How To Word Your Website.

[Websiteking]

First and foremost I can not tell you enough how important it is to understand your audience. Ask potential clients, ask around forums, whatever it takes - make sure you know your customer inside out; some types of customer are hungry for information whilst some have no time to spare. Find out everything you can and word your site with those people in mind. Remember that you have more than 1 page to your website and if you sell Wellington Boots you might want to talk about Wellington Boots in general on the home page and leave some of your other keywords (example 'history of wellington boots') for another page.

Word Your Website For It's Audience
Always connect to the people your site is aimed at. If your site appeals to Lawyers then you'll need to word it nicely, if your site is about playing pranks then a laid-back approach is better. Word it for your audience - how do they expect you to speak? How much text are they willing to read/how much do they need to know before needing to contact you to learn more about you or your service? Are they more likely to buy from a single person or company?

Your Friends Aren't The People You're Writing For
Harsh but true! All of us have friends who know everything (bless 'em!) but the cold truth is that unless your friend is one of the people you are writing for, he/she is not going to be of much help..too many Cooks spoil the broth!

10 Things To Consider When Wording Your Website

1. Who are your audience?
2. Are they too busy to read yards of text or do they want to know as much as possible?
3. How do they expect you to speak (like the Fonz? Like a Counselor? Like a Corporation?)
4. Keywords don't need to be repeated every single sentence.
5. What is your website really about - what are you trying to achieve?
6. You need to tell us what makes you better at ..(your service)..than everyone else.
7. Look form the outside-in, what might people want to know that you haven't mentioned?
8. Give other websites reason to link to yours by adding articles etc.
9. Are they interested in words such as 'Secrets Exposed', 'Fantastic Giveaway Deals' ?
10. Are they likely to have reading difficulties, sight issues or other impairments that would directly effect the way your website needs to be worded and designed?

As short as this article may be it is full of juicy stuff that will take you time to truly work through, we can of course update your website later on but if you get it right first time then you will see the benefits straight away and help to make your website a huge success !

[Scott-CopyandDesign]

Good article but you've missed one very vital, and perhaps the most important point of all which is benefit-driven copy.

Selling the benefits of what you offer is the basic foundation of generating desire for your product/service. It reaches the core emotion of the reader and makes them want it and without this you are not answering the absolute basic question of 'why?'.

You must tell the reader what they are receiving. You can sell a product or service much more effectively if you offer them a solution instead of a product/service which provides the solution.

So instead of you selling a website, you are selling a site which opens your business up to thousands of potential new customers via the Internet who could all buy your product. Instead of promoting a business forum, you're promoting an online community filled with expert help and business discussion for free, etc.

[MSC]

Thank you to both of you, very helpful.

Good article but you've missed one very vital, and perhaps the most important point of all which is benefit-driven copy.

Brilliant point, tnank you!

[Websiteking]

[quote=Scottscd;38851]Good article but you've missed one very vital, and perhaps the most important point of all which is benefit-driven copy.[quote]

I agree Scott but I din't go into that because else my article would have been huge. I was covering mostly about how to write your copy not what to write (do you know what I mean?), I could have gotten inot the whole K.I.S.S thing or yapped on about 'calls to action' etc but I just wanted to keep it short

[Daniel]

Thanks for sharing this interesting piece of information.

[verrumltd]

niiiice!!!!

[custardfish]

Good article but you've missed one very vital, and perhaps the most important point of all which is benefit-driven copy.

This is vital, more so for a website than other medium such as brochures too.

Brochures are often read after people have gone to some effort to receive it! They've called you up, chatted on the phone, waited 3 days for the post, perhaps it was left after a sales person has already called in, or they've driven to your store and spoke to staff etc. So essentially they had invested time in you, and you know they had an interest otherwise they wouldn't have picked up or requested a brochure. So they wanted to know more about you. So brochures etc tend to be ME ME ME..

Well websites take 2 seconds to open, there is no investment in time and essentially people are shopping around... they don't want to know about YOU they want to know what you can give THEM.

[timandren]

This is one of the best entries I've seen on copywriting. Clear, well-written instructions.

[Allblue]

Excellent info - many thanks

[Louise Walton]

I might use those instructions