product and service information to increase sales.
Thomas Young
December 21st, 2006
Content is the most important part of a Website and the most time consuming. Here are a few tips about content.
Website visitors love pictures with captions because they can scan and see visuals. Whenever possible tell your story, offer your products and services or just communicate online with pictures and captions.
Hire someone who is a Web content specialist. Don’t take their word for it, but look at how they actually write for the Web. If they write in brief sentences, using bullet items and few words that say a lot, then they can write for the Web. Most writers for the Web use 50% more words then needed.
Compare these two paragraphs, the first taken from an actual Website and the second edited for the Web by me:
“Unique resources at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital let researchers generate a “gold mine” of data to track evolution of bird flu virus genes and understand how they cooperate to cause disease.”
“St. Jude’s Hospital generates data on bird flu virus genes and how they cause disease.”
Don’t these two sentences say the same thing? Which is easier to read? This is content from the home page that is used to motivate users to click through to the actual article. The scannable content with fewer words will help generate more click-throughs.
Keep content brief and scannable.
February 8th, 2006
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