Writing For The Web

You can increase the power of your web site many times over if you keep a few principles in mind as you write.

Basically, the four steps are:

• Put yourself in your customer's shoes
• Turn features into benefits
• Turn benefits into headlines
• Write a few short paragraphs under each headline and include key search words in your text

Think Like Your Customer

You already know many traits of your typical customer and why they do business with you. However, when writing text for your web site, don't just think like a typical customer, think like a particular customer, someone you already know well. The more details you can keep in mind for this person the better.

Besides gender, age, income level and job title, be sure to consider how comfortable she is with a computer and how much experience she's had on the web.

This is the person you are writing the web site for.

Remember, this is her web site. It's not yours and it's not ours. She is the only one who matters in this equation, so write the site for her.

Where Do I Start?

Answer this question: If your customer could tell you exactly what she would love to see as soon as she hits your web site, what would it be? Would you guess that she's cruising the net looking specifically for interesting tidbits about how fabulous you are? Or is she perhaps looking for something that benefits her? If you picked the last choice, you've discovered the key to effective writing on the web:

People Are Looking For Benefits

The most common mistake you see on web sites is the tendency to list all the features of a product or service or company without describing how that benefits their visitors. Don't make the same mistake.

Compare how you feel after reading the following scenarios. Which approach leaves you more likely to explore further?

"General Widgets, Inc. has been making widgets for 75 years now and we're not done yet! We have factories in 13 countries and have won many technical awards for our products. We sell more widgets than all our competitors combined."

There are some impressive points here, and if you're competing against this behemoth you probably can't match these figures. Nevertheless, a visitor to this site may well shrug her shoulders and say, "So what? What's in it for me?" After all, she doesn't care about how many they've sold to others, but how they can make her life better or her business more profitable.

When she leaves that site and clicks the link to yours, she gets this approach:

"Take Fridays Off! Using Acme Widgets will cut your production time by 20%! Train new employees in half the time and use the extra hours to plan how you're going to spend all that money you're saving."

OK, that may be pushing it a bit, but consider the two approaches. The first, and far more common type, dwells on the site owner. The second focuses on the site visitor and instantly starts describing all the wonderful benefits someone will get by working with you. Remember, people want to know what's in it for them. They really don't care much about you.

Sorry!

Brainstorm The Benefits

List as many of these wonderful benefits as you can. If it's easier for you to start with the great features of your product or service, go ahead and list all those first. Then go back to each one and turn it into a benefit for your client.

For instance, if you are selling athletic clothing, you may have a feature like this:

"Our running shirts are made from the very latest high-tech fabric, recently created in our own labs."

Interesting, but what does that do for the visiting runner looking for a new shirt? Instead, turn that feature into a benefit they can relate to, like this:

"This shirt is so light you'll hardly know it's on, it won't hold odors and you can wash it with the rest of your laundry."

See the difference? Only the second approach directly sells the benefit. Make it easy to see the benefit; don't make them think!

And here's another way to check the focus of your writing. Count the number of times the name of your company, or the words "our, ours, I, me, we" come up. Now count the number of times words "your, yours, you" appear. The last group should show up at least five times as often as the first.

If you already have a web site and it's not performing as well as it should, do this quick test on it to see where the focus lies. If it's on you and not on your customer, it's time to start again.

Create a powerful website that outperforms your competition

Create Powerful Headlines

Put all your benefits into a list with the most important at the top. This outline will be turned into headlines on your web page.

We know that people scan web pages rather than reading every word. They will look at your link buttons to see the scope of your site and then they will skim the page looking for things of interest to them. Breaking up text with headlines makes it easy to scan and if those headlines are exactly the benefits your visitor is looking for, they'll go back and read more.

Keep Your Paragraphs Short

Don't get too wordy on your opening page. This page is merely designed to create an overall impression of all the good things that happen to people who choose to work with you. So keep your paragraphs no longer than three or four sentences long and keep the sentences short, too. Avoid jargon or technical terms. Highlighting key phrases helps with scanning and gives your visitor a few more selling points.

Use Search Terms In Your Text

In addition to appealing to your best customer, you can make your text help you rank high in the search engines as well.

To do this, create a list of all the words and phrases you think a visitor would use in a search when looking for you on the web. Then make sure these key words appear in the title of your site, in your headlines and in your text.

Most search engines will match the words someone types in to them with the words in the sites in its database. If your site has those words in the title and throughout the text, especially near the top, that will help you rank right up there.

What About Other Pages?

Once you have created an interest in your company, your visitors will want to know more details about your product or service. These additional pages can highlight more of the features you offer, expand on your expertise and showcase testimonials from satisfied clients.

Most web surfers will first scan a new site, and if they are interested they will go back and read more of what you've written. After they determine that you offer what they are looking for they'll want to make sure you can deliver as promised. That's what the testimonials and product detail pages are for.

To Summarize...

You are not writing for the entire world, or even your "typical" client. Get inside the head of one particular client who you already know and design the site for her. If you have two distinct types of customers with different needs, you will have to create a second profile for one of those people as well. Make sure they can find their benefits, too!

Turn each feature of your product or service into a benefit for your visitor. This list will become easy-to-scan headlines. Then just write a few short paragraphs containing the words visitors will type into a search engine under each headline and watch your business grow!

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