Overhauling Your Web Copy.

It interests me when I speak with a prospective client and they are adamant about placing items “above the fold.” Okay, I tell them, but I also remind them that the above the fold they see on their computer is not universal. They sometimes tell me that as long as every computer in their department or office area displays things above this fluid and changeable fold line then that’s okay – thus regardless of what it may look like to their customers or clients. This strange logic placates them but… I can see the logic – text above the fold can be read without having to scroll, which makes it more likely to be read in those precious few moments a visitor’s eyes first meet your site, but where exactly is the fold?

On my desktop computer, with a regular 19 inch monitor, my browser window has several tool bars open and I still have several inches of screen space. Switch over to my laptop, with a 15.4 inch widescreen monitor, and nary a tool bar, and the fold hits almost immediately – there is barely depth enough for a header, a photo and a couple of paragraphs.

I like to keep the good stuff above the fold – but not all of it – because web copy is important and its importance doesn’t drop off because it is below a very hard to define area.

The word count on your web page needs to be high enough to impart information not only to your readers, but also search engine robots so they can ascertain how relevant your content is for their search queries.

You might think it a waste of time to write a lot on a web page because people don’t read the same way on the web as they do with print; but the fact is that with all things being equal, long copy will outperform short copy each and every time.

Now don’t get confused with long copy and boring copy. You don’t want boring copy – you want quality copy.

Very few people will read your entire web page’s content. They either have to be researching something, or they have plenty of time on their hands! Whichever is true, the longer your web page [when trying to get a sale] the much more effective it is than a short one.

Don’t make the mistake of thinking that you are your prospect. What might seem long to you, especially if you wrote it and edited it several times, may not seem that way your readers. You need time to build their trust through examples, testimonials and money back guarantees, for example. You can’t just expect to show up online and seal the deal within a few hundred words.

Now there have been many studies and split tests conducted on long copy versus short copy. The far and away winner is always long copy. But remember that’s targeted relevant long copy.

So, what kind of long copy are we talking about? Well here are some great online examples:

Google Ambush
The Magic of Making Up
Earth For Energy

Research on long copy has shown that readership typically drops off dramatically at around 300 words, which on this post was at the ‘Very few people will read your entire web page’s content’ part in paragraph eight, but interestingly it does not drop off again until around 3,000 words – and I am not going to write that much here, I promise, as I’d need to come up with another 2,500!

So let’s end with a brief word on your target readership, since that’s what who you are lasering in on. Know who your true audience is. It is vital. Writing long copy and promoting something to an audience that has little or no interest in it is pointless – it’s a time and money loser for you.

And don’t worry so much about the fold and what’s above and below it. If you have hooked your audience they will continue to read even if they have to expend a little more energy scrolling down the page.

Website Marketing Made Easy

Anyone who has done website marketing knows that the lifeblood of an online business is the traffic to their website. However, here are some tips to give your sales a boost without the need to get more visitors. Couple these website marketing tips with some traffic building techniques and you can increase your website’s revenue greatly.

1. Be a Friend.
Put a personal touch to your website marketing sales message. Nobody wants to be sold to by a complete stranger, but many people will buy what their friends recommend to them. If you can be seen by your audience as a good friend with their wellbeing in mind, they will be more likely lead to buy your products. Make sure to speak to an individual in your sales letter, not to your entire audience.

2. Offer Quality Bonuses Along With Your Product.
When you give bonuses that balance your product, your visitors will feel you are giving them with a good deal and it would be crazy for them to miss it. Be sure to list the price of your bonuses so that your visitors are compelled to grab your exceptional value-added deal.

3. Be Visual.
Website marketing 101: Use visual demonstrations for the problems your visitors may have and solutions that your product gives. Most people will not read your copy from the head to the tail, but many will notice the graphics on your website – especially moving images. Add an image of a person’s face and you increase interest even more.

4. Publish Testimonials and Comments from your customers.
Publish both positive and negative comments together, so that visitors will be more trusting that your testimonials are real. When visitors can read testimonials on your website, they will have greater confidence and purchase from you because humans like to follow others. When others have bought and proven something is not a scam or over-priced, your visitors will most likely do the same and purchase as well.

5. A Squeaky Wheel Gets Oiled.
An often forgotten basic website marketing must is demand the sale! A lot of people entice their visitors with the value of their products, and offer them stories of how they have solved many problems, even offering awesome bonuses - but forget to ask for the sale! Supply a clear direction on how to purchase your product (e.g. “Press the button to buy now!”)

Start using these five simple website marketing ideas today and you will be able to improve your web sales time and time again.

Take a Closer Look at Your Web Site Traffic

Many small business owners don't have the time or inclination to look at their web site traffic stats after the excitement of getting a web site has worn off. This is a BIG mistake! With a little time spent looking over your stats you might find some gaping holes in your site's structure, or well visited web pages that are not designed to help you close a sale.

Most web hosting companies will provide you with basic web site traffic information that you then have to sort through. However, the information you receive from your hosting company’s numbers can be confusing to interpret if you don’t know how to apply it in relation to your particular business and web site. So let's look at some simple yet important web site traffic elements to gauge your site's success.

Let’s begin by studying the most basic data – the average visitors to your site on a daily, weekly, and monthly rate. These numbers are the most accurate measure of your website’s activity. It would appear on the surface that the more traffic you see documented the greater you can assume your website is doing, but this is a misconceived perception. You must also look research the behavior of your visitors once they come to visit your web site to accurately register the effectiveness of your site.

Genuine or quality traffic to your site is sometimes commonly confused with the term "hits". Hits typically means the number of registered by the server. When you realize hits can simply mean the number of graphics seen on a page, you will get an idea of how overblown the notion of hits can be. For example, if your homepage has thirty graphics on it, the server records this as thirty hits, when actually we are really tracking a single visitor looking at a single page on your site. Therefore, you can assume hits are not helpful when analyzing your website traffic.

Your intention is to use the web site traffic numbers to find out how well, or how poorly, your site is working for your visitors. One way to evaluate this is to find out how long on average your visitors spend on your site. If the time spent is typically brief, it usually shows an underlying situation. Then the challenge is to find out what that situation is.

It's also important to remember that the more people that visit your web site, the more accurate your results will be of overall trends in visitor behavior. The smaller the number of visitors, the more a few anomalous visitors can throw your analysis.

In my next post I'll be looking at a few other aspects of your web site traffic stats that will alert you to your web site's overall performance and whether it really is as good or bad as you think.