When faced with the daunting task of planning what
to include on your website and how to write the
copy, here are a few tips that will make the task
easier for you.
1. Visitor Friendly
The main thing to keep in
mind is that your website needs to be visitor
friendly. What this means is that your customer
must be able to find what they are looking for
easily and quickly. And that means great
navigational system. Most websites either display
their navigation bar on the left or at the top. And
since most people are used to this type of
navigation, it’s best to stick with it. It also
helps to include your navigation bar at the bottom
of each page to save your visitors from having to
scroll back to the top.
2. Search Engine Friendly
Search engines try to list
sites that contain good content, so you need
keywords and phrases on your pages that best
describe your service and products. For example, if
you are a florist, use the words such as florist,
online florist, virtual florist, wedding florist,
florist in Sydney, florist on line, flowers, floral,
bouquets, floral arrangements etc as many times as
possible to ensure high search engine ranking. To
find out what keywords your customers may be
searching on ask your family and friends or go to:
http://inventory.overture.com/d/searchinventory/suggestion/
http://www.wordtracker.com
Once you decide on the
keywords, use them in
(a) Your website’s domain
name
(b) The title of your page – This is displayed in
the top bar of your browser window
(c) The heading of your home page
(d) The first paragraph of your home page
(e) Meta tags – Keywords, page title, description
(f) Titles of your graphics
Whilst it is important to use
keywords as much as possible, it is also important
you use them only if they are relevant and do not
sound awkward. If you spam your keywords you may be
penalised or even banned by some search engines.
3. Informational vs
On-line Store
One of the first decisions
you need to make is what type of website to have.
Will it be informational only or will it be an
on-line store or a combination of both? An
informational website is like having an on-line
brochure. It does not sell products directly to
customers, but rather provides details of your
business, its products and services and occasionally
features a printable order form.
The other type of website is
an on-line store. It is a virtual salesperson who
potentially never stops providing presales
information to your prospects - and then making
sales to them.
4. Create a Plan
Before you start thinking
about what to write on each page of your website, it
is important that you create a plan, which lists all
the pages you wish to include. Below is a list of
the most commonly used pages:
(a) Home Page (First Page)
(b) Products / Services
(c) Contact Us
(d) Pricing
(e) Testimonials / Product Reviews / Before & After
(f) Frequently Asked Questions
(g) Response form such as “Subscribe” or “Enquiry”
form
(h) On-line Magazine or Newsletter
(i) Resources/Articles
(j) About Us
(k) Guarantee
(l) Survey
(m) Events Calendar
(n) Search My Website Feature
(o) Return/Refund Policy
(p) Privacy Policy
(q) Site Map
(r) Copyright Information
(s) Links
(t) Media Information
(u) News
(v) On-line store
5. Cross-sell / Up-sell
as part of your content
If a customer is looking for
a particular product, offer them details of related
products. By recommending other products, your
customers will learn what else is available and in
many cases it will translate to additional sales for
you.
A company that does this
exceptionally well is Amazon –
www.amazon.com. Search for a particular book
and you will find information on what other people
who ordered this book also bought.
Make it as easy as possible
for customers to complete an order by providing
clear instructions. Ensure delivery costs are
outlined before a customer begins the ordering
process.
6. Focus on the customer
and their needs
Rather than trying to “sell your business”, let
your prospects know how your product/service is
going to benefit them. Emphasize the benefits and
solve problems. Make this the focus of everything
you write on every page of your site. Don’t try to
sell visitors your products or service, help them.
7. Remind your visitors
Remind your visitors they can print out your
content. They may browse around your website while
it’s printing.
8. Use headlines and
sub-headlines to grab visitor’s attention
9. Offer value
Offer bonuses, free trials,
discounts and prizes. List the dollar value beside
each bonus. People will feel they’re getting a good
deal and it will increase the value of your product.
10. Spell check and
grammar check your website
Ensure there are no spelling
or grammatical errors. Check that all links are
working and graphics displaying correctly.
If you are still struggling
with where to start, visit your supplier’s or
competitor’s websites. Be careful that if you use
copy from their site that you do not infringe
copyright laws. If in doubt, contact the author or
copyright owner and ask for permission.
Your ultimate goal is to turn
a visitor into a customer. On your website, this is
done by providing premium content. Each page should
be its own mini site. As you have no control over
how a visitor enters your website, it is important
they are able to easily work out what your business
offers and navigate to other pages within your site.
About
the Author: Ivana Katz, Sydney, NSW, Australia
Ivana Katz is the owner of
Websites 4 Small & Growing Business, a company
specialising in the design and promotion of small
and growing business websites. She believes that
every business deserves to have a successful
website, no matter what its budget is.
info@web4business.com.au -
http://www.web4business.com.au
This article can be republished for free as long as
the author information and website links are
included.
