Your Website - Setting Up Shop
We’ve mentioned that the Internet is largely a faceless entity. Typically, your website represents the only form of interaction your customers will have with you. It stands to reason, then, that your website should be a primary focus area, second only to your actual product or service.
Your website is in competition with millions of other websites, whether or not the others offer a similar product or services. There are so many virtual destinations online today that it only takes one mistake to send visitors clicking elsewhere. Most Internet users know they can get what they are looking for from another website, and if yours is not compelling enough to keep them, off they will go!
It is essential to design a website that is exciting, easy to navigate, honest, and informative. Your website must be attractive to your target demographic customers, and it must effectively showcase your products or services. The overall goal of your website is to grab visitors’ interest and quickly convert them to buyers. Unfortunately, you don’t have much time to do this: the average website visitor decides whether or not to stay on your site in about 30 seconds. If you don’t have their attention by then, you will lose the sale.
When it comes to your website, words matter. More than any eye-popping graphic or flashy animation, your words are what will keep visitors (and search engines) happy. The right words will retain visitors, while the wrong words will send them on to your competition. Ditto for the number of words: too few of them and no visitors or search engines will find your website; too many repeated keywords and visitors will think, “Scam!” Excess keywords can also get your website banned from search engines.
The words on your website are referred to as copy or content. You may have heard the phrase “content is king” when it comes to websites—and it is the truth. Your content has to sparkle. It must be interesting, compelling, and error-free, with just the right balance of targeted keywords to hook search engines, and plenty of information to interest visitors.
Your website content is the one area you can’t skimp on. If you don’t feel confident enough to write your own copy, you should definitely hire a professional copywriter to do it for you.
Whether you decide to write your copy yourself or hire someone else, you need to ensure that every headline and paragraph of text on your website is crafted to make a sale. Your marketing strategy may be earning you thousands of visitors, but if none of them are buying, you are wasting your time.
Write (or have written) clear, concise, compelling copy. Words are the strongest commodity on the Internet. Speaking of words, consider including some of the most powerful words in the English language (according to a Yale University study):
• Results
• Guaranteed
• Money
• Save
• Discovery
• Easy
• New
• Proven
• Love
• Health
• Safety
• You
Why “you”? If you write your website content using third person description (this product is great, it does this and that), your visitors will feel like they are reading a sales catalogue—which isn’t very exciting or compelling. However, if you use the pronoun “you” in your copy (When you use this e-book software, you will be able to create a professional-looking e-book in just a few hours!), visitors get the impression that your website is “speaking” to them rather than relating dry information about your products or services.
In addition to the above power words, you should also make use of these compelling words in your website headlines and sales letter:
• Breakthrough
• Discover
• Free
• Hidden
• Incredible
• Master
• Powerful
• Profits
• Revealed
• Uncovered
• Ultimate
• Scientific
• Shocking
• Secret
These “buzz words” have the power to compel, and generate a great deal of interest in your visitors. Use them sparingly, but wisely.
When you are crafting copy with power words or buzz words, one of the things you must keep in mind is honesty. You should always tell the truth about your products or services. You can emphasize the positive aspects of your offering and downplay or offset any shortcomings, but outright lying will not get you anywhere. If you feel you have to lie about your products or services in order to get sales, it is time to rethink your business. Dissatisfied customers will not keep you going. A successful Internet business stays profitable through not only attracting new customers, but keeping the old ones as well.
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