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Do you just want a cool looking website, or a website
that is valuable and effective?
Solid Web
site content strategies should include a comprehensive
plan for the written text. Before you write the first
word for a site, you can spend a lot of money on the
appearance design and layout. In fact, this is what
most businesses do. They get a nice-looking site built
and then, almost as an after-thought, realize they need
to write some copy. On the
Internet content is king. This is because the Internet
is the information superhighway and most people browse
it searching for specific information.
The information
on a website is its most valuable asset, and generally
the more useful and interesting content a website has
the more successful it will be, because more people
will want to visit it again and again. This is especially
true if a website is constantly adding more and more
content on a regular basis, be it articles, tutorials,
news and opinions or other relevant information.
Thousands of new
websites are springing up every week. The owners of
these sites are full of optimism that their venture
into e-commerce will transform their business by bringing
in new customers and boosting their sales. But the reality
is that most websites fail abysmally as sales tools.
Why? Because the owners of these sites have spent a
lot of money creating fancy graphics but have paid little
attention to the words on the site. One of America’s
e-commerce gurus, Brian Williams, believes 90 percent
of websites are failing to "get the order"
from potential customers browsing the web, because they
are badly written, or written in the wrong style.
Here are some
characteristics of 5 types of pages and the appropriate
types of content within:
Promotional
- A Business/Marketing Web Page is one sponsored by
a commercial enterprise (usually it is a page trying
to promote or sell products). The URL address of the
page frequently ends in .com (commercial).Even with
a site primarily intended to sell products online it
is critical that you provide substance in addition to
your online store.
Currents
- A News Web Page is one whose primary purpose
is to provide extremely current information. The URL
address of the page usually ends in .com (commercial).
Informational
- An Informational Web Page is one whose purpose is
to present factual information. The URL Address frequently
ends in .edu or .gov, as many of these pages are sponsored
by educational institutions or government agencies.
Persuasive
- An Advocacy Web Page is one sponsored by an organization
attempting to influence public opinion (that is, one
trying to sell ideas). The URL address of the page frequently
ends in .org (organization).
Here are
some tips for producting quality written content:
- The most important
technique for creating good content for your website
is to be sure that your content will have specific
appeal to your target audience.
- Next you want
original content, that's different and unique and
not the same as the content on another website you
just visited.
- Good content
will show the writers own personality and flavor in
it. It will be interesting and very informative, if
it's not what's the point of putting it online in
the first place, nobody will benefit from it and it
won't help you get more repeat visitors.
- Your content
should be easy to understand and use regular English
as far as possible, if you have to use topic specific
words that could cause trouble for some visitors make
sure you explain them.
To create content
you simply write news and articles about the industry
your product is in. This ensures that visitors who read
your content are also the visitors that are likely to
be interested in buying your product.
If you may feel
you are great at creating product (s) but don't feel
the same way about your writing skills and think you
can't write your own content. But it's the words that
communicate your message. It's the words that sell.
If you're serious
about having your business represented professionally
on the Web, we can help. We can create your website
content using special copywriting strategies that will
give you an edge in the competitive world of e-commerce.
For additional
information, please contact
us. |
