Business Web Site Design

Writing compelling web content has the most significant impact on your website's ability to generate results, yet it is frequently one of the most overlooked aspects of a small business web design. Effective web copy can increase your site's conversion rate by as much as 100 percent. In other words, it can double your online sales or leads, even without an increase in web traffic.

An effective web design is invaluable, but nobody wants to buy a product without actual words that explain what it is (features), why it is relevant to the customer (benefits), and why the customer should feel comfortable making the purchase (guarantees).

Following are four key principles professional web designers have discovered for writing content that produces results:

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

Relevant Headlines

Your website's visitors don't read. They scan, or "pogo stick" around your site until they come across something relevant or interesting. Grab their attention with headers that are short, focused and begin with the relevant keywords your visitors are looking for. If you want to compel them to action, begin your headers with a verb. Concise, attention getting headlines are one of the most important elements of a successful professional web site design.

Short, Scannable Text with Good In-text Linking

Unlike television, radio and other traditional media, your website is not able to hold your visitors hostage. Web users are self-directed, know what they want and are looking for specific information. Your best bet for benefiting from their visit is to assist them in discovering what they are searching for.

Help your visitors make the most of their time on your site by providing information in short chunks and emphasizing key points by using:

-- Bold and italics
-- Bulleted lists
-- Short paragraphs for easy scanning
-- Good in-text linking of relevant phrases your visitors are searching for

One significant study of the web discovered that visitors online behave as foragers, searching for the "scent" of specific, relevant information. An effective web site design with compelling content gives visitors as many opportunities as possible to catch the information scent they are looking for. This results in satisfied visitors who will engage with your organization on a deeper level.

Simple, Jargon-free Writing

It can be difficult to write about your company, organization or industry without using insider vocabulary that often sounds like nonsense to your visitors. It comes with the territory when you spend 99 percent of your time working within your organization and only one percent with potential clients. 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 simplest methods to prevent heavy jargon from leaking into your web copy is to measure the reading level of your content. You can do this by using a simple online website writing readability level tool.

-- For a website aimed at professionals or other businesses, aim for an eighth-grade reading level or below.

-- For a website aimed at consumers, aim for a fifth-grade reading level or below.

Customer-focused Copy

One of the most effective ways to raise the bar for your web content, enhance your website design and generate more results from your current visitors is to rewrite your copy in terms that are more relevant to them. Keep in mind the classic 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.

To help make your content more relevant to visitors, employ a technique called the Red/Green Score from the book Reality Marketing Revolution by Mike Lieberman and Eric Keiles. Perform 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. This is "me-focused copy," or features.

3. Circle every instance of you and your with a green triangle. This is "customer-focused" copy, or benefits.

4. Total up each, and subtract the circles from the triangles.

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 percent customer-focused.

The internet is rife with poorly written content. Yet your website content acts as the voice of your organization, and as such, it demands careful attention. Following are some of the significant ways skillfully written web content can impact your business:

-- Quality web content enhances the credibility of your website, giving visitors more confidence in you.

-- Compelling content can spur visitors to action, increasing the rate of conversions on your site by as much as 100 percent.

-- By delivering information your visitors want, you can deepen your organization's connection to potential customers.