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Did you know that your writing can immensely impact how your visitors behave while visiting your site? If you're trying to sell a product or a service, what you say and how you say it is extremely important because you don't want to lose your visitor's interest before they get to the all-important order page. 

Below you'll discover how to improve your writing skills in order to keep and captivate your visitor's attention.

Stress The Benefits Early and Often

Don't focus on what you want, focus on what your visitor wants. Whether you realize it or not, when a person lands on your homepage, there's a little voice inside their head that constantly asks, "What's in it for me?"  

They came to your site because they are searching for something, and it's your job to help them find it. 

Now, this next sentence is going to sound a little harsh, but it's the truth. . .

Your visitors don't care about you until they find out what you and your site can do for them.

Think about it. When you go to Google and do a search for "download music", that means you are looking for a site that will allow you to download your favorite songs.

So when you click on the first site, you don't want to get bombarded with biographical information about the author of the site. At this point, you are looking for the benefits. You want the goods, the guts, and the glory.

Now, after you discover that this site may be of use to you, you may decide to read up on the author and how the site was founded, etc. But you don't want to be hit with the history of the site right from the beginning.

I see so many people starting their web sites out with a 10 paragraph bio about themselves. The paragraphs are filled with countless "me's" and "I's". (Yawn) 

If you are trying to sell a product or a service, this is the absolute WRONG way to go about it. You must feed your visitors the benefits, give them what they want. Get rid of all the I's and me's and replace them with the all important word, "YOU". Remember, you are not writing this site for yourself, you're writing it for the potential customer.

Don't Assume People Will Read Everything 

The average person will only read between 5 and 10 percent of your site. This is because most people find what they're looking for within the first few pages. So if you're trying to sell something, make sure your important benefits are listed upfront and get to the point quickly.

Not only will they not read every page, they also won't read every word on your pages. They scan for information just like they're reading a newspaper. That's why it's important to make sure your pages have lots of concise paragraphs separated by subtitles.

This makes it easier for them to scan and find the information they're looking for. Don't make them hunt too long to find something or they'll leave.

This is another reason why it's important to include some kind of site directory or table of contents on your site. Also make sure that it's accessible from every page. Organization is definitely key.

Look at Your Site Through Your Visitor's Eyes

After you've written your copy, it's a good idea to take a step back and put yourself in your visitor's shoes for a moment.

Pretend you are visiting your site for the first time and read over all the content. Then ask yourself a few questions:

Have I explained everything clearly? 

Sure the content makes sense to you because you wrote it, but if you were a first-time visitor, what questions might you have? Did you leave out some information because you assumed the visitor already knows? Are there terms or phrases that you need to define?

Does the content flow logically?

Have you put the cart before the horse? Do your thoughts jump all over the page or are they organized?  

If you develop your content in your head as you type, it's very easy to produce copy that is unorganized. Make sure you read over everything to ensure your paragraphs and sentences flow logically.

Does your site navigation make sense?

Navigation is so very important. You don't want your visitors to get lost so it's important that your navigation titles make sense and clearly define what each section/page is about.

You also want to ensure that important pages like the order and contact form are easily accessible from every page on your site. In addition, be sure that your navigation is consistent and doesn't change from page to page.

If you find this task difficult to do, ask a friend to help out. Have them read every page of your site and jot down any questions or comments that develop as they go along. You'll be amazed at what you'll discover when someone else reads your work.

Writing Effective Headlines

Every page on your site should have a headline. And since the headline is the first thing a person sees, it MUST make an impact and draw the reader into your copy. Here are some tips on writing effective headlines:

1. Always use the present tense.
2. Make sure your words consist of upper and lowercase letters. All caps scream to people and look very unprofessional.
3. Use strong verbs. Instead of "cut" use, words like slash, chop, dagger, etc.
4. Challenge the reader. Try titles like, For Serious Golfers Only! or Only Click Here if You Want to Make Money Today.
5. Too many exclamation points scream out "Amateur!!!!" If you must use them, use only one.
6. STRESS THE BENEFITS! Tell the readers, "What's in it for them." For example, You Can Earn $800.00 by Next Week.
7. Use the words "I" and "you". For example:I am working at home and loving it - You can too.
8. Ask a question that begs an answer. But make sure your ad answers the question, otherwise your reader will feel tricked or "lead on." For example, Do You Know the Easiest Way to Earn $5,000 Per Month?
9. Use attention-grabbing words like Discover, Amazing, and Powerful.
   

Interactivity is what makes the web such a powerful medium and can be one of the most effective ways of engaging your visitors. Call it a form of online ?bonding?. Just as importantly, having your visitors contribute is an ideal way to produce new content on a regular basis. Here are some ideas on how to make your website more interactive.

Subscription
People like to belong. You can offer this kind of experience by having them join a ?club? of some sort, along with certain privileges that come with membership. This may take the form of an email newsletter, entrance to an exclusive part of your site or just to be part of your online community.

Contests
An entertaining way to involve users is to offer puzzles, quizzes, contests or trivia games. Having them tie in to your website's topic of interest is recommended.

Feedback
Offer surveys, feedback forms, questionaires and always a link to a 'contact us' page. User feedback is very important to maintaining and improving your site. I recommend you don't actually display your email address anywhere as it will inevitably be spidered by spam companies.

Discussion Forums
If you can build a community around your website, half your battle is won. This is achieved with online forums. Online communities are self-maintaining organisms - they visit your website regularly, they produce their own content, friendships are formed all within the context of your website. In this situations, it's a case of "come for the content, stay for the community".

Help
Give the visitors an opportunity to ask questions. This can be handled in feedback forms (or even better, in your discussion forum), but a help desk designed specifically for that purpose encourages more interaction. A help desk is a good place to post your FAQ (Frequently Asked Questions).

Search Engine
You want to make navigation as easy and intuitive as possible - a search form on each of your pages gives the user a one click option to any part of your site they're looking for (in theory). It also encourages the visitor to actively interact with your site rather than more passive hyperlinking.

How can you help your readers know whether your site can really help them? Do you need a web designer to make it happen? Why is content writing for the web different from any other kind of writing? You'll find answers in this article.

Web Design: Scannability

Would it interest you to know that most web users don't come to your site to appreciate the attractiveness of the design? That's not to say that an attractive web design isn't important.

However, the majority of site visitation happens because the consumer was motivated to look at your site to see if you could give them a reason to purchase from your ecommerce business.

The web is based on small resolution sizes. The words read online aren't even as clear as newsprint. The pictures are often low resolution and a computer screen can tax the best of vision.

Practical Application

One of the most cost effective applications this information can produce is that you may not need a website filled with all the toys such as Java Script or Flash design. These tools add spice to your website, but can often detract or even annoy visitors who are simply looking for information they expect to find on your website.
     
A well ordered website can reap incredible rewards for ecommerce business. Effective bullet points, keywords or phrases accented in bold type and an easy to navigate page may have a greater impact on your ecommerce web design than anything.

What this may also mean is that the web design options you can chose from may expand.

Self-Directed Design

You see, if you know what will help make your site better you can self-direct the development of the site through template rich designs that allow you total control over the text in an easy to use environment that does not require the use of complicated code or extended training seminars to use.

Obviously many web design experts would rather have you seek an alternative using their personalized service, but in the end you have a stronger interest in the success of your website than a hired web developer.

If you can utilize the tools available to make your site user friendly and highly scannable you will likely find you can achieve your own success in web design.


     
Writing for the Web

Content writing for web pages is not the same as writing for any other type of content. Thoughts must be compact and content must be scannable.

This means when you write for the web you must help your reader find the subject they are most interested in using a sub-heading or indexing system that allows a quick scan to determine if your web page contains the information they need.

Even if your website does not contain the exact information your visitor wants they may be pleased to know it didn't require extended reading to make that determination. In turn the visitor may venture to other pages of online content to determine if you have the information they need elsewhere on your site.

About the Author: Scott Lindsay - Make A Website in minutes with the Website Builder at HighPowerSites.com. Start a home business and Sell Ebooks at BooksWealth.com.