tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-65655081372397603662011-12-01T12:27:30.658-08:00Minneapolis, Saint Paul, Twin Cities Writing & Editorial Services, offering web content, custom blogging, and all writing and editorial services.Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comBlogger271100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-48630017550889799322011-12-01T12:05:00.000-08:002011-12-01T12:27:30.675-08:00

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

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-37984436502526139542011-11-30T08:37:00.000-08:002011-11-30T09:24:57.082-08:00

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

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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

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-62876756963796058272011-10-12T08:25:00.000-07:002011-10-12T08:48:00.349-07:00

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

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-14347548367546956932011-10-06T12:25:00.001-07:002011-10-06T12:57:35.989-07:00

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

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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

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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,

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-88208157741802603362011-06-02T12:23:00.000-07:002011-10-08T05:56:11.422-07:00

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

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-2084455995653720032011-03-06T07:54:00.000-08:002011-03-06T08:12:49.314-08:00

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

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-28701416241096874722011-03-06T07:30:00.000-08:002011-10-08T05:57:12.666-07:00

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 addiction, every page on a business website

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-41797877972117545532010-09-11T06:30:00.000-07:002011-10-08T05:57:43.061-07:00

When you're creating a website for your business, you usually think of contacting a web design company to do the job. That's a smart move, but is a web design company your best choice to create the content for your site? Often, it's not.Designing a web site is a matter of graphic design, functionality, and technical issues. A great web designer, however, may not be a great writer. The content on

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-9212099457347547892010-03-25T07:37:00.000-07:002011-10-08T05:58:07.514-07:00

Conversion is the true measure of the effectiveness of your website and its content. Unless people who visit your site do something that converts them into leads and customers, your expensive website is not doing its job.All too often, a visitor lands on your site, looks at your home page, then clicks the back button and selects another site to visit from the search results page. Search Engine

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-63829987247261781922010-01-29T08:47:00.000-08:002011-10-08T05:58:31.499-07:00

Web content isn't just words. It also includes all graphical and other elements on your site. While this blog is mostly about the textual content, there are a few other forms of content that are widely used that actually harm your website. Here are some of them and reasons why you should never include such content on your business site:Animated Splash Screens Many web designers sell customers

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-29825671472150878062010-01-02T11:00:00.001-08:002011-10-08T05:59:20.080-07:00

Most Twin Cities businesses like yours already have a web site. That's a great thing, since it gives your customers and potential customers a place where they can find your business and learn about it. But, most small business web sites are static or are rarely changed. That means that most customers come to your site just once and never return. Even if you update your site once a month, that may

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-52657239149775921662009-11-09T06:18:00.000-08:002009-11-09T06:35:27.343-08:00

Once web site visitors show up on your home page, what happens next? Does your web site quickly draw them in then move them through your web site? Does it convert visitors into customers? In far too many cases, that conversion never happens. Instead, visitors arrive at the home page, find nothing that holds them there and moves them to other pages. They click the Back button and go to the next

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-52375552119396554352009-10-28T13:04:00.000-07:002011-10-08T05:59:52.057-07:00

One of the most common mistakes owner-written web sites make is to sell the wrong thing. Instead of selling their product or service, they're selling their business information. That trick never works. Current and potential customers come to your site for one reason, and one reason only: They're looking for a product or service.That's your website's first job...selling them the product or service

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-61953834290254832022009-09-30T06:51:00.000-07:002011-10-08T06:00:19.170-07:00

Your web site is your online store. Like a brick and mortar store, it has a exterior and interior design. Both are designed to present the contents of your store effectively to customers. But, it's what's inside either store that is your product, the very stuff you're selling. If you go into a store to do some shopping, you might be attracted by its exterior design. When you go inside, though, if

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-88390826297386910842009-09-23T07:18:00.000-07:002011-10-08T06:00:40.235-07:00

However your customers and potential customers find your web site, keeping them there for more than about 30 seconds depends on what they find. The content on your web site has to grab their attention and keep them reading or they'll click the "Back" button on their browser so fast it'll make your head spin.Compelling, well-written content not only keeps visitors on your web site, but leads them

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-25386856277722487542009-09-21T06:47:00.000-07:002011-10-08T06:02:56.248-07:00

In today's business climate, odds are that your web site is the first place potential customers encounter your business. The impression they get from your site is the most influential factor in their decision to do business with you or not. Think about how you feel when you visit a web site.A huge part of that first impression is based on the content of the web site. If the site is poorly-written

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-83995821045848779392009-09-10T09:35:00.000-07:002009-11-09T06:37:41.637-08:00

When you're creating content for any web site or blog, one of the most important questions you need to ask is: Who will be reading this? The answer will determine many things that should influence your content. As a magazine writer, that was the first question I had for any publication that was new to me. Magazine publishers spend large sums of money trying to determine the demographics of their

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-75804700191868353532009-09-07T07:20:00.000-07:002009-11-09T06:37:59.557-08:00

Keeping your web site or blog current is a must. Your business isn't static, and your online presence should reflect the ever-changing nature of your business. Just as you change other advertising to reflect seasonal offers and other changes, you should update your web site or blog on a frequent and regular basis.Web sites should be updated at least once a month and blogs should be updated on a

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-22771206460888345972009-09-04T08:03:00.000-07:002009-11-09T06:38:16.470-08:00

As a business owner, you hear the same questions over and over again from your customers. When prospective or current customers visit your web site, they have the same questions and more. You can improve the efficiency of both your web site and the rest of your business by letting your customers find the answers to those Frequently Asked Questions on one or more FAQ pages on your site.FAQ pages

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-66422925936411500852009-09-03T07:47:00.000-07:002009-09-03T08:14:47.735-07:00

Many people think a business blog should be restricted to articles about that business. That's a real mistake. The place for information about your business should be your main web site. While information about the business is of interest to you, it's rarely that interesting to blog visitors. In fact, blogs that deal only with information about a particular business don't work very well at

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-76425902538910665702009-08-31T08:24:00.000-07:002011-10-08T06:03:33.625-07:00

If you're ready to start a blog for your own business, you're probably wondering whether you should host it yourself on your company's web site or use a third-party blog-hosting service. In almost all cases, it's better to host your blog on a dedicated blog host, like Google's Blogger.com service.Hosting is free on Blogger.com, and there are several advantages to using that service. If you host

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-15129275902318013222009-08-30T17:02:00.000-07:002011-10-08T06:05:06.003-07:00

There are a number of services that claim to supply content for your web site or blog at bargain prices. You may find these services with a Google search for "web content" or something similar. The content is real, of course, but consider whether it's really a bargain.In most cases, the content supplied by some of these services has been used on many web sites already. Sometimes it's been

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-6402150138642039092009-08-30T09:40:00.000-07:002011-10-08T06:04:34.426-07:00

I've been looking at a lot of small business web sites lately, and it's not pretty out there. Too many web sites, especially business web sites, are chock-full of spelling and grammar errors. That really bothers me, because a poorly-spelled, ungrammatical, incorrectly punctuated web site sends visitors scrambling for their browser's back button.That's a shame, since a visitor who leaves your

Twin Cities Writing Serviceshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11172472435826781812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6565508137239760366.post-38838081258672981062009-08-30T08:59:00.000-07:002011-10-08T06:04:10.018-07:00

For too many small businesses, web sites are an afterthought, neglected and out of date. That's a huge mistake. Your business web site is how new customers find you and should keep your old customers up-to-date on what's happening right now at your business.I know...you don't have time to mess with your website. You have a business to run. Maybe you have lost contact with your web designer.

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