Writing for the web is maybe the single most important factor in generating results from your website, and yet it is often one of the most overlooked elements of a redesign.

What results you say?  Well, good web copy can effectively raise your website’s conversion rate as much as 100%.  In non-jargon, that means double your online sales or leads without increasing your traffic at all.

A picture may tell a thousand words, but I don’t know anyone who buys something without actual words to explain what it is (features), why it is relevant to you (benefits), and why you should feel comfortable taking action (guarantees).

Four key principles we have discovered that lead to effective writing for the web:

1. Relevant headlines
2. Short, scannable text with good in-text linking (information scent)
3. Simple, jargon-free writing
4. Customer-focused copy

Relevant Headlines

Visitors don’t read online, they scan.  Or, my favorite term, they “pogo stick” around your website until they find something interesting and relevant.  Use headers that are short, focused, and begin with relevant key words that your visitors are scanning for.  If you are trying to drive action, begin your headers with an action verb.

A good resource on the topic is this article Jakob Nielsen wrote about the BBC’s guidelines for creating headlines that persuade visitors to click through to a story.

Short, Scannable Text with Good In-text Linking (Information Scent)

Your visitors are looking for specific information.  You do not have them hostage in the way that TV, radio and other traditional “push” media once did.  Your visitors are self-directed and they know what they want.  Work with your visitors to help them find what they are looking for, and you will benefit.

Key principles include writing in short chunks, emphasizing key points through the usage of:

• bold and italics
• bulleting lists
• short paragraphs for easy scanning
• good in-text linking of relevant phrases your visitors are searching for
  

One of the most useful studies of the web found that online we act as foragers, looking for the “scent” of specific information that is relevant to us.  Giving our visitors as many opportunities as possible to find the information scent they are looking for through these principles will result in happier visitors who engage more deeply with your organization.

Read Jakob Nielsen’s classic article on writing for the web.

Simple, Jargon-free Writing

You find it hard to write about your organization without throwing in lots of nonsensical words that mean nothing to your visitors.  Why?  We all do.  It’s the nature of spending 99% of our time with our organization and working each and every day to make it better, and spending 1% of our time with potential clients of our organization.  As one of the top experts in the field of web persuasion likes to say, you can’t read the label on a bottle from the inside.

One of the easiest ways to combat this is to measure the reading level of the content on your website.  We have built a helpful tool on our website that lets you measure the reading level of your copy here: website writing readability level.

General guidelines:

• For a website aimed at professional buyers (businesses), aim for an 8th grade reading level or below.
• For a website aimed at consumers, aim for a 5th grade reading level or below

Customer-focused Copy

One of the best tools to improve the quality of your web copy and generate more results from your existing visitors is to rewrite your copy in terms relevant to them.

Why does this matter?  It’s the age-old marketing concept of features versus benefits.  Features are things that your product or service can do.  Benefits are things that it does for me.  Until you make it relevant to me, I don’t care.

The simplest way to accomplish that we have ever seen comes from the good folks behind the book Reality Marketing Revolution, Mike Lieberman and Eric Keiles.  We have adopted one of their techniques into what we call the Red/Green Score.  To run this test, simply do the following:

1. Print out a page from your website.
2. Circle every instance of I, We, Us, Our, or your company name with a red circle.
3. Circle every instance of You and Your with a green triangle.  This is “me-focused copy,” or features.
4. Total up each, and subtract the triangles from the circles.  This is “customer-focused” copy, or benefits.

If your Red/Green Score is zero or negative, rewrite your copy until it is not.  The most effective copy is typically at least 60-70% customer-focused.

Good luck writing, and let me know what you think!

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