A noisy business website distracts visitors, which negatively impacts the bottom line.

Websites often become convoluted over time because businesses don’t invest the time and resources to remove obsolete information.

Many businesses just add content on an as needed basis. But, just as important, businesses should regularly maintain websites. Scheduled clean-ups promote positive online experiences, which translate to increased conversions.

Things to watch out for:

• Outdated information, events etc.
• Too many menu items or links
• Irrelevant web copy or graphics

For a typical business, websites can be maintained by investing one hour, just once a month. During a website audit, I recall an employee who detested the idea of cleaning up a few web pages. But the handful of hours it took him to make those changes are saving thousands of prospects and customers several seconds each visit, which makes it more than worthwhile.

Clean your website to make it easier to do business with you. It makes perfect business sense.

To help your visitors enjoy a positive online experience, it’s important to prioritize the information in your web content.

An effective strategy is to separate the “need to know” from the “nice to know.”

Group your need to know information — anything that is critical to your messaging. And place this relevant information on the top pages of your website.

Then take the nice to know information and place it on secondary pages. Links should be clearly labeled and point to this supporting information.

This nice to know/ need to know strategy complements the inverted pyramid organization, which is the best way to present information on your website.

By neatly providing visitors the relevant material first and support material second, you provide an intuitive information flow. That leads to satisfied visitors and completed tasks.

Knowing your audience is imperative to achieve high conversion rates with your web content.

As you attempt to define your reader, pay heed to his knowledge of the subject. If he’s informed, get right to the key facts and figures. Otherwise, you’ll bore him and turn him off with generic information.

If he’s not well versed with the subject, ensure you provide some basic, high-level information, and offer plenty of references to helpful background material. Sidebars can also be an effective tool in this case.

If you need to cater to a mixed crowd, which is common on the Web, provide high-level material, but include clearly labeled links to all the particulars. This is a web content strategy called link layering, and it’s an incredibly effective way to provide online visitors information that’s relevant to their specific needs.

Continue reading →

Keywords are the foundation to successful web content.

Use the right ones, and your business can thrive. Use the wrong ones, and your website will reap you few rewards, if any. The trick is to ensure your web content writer or writers use the same language as your target audience.

Business executives and managers are often surprised when they find out internal lingo isn’t used by prospects and customers. “Talk shop” with consumers and you risk alienating them.

For instance, airline executives religiously use the term “reduced fares.” But that term is used in search engines less than 10 times a day — and that’s on a global scale.

Meanwhile, “cheap flights” is plugged into search engines by Internet users more than 10,000 times a day.

If you were running an airline, which search term would you want to target?

Showing consumers respect turns browsers into buyers. Yet, when consumers reach out, their inquiries often seem to fall on deaf ears. In the digital age, a prompt response is anticipated — always. And when it’s not delivered, it can easily kill the sale.

Many businesses don’t recognize patience is scarce on the fast-paced Web. Even the slightest delay in response prompts consumers to go back to Google and friends to click the next search result.

While planning web copy for an HR firm, they sent requests for quotes to three web designers. Within 48 hours they made their choice between two; they refused to wait for the third to respond.

Meanwhile, some businesses just don’t care. Two years ago, Webcopyplus was referring several businesses to an industry partner, and a couple clients made comments about their response times. E-mails weren’t returned for up to four days.

Continue reading →

Purposefully written web content that effectively tells your prospects why they should buy from you can really help your business on the sales front. In fact, if done right, it can completely disqualify your competitors.

As noted in the article Brand strategy: distinct or extinct, you should leverage your business’ unique points and strengths, which may entail your:

• Selection
• Experience
• Knowledge
• Credentials
• Expediency
• Style
• Technology
• Geography
• Alliances
• Tools
• Customer service

But when you do, make sure you nail the point on the head. Don’t be subtle. Use clear, short and relevant web content to drive the message home.

And don’t be afraid to repeat your most potent points. It will drill the facts and ideas into your prospect’s brain, and make it memorable.

It’s a sound way to exclude your competitors from the final decision-making process.

Just one comment captures just how fast the Web’s killing TV.

A friend and his crew taping a 2010 Olympics-related event in Vancouver were approached by a group of kids, ages six to 10 years old, who asked excitedly: “Cool, are we going to be on YouTube?”

YouTube. Forget about TV from the decades past. And when the group was told no, but that they’d be featured on TV, that news was met with a big, disappointing “Awwww.”

The new generation is onto something.

Sooner than later, those TVs in the family rooms will be giant screen monitors powered by the Web. The tipping point is here.

Author and super marketer Seth Godin made a good point on his blog, where he touches on the fact that the closer you are to the point of need, the more you can charge clients.

In one example, he cites pizza at the airport costs five times more than pizza on the way to the airport. That’s true in most cases, including Frankfurt and London Heathrow, where the price for a hot dog and a beer will give you the impression you’re fine dining.

However, some airports choose not to charge premium. The Vancouver International Airport is a prime example.  Tenants are required to offer “street pricing,” which means franchises like Flying Wedge Pizza can’t inflate their prices. A big mama’s bacon special will cost you $4.99 on the east side of town, and it’ll cost you $4.99 as you’re running for the departure gate.

Continue reading →

Consumers rule the Web. Consider bloggers; they freely praise or pan products and services, and companies can’t stop it.

While errors and incidents were easily swept under the rug during past decades, the Internet has made it easy for consumers to share horror stories with the masses.

When complaints about ongoing no-shows and screw ups fell upon deaf ears, I felt compelled to share my story about Rogers Customer Service. Now, when someone types Rogers customer service into Google and friends, there’s a good chance they’ll read about the poor service.

Continue reading →

At a recent entrepreneurial event in Vancouver, business coach Mark Wardell spoke about the importance of a business’ market position.

He suggested: Ask yourself, do your customers clearly understand why your business is unique and why they need you?

“The answer to this question determines if they will continue to do business with you,” he said. “Conversely, if you are seen as part of a homogeneous category of business, your selling prices will be dictated by your competitors.”

And, he stressed, this is not a good thing — especially in our current economic times.

Wardell also makes interesting points in a market positioning video on his business consulting website.