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How To Please Your Website Visitors

So which is more important, to please the visitors or the search engine spiders? The unequivocal answer is to please the visitors. What good is a site that attracts spiders but not actual people? And what good is a site that only attracts some visitors but not search engine spiders?

In this article, we will go over writing content that interests and pleases both your readers and the spiders.

So how do you write content that pleases a visitor?

First, stick to writing content that is relevant to your site. That means that if your site is about Rock music, you should not have any content about dogs, as that only makes your site look bad and repels visitors.

Second, write content in an easy to understand, conversational format. Do not use big, fancy words just for the sake of looking smart or pleasing search engine bots. I can't count the number of times I've visited a site with content that is so hard to comprehend that I do not wish to ever come back to that site again. You want to make a good first impression on anyone who takes the time to look at your site, so make sure your content is easy to understand.

Third, never ever write content that is long, dull, and boring. If the point you are trying to get across can be said more concisely in 500 words, than why waste another 300 words droning on and on about the topic? This is a huge turnoff to potential visitors.

Fourth, make sure that all of your content is grammatically correct. I know, this is hard because we live in the instant messenger world, where sentences like "how r u?", are thought to be acceptable. However, anyone who is well-educated will appreciate good grammar. Make your site shine in this department.

Fifth, don't overuse keywords and keyword phrases. In other words, don't make it blatantly obvious to the reader that you are trying to attract search engine spiders to your site. Make an effort to make sure that your keywords and keyword phrases flow into the content of the article. This is easier said than done, but can be accomplished with a little fine tuning.

But what about search engine spiders? How do I please them?

Search engine spiders are actually very easy to please, much easier than actual human beings. This is because search engine spiders aren't subjective--they don't care what the subject is about; they just care about the number keywords and keyword phrases.

The only way you can possibly displease a search engine spider is by overusing a keyword/keyword phrase and making your site smell like spam. Search engine spiders are now more advanced than ever, and so they are better able to ignore sites that are full of spam. Too many keywords or keyword phrases that are blatantly there will hinder your site from being crawled by spiders.

Keyword density of 1-3% is generally considered to be good. Any less than 1% is bad and will make it harder for your site to get listed on search engines; any more than 4% makes your site look like spam. Keyword density is basically the number of keywords or keyword phrases in a piece of content divided by the total number of words.

Before you write your article, take some time to make up a short list of keywords that are relevant to the topic at hand. Then try to naturally sprinkle them into your content, so that your content will please both the search engine bots and your readers. If you are able to do that, you will have a successful site in no time. Not only will the search bots love you, but actual people will, too!

Writing content that is good for both people and search engines is an absolute essential to making your site a powerhouse. So follow the rules above and you will be able to write excellent, pleasing content!

About the Author: Terry Detty finds press release services and SEO marketing software his passion. In addition to marketing, he enjoys reading and occasionally goes out for a short walk. His latest interest is a new time and attendance program he's been using.

Website Writing Tips From a Copy Veteran

When I joined my first London ad agency 40-something years ago, the copywriting department was presided over by a lapsed genius who beat into me a number of immutable copy principles. These precepts, which are as valid now as they were then and which have helped me shift truckloads of product worldwide, apply to all types of promotional writing. They apply even more so to selling on the Internet, where do-it-yourself copy is the norm rather than the exception. In the old days, very few serious advertisers wrote their own material. Today, they do so as a matter of course simply because the technology allows it.

Anyway, this little article is aimed at those who write their own web pages and also at those who hire a writer and may wish to check that he or she is working on the right lines. Below you’ll find just a few principles of good promotional writing. If the editor wants more, I’ll gladly provide them.

Keep it very simple

All copywriting should speak to its audience in everyday, uncomplicated language. People don’t like to be talked down to. And they grow tired of clichés and buzzwords. Also, keep your sentences short and punchy, with the minimum of clauses. Long and involved sentence structure is death to readership. (The six sentences above are examples of what I’m talking about. They are easy to scan and understand.)

All web pages should carry a headline

But this must be a pertinent headline. A selling headline. This headline will be, or should be, powerful enough or intriguing enough to draw your target into the compass of the body copy. If it can do that, you are on a winner.

It may go without saying that the entire thrust of your webpage should revolve around an offer or a promise. This offer or promise will be unique to you – it’s your unique sales proposition. It’s the one thing that sets you apart from your competitors; and it can be price, performance or service related. Given this, the headline should be a snapshot of the sales message – a précis of your offer or promise. In other words, a headline that says: Buy this product and get this benefit. I’m sure you already know that people don’t buy products, they buy the benefits of owning those products.

And when I say that every page of your site should carry a headline, I mean every page. Experience shows that a person will read a headline before looking at any accompanying pic or body copy. They do so preparatory to scooting off to someone else’s site. But if your on-going headlines tell them things of interest, they will almost certainly hang around to explore the site more fully.

Keep headlines relevant

Around 30% of all headlines on the Net are both useless and irrelevant. The worst of them are so convoluted, so desperate to say everything all at once, that they are unintelligible. The offending lines also employ tired buzzwords. The word ‘leverage, for instance’, in completely ungrammatical context; and words like ‘solutions’ and ‘focus’ are thrown around like generous confetti. The moral is this. State your sales proposition cleverly, wittily, stridently or emotively, but never, ever employ a cliché device simply because it’s the easy thing to do. If you can’t be original, at least be positive. And if you honestly don’t have very much to say, there are some really clever ways of saying nothing that will endear you to your audience.

Emphasise the benefit

Copy should be more than just a description of your product. All body copy should make some kind of selling proposition. If it doesn’t, it isn’t advertising – it’s an announcement. So many writers these days fail to understand that copy is nothing more than salesmanship in print. They describe every conceivable facet of their product, what it does, how it does it and why it does it, without once producing a decent argument for buying the damned thing! They lose sight of the fact that they should be trying to sell something.

Thus, copy must use the psychology of the salesman; and it must say, right up front: Here’s what’s in it for you. Nobody ever went broke promoting the benefits of owning their product.

Raising value

All copywriting should be geared to fulfilling one very important task. And this is to raise the value of your product or service in the potential customer’s mind. This has nothing to do with a policy of low pricing or, indeed, cut-price offers. But it has everything to do with making a sales pitch that immediately demonstrates the outstanding value of your goods and services – no matter how much you are charging for them.

Look at it this way, a gallon of petrol costs around £5, but if your car runs out of gas on a lonely, rain-swept moor in the middle of the night, with the prospect of a 30-mile walk to the nearest filling station, how much would you pay for a gallon of petrol from a passing stranger? £10? £20? £50? It all depends on how badly you need it and how the circumstances have raised its value to you.

Raising value isn’t difficult to do when people are in the market for your product. They come to you with certain preconceived notions, they are excited about owning whatever it is you make, they can already picture themselves using it, they want it now. All you have to do is exploit their desire. Bear in mind that advertising doesn’t create desire, desire creates advertising.

Say it, then say it again

It has been scientifically proven that most of us take in only around 40% of what we actually see. Our brains edit out the other 60% of visual information as unimportant. On these grounds, if you have a serious proposition to make in your website it would be wise to repeat it. And not just once, but several times.

Just because you are deeply immersed in your offer or promise, it doesn’t follow that your market will be likewise informed after only one reading. Websites are the most negligently read materials on the planet. Aside from you, nobody has any real or abiding interest in them. Always remember that you are preaching to the indifferent.

Resist the urge to talk about yourself

A lot of website writers seem compelled to talk about themselves. They talk about their business, when it was founded, why it was founded and by whom. Not content with this, they tell us all about their employees one by one; about the size and location of their offices or plant; and about the lengths they go to in order to satisfy their customers.

A little of this sort of thing goes a long way, but a lot of it goes right over people’s heads. And they lose more customers than they gain with such naval-gazing.

The simple truth is that nobody gives a damn about other people’s achievements. All most of us are interested in are our own achievements. Good enough reason, then, when writing your next website is to talk more about your potential customers and what you can do for them, than about yourself. Six-to-four, you’ll get a bigger response.

If this has been helpful, maybe you’ll let me know.

About the Author: Pat Quinn is an award-winning UK copywriter who also operates a search engine optimisation service. Because it’s all in the writing! Here: http://www.search-engine-mechanics.co.uk.