lets go further into the text copy on a site :
Now I am not an expert on this and SEO copy is vast but I do enjoy a good read and I have studied enough quality books on the subject to give you a few pointers, if they help you can let me know……..
So, First things first – Who are you writing to ?
Is it a broad spectrum market, or a niche that is only relevant to, let say, policemen? (???)
That’s your first task right there – establish who it is you are writing to.
Secondly what do you want your reader to do ?
And most importantly what’s in it for them ?
Far too many people think that simply making the text on a website informative around the subject matter will get the prospective reader excited enough to sign up or buy – Wrong ! That’s a really good way to miss out on a lot of new clients.
You need to decide :
- who you are aiming your words at
- what it is you expect of them
- and what they will get for their time or investment,
These points are crucial to your text, and getting them right can be make or break for a site. But, before we go into creating the main body of text lets look at what to do with your copy in the opening visuals of a page. Remembering first impressions count……
When someone opens up the site in question they need to see immediately and exactly what it is all about, and, as we have discussed, what’s in it for them, so bullet points are really handy here.
Don’t have too many as the eye will just see them as a block of text and then most likely dismiss them. So maybe a maximum of 4 – 5 bullet points revolving around the facts and advantages of the subject matter. These then need to be positioned artfully in the opening visuals, usually above the clear and attractively positioned call to action.
The “Call to Action” in itself is imperative as this is what tells your viewer what to do or where to go, and it can be anything as simple as “BUY NOW” or “SIGN UP HERE”
It will pay you to really think about these above points, do some research, all the info necessary is out there at your fingertips.
Now onto the text body :
If this is your first time remember it’s going to take a few drafts to get the main body of the text just right, and nobody is going to read the first one, so don’t worry about getting it perfect at first, just start playing with words around you subject matter. You can keep a note of things that pop into your head at the bottom of the page, like a kind of “skeleton text”, points that you don’t want to forget and will add into the text later where suitable.
Did you know surveys have shown that sites containing text that answers all the “Likely to be asked” questions are more successful with their audience? So make sure you cover all the details.
You can add humour too, tastefully, and only if appropriate, but if you get it just right your reader will remember the text for longer, every body likes humour and good humour gets discussed……….
Put some personality in there, Joe Vitale, (who is in my opinion one of the best copywriters on the net) said “Remember every thing you were taught in school about writing – Well forget it !” What he means is talk to people in your copy, don’t focus on writing an award winning piece of English literature. Make your text engaging, market appropriate of course, but make it fun to read……..Do Not Bore People !!!
One of the most important keys to good copy is having the reader think the text is written to them personally……if you can get to people on an emotional level you have done it! Don’t scare people though, we are talking about positive emotional levels here !!!
Use colour within the text, if its broken up with headers in an eye catching colour its easier for the reader to digest, personally I like grey for the text body rather than black, its softer on the eye.
Another good tip : If you get “Writers Block”, walk away, do some thing that will make you laugh or something that will lift your spirits. Come back to it when you feel inspired, don’t write for the sake of writing – your reader wont thank you!
Last point for today, and probably the most obvious one – Have your copy proof read by some one who knows how to spell !!!!!!!
Now has anyone noticed there is one very significant element I have left out here –
The SEO value of the copy ! But that’s for next week…….
Have fun
Leona
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