If you’ve invested lots of time and money in creating a website and promoting yourself online, it could all be a bit pointless if people arrive on your site and then don’t stay long enough to get your message. These are a selection of things that stop people in their tracks – make sure your site doesn’t fall into any of these traps!

1. Don’t use justified paragraphs; quite apart from strange stretched words, people easily lose their place. Left aligned text works best.

2. Don’t test their eyesight with tiny text; anything less than 10pt makes the eyes work too hard, don’t make the reader work hard to get your message.

3. Long paragraphs look ‘hard’, so chop paragraphs into shorter chunks of no more than 5-6 lines long; all that white space will encourage people to read.

4. Light text on a dark background is really hard on the eyes, even though it may look ‘pretty’. The eyes focus on the darker colour and then have to refocus on dazzling text.

5. Lots of centred copy. This is good for headlines, but when you centre the main copy it makes the reader search for the beginning of each line – and they probably can’t be bothered!

6. Don’t risk using words they may not understand; keep the message jargon free and simple so anyone can understand it.

7. The word WE repeated many times. Inwardly focused copy is only interesting to the writer; talk about YOU (the reader) and ‘YOURS’, not ‘we’, ‘us’ and ‘our’.

8. Splash pages (those entry pages that have whizzy graphics and a, usually well-hidden, note to ‘click here to enter) that prevent people finding out what you do or what you’ve got to offer quickly. Some people simply hit the ‘back’ button at this point.

9. Lots of boxes, all with different options give people too many choices and result in confusion. You need a single focus, so one headline or point on the page that is dominant and attracts the eye.

10. A headline that isn’t! If your headline doesn’t give the visitor a clear idea of what the site has to offer – or, worse still, no headline at all, don’t expect many people to make the effort to find out whether you’ve got what they want. No focus means your visitor will leave quickly.

11. Whizzy things that move either constantly or intermittently.  It takes people’s eye off your message. If you must have moving graphics, they should either move once and then stop or move continuously and very gently.

12. Clutter and general busy-ness. Keep the page clean and simple with lots of white space, make it look ‘easy’ and people will read.

13. Having a Home page that is really ‘About us’. Your visitor wants to know ‘what’s in it for me’ before ‘who are these guys?’ Talk about your visitor, what they get, how your product or service will benefit them and leave the information on the company for the ‘About us’ page.

These are just a few of the things that send people away from your site – if you want to keep their interest then don’t put obstacles in front of them that stop them getting your message!
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I’ve been banging on about headlines a lot lately – so I might as well continue the trend here!

Most people think a headline is something found in a newspaper or magazine – but headlines should be on every written communication you create. That includes:

The job of the headline is to engage the reader – it should shout ‘read me’! It gets attention and creates interest. Here are 7 things to think about when you’re writing headlines.

1. Where does your headline sit? Is it right where your reader is looking? It should be prominent and where the eye connects.

2. Who does your headline target? Are they ‘we’ or ‘you’ focused? Banish the word ‘we’ from headlines!

3. Do they tell your reader ‘you need to read this’? They need to target your readers’ emotional triggers.

4. Do you know why people buy you? Find out and use that HUGE lever to get others to want what you’ve got too!

5. Are your headlines F, A or B oriented? F=features; A=advantages; B=benefits. Know your Bs and use them well.

6. Do your headlines address AIDA? A=attention; I=interest; D=desire; A=action. D is really important – make people want it.

7. How long does it take you to write a headline? Sales writer, Ted Nicholas, says you should spend 80% of your time getting the headline right! Invest in it; if people don’t connect with the headline, they won’t read any more.

Think about how you want people to feel and put that into your headlines and you’ll be on the way to writing powerful, compelling messages.
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When you’ve gone to the trouble of getting a website set up,invested your money in it and probably gone through a certain amount of pain to create the web copy that goes on each page, you want people to stay on it and take action to either buy something or to contact you.

The problem with many websites is that, whilst they may look attractive, they don’t keep people on the site. I’ve had many clients who say “My site is on the first page of Google, I get lots of visitors, but I’m not getting many people contact me.”

So what’s the problem? It’s usually because the web copy doesn’t hold them – and that can be for two reasons:

1. The web copy isn’t good enough and doesn’t interest them. It doesn’t connect with them quickly and doesn’t tell them what they wanted to know.

2. The way the web copy is presented to the reader isn’t easy for them to read. The message may be in the wrong place, the wrong size of font or presented in a way that makes the eyes work very hard to read the words.

The solution to problem one is to work with a web copywriter who really understands the web and how people use it. There are plenty of good copywriters out there, but not all of them really write web copy that connects with the reader.

The solution to problem two is harder to resolve. Very, very few designers have studied web readability. The design and the words must work together and understanding HOW people read, especially web copy, is critical.

Download the report on readability and send it to your web designer or consultant – or ask them to talk to me, I’m always happy to help people to improve websites so that visitors stay put!
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Web users are lazy and impatient – think of yourself when you’re waiting for a site to download that takes a few seconds longer than you expect! That means that web copy needs to get the message across FAST.

The very first thing that your web visitor will look at is the headline – it needs to reassure the website visitor that the site will deliver the information they were looking for. If it doesn’t (or it’s hard to find) they’re gone!

Then there’s the web copy that you want to get your reader engaged – and this where the ‘line’ appears. Do you write creative copy that gets the reader involved and ‘draws the picture’ of what it could be like for them to own your product or experience your services? Or do you write focused, sharp copy that tells them the facts and gets to the point quickly and clearly?

What a dilemma – what sort of web copy works best? There’s a case for both – and there’s some other issues that need to be taken into account; people read headlines, but don’t read all the copy – they scan it. That means you have to be very clever with your web copy.

The formula I use is to:

Taking into account that they’ll be scanning through this, draw their attention to key words. This may not be the ones they’ve searched on necessarily, but the ones that are emotionally charged, for instance in an ad for garden design:

You can add a room to your home by turning your garden into an area you use more and get more pleasure with less effort.

or

When the sun shines do you look at your garden and wish you could sit out and enjoy it instead of slaving over a mountain of weeds? A good design can take the work away and create a garden you can enjoy.

If you’re scanning down the web copy – the bold words stand out and your core message is clear. You can make your web copy walk the line if you’re smart – just don’t overdo it.

It doesn’t only work on web copy; it works on your paper documents too!
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If you’ve ever arrived on a website that is a mass of boxes, messages and pictures you’ll know what I mean by the patchwork quilt effect! Websites like this have many things to offer the visitor and the website owner is anxious to show all their wares up front. When it comes to usability it scores low.

The problem for most web visitors is that there’s far too much information, there’s often no single place that is dominant and the messages look very ’salesy’ so some visitors can be a bit unnerved and run away to a less pressured environment – the usability factor is too much effort for them, they don’t want to have to bother.

If you have a wide range of products or services it’s tempting to try to present as many as possible up front, but please resist the urge! If your services are vastly different or if you are trying to target two or more very different market sectors, then have different websites for each so you can focus on what that sector or potential customer is looking for. good usability is based on simplicity and clarity.

Put yourself in the user’s shoes (or in front of their screen) – they’ve searched for something and your website has come up as a possible provider of that. They click the link and they get information overload – much of it not what they were looking for anyway, from a usability point of view the user will see your site as very low on the scale. Most of us are lazy and impatient when we’re surfing the net – we want instant gratification and, if it looks like we’re going to have to make an effort – we’ll go somewhere ‘easier’.

So how do you improve your website’s usability?

1. Have a focal point – a headline that’s bigger than anything else that attracts their attention and gives them a place to start.

2. Don’t give them too many choices – it’s much too confusing! It’s easy to choose between 2, harder between 3 and almost impossible when there are 6 or more options.

3. Think about what they’re looking for and make sure that the web copy addresses that and reassures your visitor that they’re in the right place.

4. If you have visual images make sure they work for their place; they must have a clear message, not be just decoration – for example, if you are providing services to the academic sector a picture of students in mortar boards and gowns won’t help you to make your point!

Remember the KISS technique – keep it short and simple – it will make your website usability factor soar, your message clearer, have more impact and get better results!
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Most of us think of our online ‘presence’ as our website, but have you considered all the other places where web copy with your name and brand attached appears?

Your style, professionalism and expertise are all represented in every piece of web copy that you write. How well is your online presence integrated? Think about consistency in both your message and in how you appear.

And, if you’re not taking advantage of all these things – why not?!!
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Having a website is only part of your online presence; and the copy on your website must engage the reader and keep them there – but what other copy should you be thinking about online?

Blogs like this one are another way to engage potential customers, providing the information is not just a sales pitch, but offers real information of value to the reader.

Articles are another way to spread your knowledge and profile across the web and there are many sites where you can post these.

Social media profiles – and the use of them regularly are another way to engage with people and help them to ‘get to know’ you.

Twitter is microblogging – and the most well known of the many sites where you can post. Using this well has been a really successful business tool for many people.

These are all means of getting people to visit your site – and, if you have a tempting offer when they get there, they’ll sign up to your list. Your list is usually willing to receive your newsletter – and will continue to read it if it’s interesting and offers added value they’ll stay signed up. That also means that you can continue to build a relationship on a regular basis with autoresponder messages.

The secret is to get all these working together to really get your online marketing flying in formation.
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Everyone seems to be obsessed with being ‘on the front page’ of Google, getting up the search engine rankings and getting hotshot AdWord specialists to increase the traffic to their website. Of course, getting traffic is important; it doesn’t matter how impressive your site looks if the only people that ever see it are your existing clients and your Auntie Flo!

The issue is that getting traffic is only half the equation – the other half is all about what happens to the ‘traffic’ when it lands on your site!

Keeping people is at least as important as getting them there in the first place. Not least, because search engine optimisation is an expensive art, takes time and effort, not to mention considerable expertise, updated almost daily as the search engines develop and rules change. If you’re investing anything from £50 to £5000 a month to get traffic, it’s money down the drain if people take one look and then hit the ‘back’ button.

So what should you be paying attention to?

1. A headline that reassures people that the site will deliver what they were looking for. If you have a targeted AdWord account, that means a landing page written specifically with each key word or phrase featured.

2. A design that makes reading easy – a clear place to start, no fancy distracting visuals, copy in the place that people naturally read – there’s a lot of ways to get this part wrong (sign up on the right for the Goldfish Report to find out more). If you have many different boxes on the page with a variety of messages you’ll just confuse people.

3. Compelling copy, focused on the reader and what they get if they buy your product or service.

It’s not quite as simple as 123, but if you’re investing in getting people to your site, you also need to invest in keeping them long enough to persuade them to take action. If you’d like to know more just give us a call.
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The biggest problem that people have with writing their own web copy is that we all know too much about our own businesses – and want to tell everyone all we know!

That might be a bit of an exaggeration, but if you’ve ever tried writing web copy for yourself, you’ll probably have struggled a bit.

Writing web copy – or any other kind of marketing copy – requires you to put yourself firmly in the shoes of your reader. You’ll need to know:

What they are likely to be looking for when they arrive on your website.

What the areas of pain are that they want to remove?

what they will get from your products or services (not what you or the products do).

What they are NOT interested in knowing:

What you do

How long you’ve been in business

The technical details of your offering (at least not yet)

They’re interested in turning their visions into reality – so you need to address those. Draw the picture in words of what life will be like with your product or service – in other words, as the old cliche goes ’sell the sizzle, not the steak’!

Yes, writing web copy is an art – but it’s based on science. Do your research, ask people what they want to know from a site like yours, be clear about the real benefits that the purchaser will get and you’ll find your web copy will be right on target.
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If you have a website you want people to arrive, get hooked and read as much as possible so that they get a feel for what you’ve got to offer – and you hit all their ‘hot buttons’. So how do you do that?

Step one is to understand that people are not interested in what you do or what your products are. They want to know what they get – not as in a service or a product, but as in ‘that makes me feel good/satisfied/happy/fulfilled’. It may be a brutal truth, but it’s an important one to get your head around first.

Secondly, you need to know who you’re aiming at – and if you say ‘everybody’ you’re setting yourself an impossible task. My advice is to look at your best client and create a profile of them – more like that would be good (unless you’ve got an exclusivity contract – and even then you can find similarities with other types of business). Aim for the same kind of profile for now, it’s a good place to start.

Thirdly, what are the hot buttons for your target client group? What are they interested in achieving? What gets them excited (about services/products like yours)? What do they want it to do for them?

Now you’ve got some really strong information. Write your headline with all this in mind, write the copy so you target your ideal client’s wants and needs. Focus on the ‘what’s in it for them’, write ‘you’ not ‘we’ and you’ll be well on the way to killer copy!
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