Content is King!

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 through your site and converts them from browsers into customers. That's why Content is King...a saying you need to take to heart when creating, evaluating, or updating your site.

This is not a new concept. Before the internet became the default way for businesses to reach people, newspapers and magazines knew that what was on their pages determined their success. The best publications hired the best writers and paid them top rates. Why? Because seasoned, professional writers could produce the lively, informative content that kept the readers coming and buying the products and services advertised in the publications.

Your web site is no different. If your content informs and entertains, your visitors will become customers. It's just that simple. If the writing on your site is just so-so or worse, your visitors will just move on and you'll lose the opportunity to convert them to buyers.

Professional writers know how to motivate your visitors to stick around, learn something, and then explore your site further. That's the professional writer's business. Your business will thrive if you hire pros to create your site's content. Doing it yourself or copying unoriginal content from other sites just won't get it in today's ultra-competitive business climate.

Other factors are important, of course. Careful attention to search engine optimization and graphic design can lead visitors to your URL and get them to look at it. But, it's what your site says that keeps visitors there and leads them through your offerings.

How good is your web site's content? Is it converting visitors to customers? Are you happy with your site's performance? If you're not sure, have a professional writer evaluate your site. I'll be happy to do it at no charge and send you a report.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site content. I'll be happy to help you create and revise content to target your audience.

Your Web Site -- One Chance To Make A First Impression

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, full of spelling and grammatical errors, or just rambles on without giving you the information you need, you probably move on to the next business displayed in your Google search. Your potential customers do the same thing.

How many of your potential customers have just hit the Back button after visiting your Twin Cities site? You'll never know. They won't tell you. They just won't contact you or come to your business.

Every business web site needs content created by a professional. I'm George Campbell, and I've been a professional writer for over 25 years. My work has appeared in nationally recognized magazines since 1974, ranging from PC World and Computer Shopper to Family Handyman , Mechanix Illustrated,Mother Earth News and Western Outdoors. I've also written two books, one on outdoor project for Rodale Press and a book on WordPerfect.

I can create accurate, targeted, compelling content for your website. I work quickly, accurately, and in any style needed to match your needs. I have my own multi-faceted website, which I hope you'll visit to see the range of subjects I cover.

Email Me!

Who Is Reading Your Web Site or Blog?

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 audience. Everything from age and education to income level and type of employment is considered by magazine publishers.

They use this information to attract advertisers, but also to tailor the editorial content of the magazine. The same principles apply to your web site. Identifying the characteristics of those who will be reading your web site or blog can help you or your content professional target your readers.

Scoring a Bullseye

If your web site or blog can hit the mark, it will neither talk down to your readers, nor talk over their heads. You know your customers, but knowing how to write for them is not so easy. Most people have a certain writing style, based on their own educational level, expertise in some area, and other factors. When they write, it's in a style that can be easily identified, but that may not be ideal for communicating with others.

For example, the owner of an automotive repair shop is an expert on automobiles. He knows the technical terms and jargon used in his business. His customers, on the other hand, are not experts. They may not know the terms the auto shop owner might use in writing content for his web site. Worse, the owner might not know how to put what he wants to say into a form that's easily understood by his customers and potential customers.

Similarly, people in the medical professions often speak and write using very precise terms, but can fail to communicate to patients and potential patiences in a way that's helpful. The doctor uses the word "abdomen," while the patient uses the word "stomach." Communication can be tough sometimes. Most businesses have their own jargons and technical terms. Translating them into language that can be understood by customers and clients is no easy task.

Common Stumbling Blocks

Here are some of the things that can cause a failure of communications:

• Jargon and technical terminology
• An overly academic writing style
• Writing that's too simplistic
• Poor organization and flow
• Faulty grammar and spelling
• Overly wordy writing

All of these, and other factors, can put your potential customers or clients on edge, often leading them to stop reading the content on your web site and look for the next site on their search results page.

Get The Professional Edge

Experienced professional writers know how to write for just about any audience. They have to if they want to be successful. Being able to analyze an audience, then write specifically for that audience is a craft learned only be experience. The longer a writer has worked, the better able he or she is to match style to the intended reader.

That's just one more reason that you should consider hiring a professional writer -- one with many years of experience -- to create or rewrite your web content. There's little room for error when you are trying to attract customers and clients to your business. Carefully-targeted content is an important key to this critical material.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site content. I'll be happy to help you create and revise content to target your audience. Visit my Twin Cities Writing and Editing Services site for more information.

Update Your Web Site or Blog Regularly

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 weekly basis at a minimum. These regular update times should be noted on the web site or blog, so that your customers can return regularly to see what's new.

Keep Them Coming

Even if there's nothing spectacular to announce, you can still keep customers coming back to visit your web site or blog. Try these tools to get regular customers visiting your pages on a regular basis:

• Weekly or monthly internet specials -- Offer a special sale or discount to your web visitors, and give them a code number or word to use to get the special. Not only will this keep customers visiting your blog, but it will let you track the effectiveness of your online presence.
• Biographical sketches of your employees -- These snapshot bios of your employees, complete with an on-the-job photo, familiarize your customers with the people they meet when doing business with you. Customers like having a connection with the people they see at your business.
• Customer Service articles -- Here, you get a chance to provide useful information to your customers. This information can lead to sales if linked to seasonal needs or new offerings.
• Business-related News -- On your blog, post news stories that apply to your business and explain how you can help customers take advantage of this news. Again, information that leads customers to your business is a great way to keep your site or blog current and informative.

Updates Benefit You in Many Ways

Regularly-updated web sites and blogs are noticed by the search engines, too. It's another way to keep your site at or near the top of search results. That's important for attracting new customers or clients to your site or blog.

Regular updates also let you fine-tune your web site or blog on a regular schedule. As the owner of a small business, you should visit and check your web offerings regularly, looking for errors and areas where the site or blog can be improved.

Finally, thinking about ways to keep your web presence lively and current can focus your attention on keeping the business itself fresh and full of new ideas. Nothing's more important in marketing than offering something new and improved to your clients and customers.

If you're thinking that you don't have time for all this, you may be right. That's another excellent reason to use the services of a web content professional to help you keep your web offerings fresh and always changing. It's economical and prudent to have someone handle the job who knows what keeps web sites and blogs attractive to your customers.

If you have questions about how you can keep attracting new and current customers to your site or blog, I'd be happy to discuss them with you. Email Me for a free site or blog evaluation, and I'll get right back to you with some ideas. In the meantime, please visit my Twin Cities Writing and Editing Services site for more information.

FAQ Pages Are A Must for Your Web Site

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 are among the most popular pages on any web site. Everyone has questions, and those pages have the answers in an easily accessible form. A web site without at least one FAQ page is like a business without windows. They save your customer's time and yours too. They are powerful tools for converting potential customers to actual customers.

The Two Types of FAQ Pages

The first and most basic type of FAQ page is one that provides details about your business. It should include:

• Locations, with links to maps
• Hours of operation
• Owner's name
• Services offered
• Product lines available
• Brief business history
• Payment types accepted
• Other information about your business

Every business web site should have one of these basic FAQ pages.

The second type of FAQ page, and one that's especially useful to customers is an informative FAQ page containing common questions asked about the type of business you run. For example, an auto repair shop FAQ of this type would include questions about vehicle maintenance schedules, common problems with vehicles, etc. A dental office FAQ would cover common patient questions, like why a root canal procedure might be needed, what to do about tooth pain, etc. You get the idea.

Each question leads naturally to an opportunity to tell customers how you can help solve their problem and to link to appropriate content on your site, providing a direct pathway from the question to a sale. Answers to these questions are generally brief, and include relevant links to other areas of your site.

Lead Customers to FAQ Pages and FAQ Pages Will Lead Customers to Buy

Feature links to FAQ pages prominently on your site, wherever customers might have questions. They'll go to the FAQ pages, get their question answered, then follow links in the answers back to content on your site that sells them on patronizing your business.

This will also save time you now spend answering these common questions and let you focus on the real business of selling your goods and services. It's a winning strategy for any business web site.

Creating effective FAQ pages is something of an art. Identifying the questions to cover and supplying effective answers isn't as easy as it sounds. If you think your website could benefit from adding FAQ pages to your site, please visit my Web Content FAQ. FAQ pages are just one of the Web Content services I offer.

Should Your Blog Be about Your Business?

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 all.

Instead, make your blog somehow related to your business, but not about your business. For example, an auto repair business should blog about automotive topics, like the importance of regular maintenance or how to inspect tires for excessive wear. Blog entries that help your customers understand and enjoy their cars will attract people to your blog. They'll get the idea of visiting your business on their own, since you'll have links to your main web site prominently displayed.

Similarly, a dental office blog should be about understanding and caring for teeth, not about the specifics of that dental office. Again, that information belongs on the main web site. Articles about the importance of early dental care for chidren or informative articles about common dental concerns are the best blog topics for this type of business.

That's not to say that an occasional article about the business itself isn't in order. If you're having a special event or a change of address, an article about that is a good idea. But such articles should be well mixed with informative, entertaining articles about topics related generally to the type of business you operate.

At the end of each general blog entry, you can also include a short paragraph inviting readers to contact you for more information or to schedule an appointment related to the topic of the blog. These paragraphs should not be more than a sentence or two, and should contain links to your web site and email address.

Remember, you're aiming at a balance between informing and entertaining your blog visitors and putting them in touch with you. If you attract them to your blog by offering useful information, they'll naturally think of you when they want to shop or obtain related services. That's the way blogs work to help you build business.

Email Me to discuss how a blog can enhance your marketing strategy. There's no charge for an initial consultation. Visit my main site, O So Minnesota! to learn more and to see what else I'm up to.

Should You Host Your Own Business Blog?

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 on your own site, you or your custom blog service will have to coordinate with your company's web designer or webmaster. Since blogs require frequent updates, this can lead to excessive time spent on the blog by your designer or webmaster.

A hosting service like Blogger.com lets you or your custom blog service update the blog at any time without involving your web hosting personnel. It also lets you keep non-employees from accessing your web-site server. Even better, changes and corrections can be made almost instantly and new blog articles can appear without delay.

Naturally, you'll link to your external blog from your website. Best of all, your external blog will contain links to your business website and provide an additional way for customers to find your business. Blogger.com, as part of Google, includes your blog entries in their search engine, which gives you additional internet exposure. All in all, the benefits of external blog hosting far outweigh the costs of hosting on your own servers.

Email Me to discuss how a blog can enhance your marketing strategy. There's no charge for an initial consultation.

Don't Settle for Second-Hand Web Content

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 rewritten slightly, but the content is the same. "Content Mills" obtain the content from a variety of sources, some of them perfectly legal. But that content may have originated long ago and be out of date. Worse, your customers may have already seen the same material on another web site, even on a competitor's web site.

When you buy web site content from a professional web content writer, you can be sure that it's original, fresh, and tailored for your web site alone. It's a little more expensive, but the payoff in customer approval is more than worth the small additional cost. There's no substitute for custom content for your web site or blog. It makes your site stand out from the crowd, rather than blending in with the mass of other websites that are competing for your customers.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your blog or web site content. I'll make recommendations of how custom content can add new dimensions to your site.

Neatness, Spelling, & Grammar Really Do Count

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 business's web site isn't likely to become a customer. While some people won't notice and others may not care, a sizable percentage of people who visit your web site are put off by sloppy writing, bad spelling, and poor grammar.

Think about it. Your website represents you and your business. You want your prospective customers to consider you professional, careful, and attentive to detail. You want them to know just how seriously you take them. Those attributes are what lead to customer loyalty and continued patronage.

Spell-Checking Isn't Enough

Just running your website content through a spelling checker won't cut it, either. There are too many words that are spelled correctly, but that are used incorrectly. Common examples of this type of error are the words "There," "Their," and "They're." Each means something different, but they all sound the same. "Its" and "It's" are another pair of words that are frequently misused, and spelling checkers won't tell you. Your web site visitors will see the errors, though, and you'll never know what they think.

Grammar Isn't Just for School

Not everyone is a grammar whiz, but most people don't like reading material that uses poor grammar. Even if they don't know why, they know that they don't like what they're reading. If your web site contains content that is ungrammatical, your customers will see your business as sloppy and careless. They won't tell you this; they'll just not come to your business.

Punctuation is Powerful

The same problem applies if your web content is badly punctuated. Misplaced or improper punctuation makes text hard to read and understand. Your goal is to inform your customers, not to confuse them.

Getting it Right

The solution for poorly-written web content begins when the content is prepared. If a professional content provider creates your content, you can rest assured that it will be correct. A professional will proofread your content multiple times, and correct any errors that exist.

If the content is already on your web site, the same professional can proofread and correct it quickly and for a reasonable price. Either way, you need a pro to do the job, unless you're a professional writer yourself.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site content. If it's in good shape, I'll let you know. If not, I can fix it for you at a reasonable price.

Is Your Twin Cities Business Web Site Stale?

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. That's no excuse. If your web site is stale, your business isn't getting all it can from internet-savvy customers.

Any business web-site should be:

• Up-to-date, with regular updates as your business changes.
• Current with sales, specials, and new services.
• Full of lively, well-written content that informs your new and old customers.

If your site doesn't meet these criteria, maybe it's time to freshen it up. If you don't have time to do this, consider hiring a web content expert to give your website the up-to-date punch it needs in this competitive economy.

Email Me for a free evaluation of your web site, and I'll help you figure out an economical plan to breathe new life into your web presence.