Website Copy – The Good, The Bad and The No Sale (Part II)

The Bad

In Part I we discussed what to look for when writing your website copy. In Part II we will explore some things that usually go wrong with website copy.

1. The ‘run on sentence’
   The ‘run on sentence’ looks like this:
   
   ‘The product you will get looks like this and has 15 different benefits with 96 different colours and will definitely benefit your wardrobe, home, dog, cat and pocketbook all the while making you slim and fit.’ What a mess! Your consumer doesn’t want to read everything in one sentence. Break items of value up while maintaining present tense.
2. Too much on one page
   Regardless of the page (website or otherwise) you will get approximately 320 words a page (not your 250 words). 250 words accounts for very loose formatting and in some cases will make your webpage look choppy.
3. Making information absorbable
   Bullets are an excellent way of breaking the monotony of reading a lot of information.
   
   Compare:
   
   The ‘run on sentence’
   Too much on one page
   Making information absorbable
   
   To:
   
   
   • The ‘run on sentence’
   • Too much on one page
   • Making information absorbable
   The bullets call the attention of the reader and displays the information as something that should be read.

However the biggest mistake most website owners who have products and services fail to do is make their website copy have an objective; that is they don’t ask the customer to buy. Your customer wants to buy. That’s why they are at your website. Give them benefits and they will buy. Make it easy and they will buy.

Your customer is looking for quick and easy information. The less pain they receive when searching for this information means that they will have instant gratification and you will have a buying customer.

In the third and final instalment we will look at The No Sale. The worst things that e-business owners do to under perform and drive business away.