Posts filed under 'Content'
Another round of user testing this week on a client Website brings home the importance of clear and direct communication on your Website.
- Make taglines direct and to the point, so 10 out of 10 users understand the message.
- Use bullet items as much as possible, especially on your home page and key landing pages.
- Use headers over small blocks of text. The headers drive the user to reading the text and are good for search results.
- All content leads to conversion points on the Website.
Content drives conversions and users scan content. Make your content count!
February 27th, 2009
The Contact Us page is one of the most important pages on a Website, yet many times key information is missing or hard to find on the page which results in frustrated users.
It is amazing to see how many Contact Us pages do not include the most common pieces of contact information such as an easy to find phone number and street address for your company.
Here is a quick check list for the Contact Us page.
- Make it easy to find on the main navigation and home page.
- Include a phone and fax number, email, Web based form, office locations, business hours and driving directions.
- Communicate to users that you want to hear from them and they will get a quick response.
- Place contact information on every page of the Website, especially near important services and product pages.
The last thing a Website should do is frustrate visitors just as they are attempting to contact the company! Follow these tips and make sure your Contact Us page is meeting user needs.
Tom Young
May 25th, 2008
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.
Tom Young
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
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