~~~Successful Online Writing~~~
After our last issue where we discussed "editing" for keyphrases, we
received a number of emails with comments like:
"I don't want all that text on my home page. We're afraid our
prospects won't read 250 words of copy. Heck, they won't even read 25
words! How can we rewrite our home page for keyphrases and keep a
word count to 75 words or so?"
~~~Heather's Response~~~
Well, you really can't. Not if you want your copy to make sense,
anyway.
I can completely understand the "short copy" argument. That is, we've
all seen big solid text blocks that are almost impossible to read.
When you hit the home page, you end up scrolling and scrolling, bored
out of your mind. There's no links to inner pages. No call-to-action
sentences. Just an overwhelming copy monstrosity.
That doesn't mean all "long" copy is bad. Nor, do *you* have to write
the text in such a manner that your copy is overwhelming. But, you do
have to increase your word count.
Think about it. If you limit yourself to 75 words on your home page,
how are you going to write for all those keyphrases and still create a
strong marketing pitch? Assuming you wrote for three, two-word
keyphrases (like quilting supplies) that would mean approximately one
third (or more!) of your words would be keyphrases. Weaving together
the rest of your pitch in 50 or so words AND including call-to-action
links AND making sure your copy makes sense is darn near impossible.
Instead of providing your prospects real information, you're limiting
how you communicate with them.
Besides, more words provide an additional opportunity for your
prospects to learn more about you. Don't shortchange your marketing
pitch and provide *too little* information because you think there's a
Web word-count rule (there's really not.) Just make sure you do it
right.
So, yes, it's OK to increase your word count to 250 words. In fact,
it's actually easier than trying to keep an unrealistic word count.
For more information on how to make this work for your company, we
discussed ways to enhance usability with longer copy in Rank Write 003
[http://www.rankwrite.com/archives/issue003.htm].
Keep those online copywriting questions coming!
Heather
~~~Jill's unsolicited 2 cents~~~
One thing we've found that seems to please most clients (and I think
this was discussed in Issue 003, referenced above), is to break up the
text into short blurbs and columns. It's amazing how you can take a
LOT of text, and make it not look like quite so much when you do it
this way. See www.eplans.com and www.imageton.com for good examples
of this. Both of those clients were hesitant to have "a lot of text"
put on their sites. But once they saw it in this format, they were
very pleased with it.
I'm a firm believer in spelling everything out for people right on the
front page. After all, why try and hide or bury the very essence of
your business? If you truly have something good to offer people, let
them know about it right away!
Jill
~~~Send Us Your Questions~~~
If you have questions about online copywriting or search engine optimization (or both!), just zip us an email to questions@rankwrite.com. We've had some folks ask if their question
was "too basic" to be printed - and you don't have to worry about
that! There are no "stupid" search engine optimization or copywriting
questions, so ask away!
