Please understand I'm sharing information with you about how to write
for the web based upon what I've learned from great web copywriters ....
this writing style is NOT for journalistic appeal or top selling novels so
you must bear with me and throw away your writer's hat just for a short
while
-
Nobody cares about you, your ability, the size or location of your
product when they search the web. Searchers care for one thing only ...
THEMSELVES and finding the answer to their need at that point in time.
-
You have 5 seconds to attract attention and convince a potential
webpage visitor that your site will satisfy the personal need.
-
Headlines like a newspaper are VITAL and should be captivating, customer-centric, appealing, exciting and make you
want to read more ...
just like the ads on the front cover of Cosmopolitan, and YOU Magazine.
One of the best tips I ever came across was the following
-
THE SOLE REASON FOR THE HEADING ON A
WEB PAGE IS TO SELL THE READER THE SECOND PARAGRAPH AMD THE SOLE
REASON FOR THE SECOND PARAGRAPH IS TO SELL THE READER THE THIRD
PARAGRAPH ... AND SO ON UNTIL COMPLETED THE WHOLE PAGE HAS BEEN
READ. THEN
-
Call to action ... TELL your visitor
what to do next.
-
White space created by bullet points and short paragraphs work well
-
Pictures should be used ONLY if they add value or are used to lead
the eye to an important piece of text content. Every image should have a
caption ideally. HOWEVER the use of images on a webpage is such a
personal and emotive topic I no longer try to convince people that 90%
of images on websites are a total waste of prime real estate on any
website except for cartoon sites.
-
Think of what you are really offering the customer that nobody else
in your space seems to be doing and then personalize that offer ....
called an USP (Unique Selling Proposition) and create the focus of the
page content around the USP
-
Consider every page to have a different USP and these USP's are all
keyword driven. If page 1 is about whale watching in Hermanus then what
is unique about your whale watching product that will make site visitors
go wild about accepting your whale watching offer. NOTE WELL ... See how
I used a keyword "whale watching" 3 times in one sentence????
-
Now onto
mechanical page layout .... to see a practical example take a look here
http://www.the-perfect-opportunity.com/example.htm and then take a look
at http://www.the-perfect-opportunity.com/example2.htm
