Evaluating Your Website's Content

Your business website's content can make the difference between a successful website that generates new leads and creates new customers and clients and a website that accomplishes nothing at all for you. But, how do you know the difference? In most cases, website owners can't effectively judge the content of their own websites. Still, if you look at your website's statistics, using Google Analytics, you can see for yourself how many visitors bounce away from your site, rather than sticking around to get your message. If the bounce rate is high, odds are that your website's content isn't doing its job.

Any reputable web content writer or company will be happy to evaluate your website's content at no charge. It's one of the ways they generate business for themselves. Before asking for such an evaluation, though, be sure to check out samples of that company's or writer's work. Any company or writer worth its salt will have a list of websites they've written, so you can check them out for yourself. If their sites grab your attention and make you want to stay on the site, you've found a worthwhile web content provider. It's that simple.

When you contact a web content provider for an evaluation, you should receive an email in short order. It should contain easily understood information about web content shortcomings, if any, that were found, along with suggestions for improving your website's content and an offer to discuss the job with you further. If what you hear makes sense to you, set up a meeting with the provider, which should also be provided at no charge, to get more details about what is being proposed. You'll get answers to all your questions, along with an estimate of the cost of one or more options for improving your website's content. From there, you'll have enough information to make a decision.

As a professional website content writer, I'd be happy to provide evaluate the content of your business website. Have a look at the sites for which I've written all the content at the links on the left side of this page, then Email Me for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your current website's content, or call George Campbell at 651-774-7999. I'll look forward to hearing from you.

Is Your Website's Content Driving Business Away?

For far too many business websites, what should be an effective tool for generating leads and creating new clients and customers actually sends website visitors away from your site and to your competitors. The content on your website is the single key that unlocks its sales potential. If the content is effective, it holds visitors on your site, gives them your message, and convinces them to contact you or visit your business location. Ineffective web content does just the opposite, causing visitors to click their Back button and visit a competitor's site. Some of the ways website content can work against you, instead of for you, include:

• Poor SEO Keyword Usage - Including SEO search phrases and words in your content is important, but it must be done in a way that enhances your message. Just cramming as many SEO keywords and phrases as possible onto the page is awkward and ineffective. Only by seamlessly integrating SEO into compelling content will it work to your advantage.
• Ignoring the Customer - Too many websites begin by bragging about the company, instead of addressing the customer's needs and demonstrating that you know why they came to your website.
• Poor Writing - Badly-written content quickly sends visitors away. Poor grammar and spelling, ineffective organization, and awkward language are common offenders. Only well-written, carefully designed content can do the sales job it needs to do.
• Failure to Motivate - All visitors to your website arrive ready to patronize your business. They found it because they were looking for something you offer. Capturing their attention and showing them that you understand what they're looking for keeps them on your website and encourages them to contact you or visit your location.
• Failure to Educate - Like any good salesperson, your website should inform visitors and give them the information they're seeking. The better a job your website's content does in providing useful information, the more likely visitors will be to take the next step and become customers or clients.

Effective Web Content - Your Best Sales Tool

Writing effective web content isn't something everyone is good at doing. In fact, effective web content writers are hard to find. It's a highly-skilled profession. Make sure you check out completed websites created by any content writer you consider. It's the only way you can truly judge the writer's abilities. If you make the right choice, you'll be rewarded by an increase in leads and sales coming from your website. That's the reason you have a website.

I'm proud of my track record in producing effective web content for business websites in a wide range of business categories. I encourage visits to the sites at the links in the left column of this blog. I produced all of the content on those sites. If you like what you see, Email Me for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your current website's content. I'll be happy to discuss your website and show you how I can help it become the powerful sales tool it should be.

Speaking to Every Website Visitor - Not Just Some Visitors

When visitors arrive at your small business website, the goal of your content should always be to speak to each visitor in a way that suits that visitor. That can be a complex job. Each website visitor has a particular way of looking at website content. Some respond to information in short blocks that speak briefly, and to the point. Others prefer to look first at your website's navigation system and choose topics of interest to them from the options there. Some look at the text content and focus on lists of linked bullet points to help them navigate the site. Still other website visitors are readers, and carefully read the text content on each page they visit on the site. The bottom line is that your website will perform best if its content speaks to every visitor, regardless of that visitor's browsing preferences.

How well your site retains and converts visitors into leads and customers depends on reaching as many of them as possible. The higher the percentage of visitors who find their preferred way of browsing websites, the higher the number of visitors you'll convert. That's why it pays to present your message in a way that suits all visitors, not just some. It's a challenging job.

Professional web content writers understand this need, and create content that meets all of those goals. The wording of your navigational links, no matter how you present the navigation is important. The inclusion of well-written bulleted or numbered linked lists, complete with brief expansion text, attracts a certain percentage of your visitors and leads them through the site. For the serious readers, well-written content gives them the information they need and leads them to make contact, visit your location, or order directly. Each part of your website must communicate clearly and market your business effectively.

Far too many websites neglect one or more groups of targeted visitors. There's no reason your website cannot reach every visitor. In addition, content that covers all three areas of visitor interest also presents additional opportunities for effective organic SEO keywords and phrases to appear, improving your search engine results.

How well does your current website meet these goals? Email Me for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your current website. I'll send you a report that will tell you, along with suggestions for ways to improve your site's communication with a broad spectrum of visitors. See the links to the left for samples of successful websites I have written, to see how a website can reach every visitor.

How Much is Your Best Salesperson Worth?

If you're like most small to medium-sized business owners, you already recognize the value of your best sales personnel. They are the ones who represent you to your customers, provide information, answer questions, and close the deals that make your business profitable. Losing a great salesperson is a real catastrophe for most businesses. So, you do whatever it takes to retain sales staff members who get that critical job done again and again. You select your sales staff carefully, train them to present your company in the best possible light, and give salespersons the support and tools they need.

Your website is a sales tool, too. It's on duty 24 hours a day, every day of the year. In many ways, your web site is the best sales tool you have - or it should be. Today, a large part of your business comes from your website. A typical potential client or customer makes an initial choice by searching on Google or another search engine, and then visits web sites that appear in the search results. What happens next can make or break the connection between a website visitor and your business.

Far too many small and medium-sized businesses neglect to use their website as the powerful, effective sales tool it can and should be. The key to success with business websites isn't a flashy appearance and lots of colorful graphics - it's information and marketing. The informational content of your website must be a powerful marketing tool for your business. Other factors of website design are important, too, but if the content doesn't do its job, your visitors will simply click their browser's Back button and move on to your competitor's website.

Professionally written website content presents your company's message in a way that encourages website visitors to make contact with you, and that's the goal of your website. By identifying with your customers, leading them around your site and providing the information they need, effective website content naturally entices your visitors to call, visit your location, or place an order. Without effective content, your website is just a brief pause in their search for products and services.

How effective is your current website content? There's a quick way to find out. Email Me for a free, no-obligation evaluation of your website's existing content. I'll give you a brief analysis of your current content, showing you its strengths and weaknesses, and suggest ways it can be more effective. I have a proven record of creating successful website marketing content for business websites similar to yours. You can see samples of websites I've written by clicking the links to the left.

Effective Web Content - The ARC Principle

What makes your website content effective? It seems like a simple question, but it's really not. There's no single thing that makes website content work for you. It's a combination of several factors. For my own use, I created the ARC Principle to use when writing content for business websites. Here are its elements:

• Acquisition - Acquire the attention of your site visitors. There are many ways to do this, but I find that speaking directly to visitors and letting them know that you understand why they came to the site is the most effective technique. Make the visitor the subject of the first paragraph of all content.
• Retention - Retain the visitor on the site. Do this on business sites by presenting information the visitor is looking for. Normally, that means talking about things the visitor wants - products, services, or information. It rarely means talking about yourself or how great your business is. It can also mean guiding the visitor to visit other pages on the site, using links and navigation tools. The longer you can Retain the visitor, the more likely you are to make a sale.
• Conversion - Converting the visitor to a client or customer is the primary goal of all business websites. If you've Acquired the visitor's attention, Retained your guest on your site, and provided information he or she can use, you should be able to Convert the visitors into customers and clients by simply asking them for their business. Just give your visitors a chance and help them contact you, and your job is done.

It's still not all that simple, but effectively-written content that covers these three elements well will work for you and increase your business. If you want professional results from your content, hire a professional to write it. That's the easiest road to effective web content.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site's content. I'll be happy to help you understand how expertly-written and effective content can convert your visitors into leads and sales. See samples of successful websites I've written by clicking the links on the left of this page

How Your Content Affects Search Engine Results

Most people who visit your website find it after searching for some word or phrase. If your site is among the first four or five results presented by the search engine, it's far more likely to be visited than if it's way down on the results page. Even worse, if your site doesn't appear on the first page of search engine results, few people will find it at all. Those are the realities of websites in the 21st century.

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is the science and practice of helping websites achieve the highest possible placement in search engine results. It's a complex thing, and depends on many factors. Optimizing a site for SEO purposes requires work on the framework of a website, but also depends heavily on the text content of the site. In all cases, SEO optimization requires the selection of search phrases and words that are matches for what typical visitors search for. The more such phrases appear in your website's contents, the better it will do in search engine results placement.

It's not that simple, though. Clumsy, heavy-handed use of SEO search terms and phrases can defeat the purpose of attracting visitors to the site. This is a common error made by website designers and SEO specialists. It does no good to get people to come to your business's website if they leave as soon as they see poorly-written content that exists only to attract them to the site.

Professional web content writers have a knack for using SEO search terms and phrases effectively in your content, while keeping the content compelling and readable. This knack is not easily learned, but is developed through experience and study. The best web content reads just like any marketing material, without being awkward and clumsy. SEO is important, but your content must also sell the products and services you offer to visitors.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site's content. I'll be happy to help you understand how expertly-written and effective content can meet your SEO goals gracefully, while enticing your visitors to stay on the site and become your customers. If you also need web design and SEO services, I can recommend a powerful website design company with a proven track record of SEO results. See the sites linked on the left for samples of what we have done together.

Visitor Retention: A Key to Success

The moment a visitor lands on your website, the clock starts ticking. Studies show that you have less than 30 seconds to capture that visitor's attention and convince him or her to remain on your website. If your website fails to accomplish that seemingly simple task, a click of the browser's Back button and you've lost the retention battle and your visitor's eyes.

It's not just your Home page, either. Google or another search engine may deliver visitors to any page on your site. That means that every page on your site must be designed with visitor retention in mind. Wherever a visitor lands, you have that same short time to keep that visitor on your site or lose him or her, probably forever.

Design, content, and focus all play critical roles in visitor retention. And make no mistake - your sales and leads depend almost completely on keeping site visitors around long enough for your message to convert them into leads and customers. Here are some of the key tools that successful websites use to retain visitors:

• Identification - It's crucial that the site identify with the visitor immediately. That means putting the focus on your visitors first, rather than on your company. Showing visitors that you know who they are and why they came to your site is the first step in retention. Your content must send that message instantly and on every page of your site. "You" is a far more powerful word than "We."
• Navigation - Your goal is always to convince visitors to click through to more than one page on your site. Typically, if a visitor visits three or more pages on your site, the odds are very high that he or she will make contact with you. Your site's navigation design should be logical, visible, and accessible at a glance. Clever graphics and gimmicks are far less effective than keywords in navigation links.
• Information - Every visitor to your site comes there hungry for information. What that information is depends on your site's focus, but that's why visitors are there. Feed that hunger and provide the information clearly, succinctly, and accurately. Make the information easy to access and always pertinent and timely.
• Call to Action - At any point during a visit, your visitors may decide to act. Keep your marketing message and contact tools always available. Every page should ask for action and your contact information should always be close at hand. Never make a visitor look for a way to contact you.

Creating excellent website designs and effective web content are not amateur activities. Every aspect of website design and every word and image that make up your website's content are crucially important to visitor retention and conversion. How both work separately and together isn't an obvious thing. Success demands professional expertise in both areas.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site's content. I'll be happy to help you understand how expertly-written and effective content can help your website retain your visitors and convert them into leads and sales. If you also need web design and SEO services, I can recommend a powerful website design company with a proven track record of SEO results. See the sites linked on the left for samples of what we have done together.

Is It Time to Revamp Your Web Content?

Take some time soon to read through your business' web site. It's something every business owner should do every few months. All too often, the content on small business web sites isn't doing the great job of sales, informing visitors, and converting visitors into leads or customers that it should be doing. Here are some ways to know that your website content needs a complete revamp:

• Out of Date Content - How long has the content on your site been the same? If it's over a year or so, it's out of date. Your business changes regularly, and so should your website content. It should reflect your current products and services and shouldn't show any signs of being dated. Up-to-date content is also important in improving your search engine results. Dated content sends visitors to your competitors' sites.
• Lack of Continuity & Voice - If the pages of your website were written by different writers, your site lacks continuity and a consistent voice across the site's pages. That's important to retaining visitors on your site and converting them into leads and customers.
• Ineffective Marketing Techniques - What works and doesn't work on websites has changed. Research has demonstrated that proper marketing strategies and language produces results, while ineffective marketing sends visitors to your competitor's site.
• Incorrect Emphasis - If your site talks more about your business than about the needs of your potential customers, you're boring your visitors. Your visitors come to your site because they need something from you. If your site doesn't demonstrate that you understand their needs, they won't get the right message, and they'll move on.
• Lack of Informative Content - Some web designers aren't talented writers, and often don't employ writers who know what motivates website visitors. If your site is mostly made up of bulleted lists and doesn't have informative text content, visitors look for another site that tells them what they need to know.
• Errors - Spelling, punctuation and grammar errors are fatal to any website. A majority of visitors consider such errors to be an indicator of sloppiness in your business. They assume that if you don't take care of your own website, you won't take care of them.
• Failure to Ask Visitors to Act - Your website visitors need to be encouraged to act on every page of the site, and acting should be as easy as a click of a link or a phone call to a number they can see immediately. They won't go hunting for your contact information. They'll just click the back button.

If your website isn't producing the number of leads, contacts, and customers you'd like, it may just be the content that's failing. Your website is your best salesperson, working 24/7/365 for you. You pay that salesperson just once, and get the benefits constantly, with no further expense. Revamping your website content is one key to making your site do the job you hoped it would do.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site's content. I'll be happy to help you understand how expertly-written and effective content can convert your visitors into leads and sales.

How to Evaluate A Content Writer

When you're looking for a professional writer to create the content for your business's website, there's a single factor that should be your primary consideration. While price, availability, scheduling, and other factors are important, there's just one factor that should make or break your decision: Results.

Your best guide to the performance of any writer you are considering is the past work of that writer. It's very easy to measure if the writer has a good list of complete websites he or she has written within the past year or two. By visiting one or more of those websites and carefully looking at the entire site, visiting multiple pages, you'll get a very good idea of the capabilities of the writer.

It sounds too simple to be true, doesn't it? It's not. Such an investigation into past projects is hard work for you, but finding a competent professional writer who understands all the factors that go into creating the complete content for a business website is a difficult task.

For example, look a the list of work samples on the left in this blog. They represent my work for the past year. For each of those links, I have written all the content on the site. The variety of businesses in that list is a demonstration of my flexibility in many business subject areas, and the actual content on the site represents my web content and marketing strategies and my skill at presenting those strategies. By looking carefully at a site that is similar in some way to your own business, you'll be able to judge every factor of the content, and will know whether I would be a suitable writer for your project.

Any content writer you're considering should be proud to present a list of past projects, linked so you can quickly assess the quality of his or her work. If such a list is not available, use caution, and insist on seeing recent complete website work samples in a field related to your business.

Only after a close look at real-life examples of a writer's work should discussions about scheduling and price begin. Without an assurance that the writer can produce effective website content, there's no point to those discussions. No other factor is as important in choosing a content writer.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site's content. I'll be happy to help you understand how expertly-written and effective content can convert your visitors into leads and sales. Visit my Web Content Page for more information.

Unity & Continuity - Two Important Factors for Web Content

As I evaluate websites for small businesses, a flaw I often notice is that many of these sites were written by different people at different times. They lack unity and continuity. This presents a serious problem in retaining visitors and converting visits into leads and sales. Every business website should speak with a single voice. That's unity. In addition, every page on a business website should relate in some way to every other page. That's continuity.

On many websites, clicking a link to a different page often results in a jarring change of voice. The content reads differently and can seem unrelated to the content of the previous page. There's a break in the unity of the content. This can be confusing to the visitor, and is a common reason visitors leave your site. Confusing your potential customers is a very bad idea. It's much the same as handing a customer in your brick and mortar location off to a different salesperson without telling the second salesperson anything about the customer or what you've discussed. That lack of unity often kills a sale in real life and on your website.

Another problem that's related to unity is a lack of continuity on many business websites. When different writers create parts of your website, the relationship between one page and another can easily be lost. Not only do visitors see a new voice speaking, but they may not feel as though they're even on the same website. The first page may discuss a particular issue and use a particular marketing strategy. Then, when the visitor jumps to another page on the website, a different marketing strategy and voice suddenly appears. Again, the result is confusion and often results in the visitor making an abrupt exit.

Both unity and continuity are critical to success in retaining visitors and converting them into customers. The only way to achieve both is to have your entire website speak with the same voice and present a unified marketing strategy. If your website has both unity and continuity, your visitors are far more likely to visit multiple pages on your site and take action to contact you or to order products and services. It's that simple. To meet your goals of visitor retention and conversion, major site revisions should be done by a single writer or a content provider who can present a unified voice and carefully convey your marketing strategy across the entire site.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your website's content. I'll be happy to help you understand how expertly-written and effective content can provide the unity and continuity that effectively converts your visitors into leads and sales. Please see the links on the left sidebar of this page for samples of my web content writing.