You are at ready for the stage of building a web site or improving your existing site. First, you must pay special attention to the text appearing on your site. While many people pay more attention to the graphics of a web site, it is actually the words rather than the images that bring your site visitors closer to the target action (buying a product, filling out a registration form, ringing your office, etc). Ideally, the copywriting and graphics of the site should work together to communicate the same tone and messages, rather than contradict each other. For example, if your target audience is tweens (eight to 14 year olds) in Australia, you not only want to speak in their language, but may choose to design your site using colorful images and animated icons that speak to them as well. As another example, many sites out there are targeting various business people using a clean, white web site design.
You also use the text appearing on your site in order to construct the content that you are providing your visitors. Customers on the Web are different in various aspects in comparison to "typical" customers in many senses, one of which is that they expect your site to provide an added value - mainly in the form of useful information. For instance, if you are selling typing tutor software, you can just publish a homepage, contact page, product page which shows the product features, a customer testimonial page and a secure order form page. But, you would be better off providing additional data that your customers will appreciate such as a free typing test, focused articles, typing tips, additional links to complimentary data on the web, etc. The results of this are:
1) Customers' perception of your business image is enhanced. Thus, you are increasing the chances that they will remember your sites, revisit your site, recommend your site to a friend and make a purchase."
2) Search engines will "see" your site as being not only related to typing tutor software but also as being comprehensive. Thus, pages of your site will receive better placements among the search engine results.
3) Other sites may see your site as having quality data and may want to link to some of the pages on your site. This will not only drive additional traffic to your site from their sites but will improve your web site's link popularity, a factor that will enable you to improve your results in the various search engines.
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Before we continue on with additional tips for building a successful website, we shall point out a few other subtle issues regarding the text since text is, in most cases, the most critical success factor of your web site. So one aspect of your text is that it should enable your users to clearly know what you are offering them. Unsurprisingly, many users just visit the homepage of a site and exit the site without checking out any internal pages. This means that the first paragraph of your homepage (and any other internal page) should make sure that the user knows what s/he can get from that page and from your site.
It is also suggested that a personal approach is embeded into your copy. Your user is sitting in front of a screen by him/her self... so reach out and touch him/her using a one-to-one communication approach.
Continue reading the 2nd part of this article - website tips.
Read the next essential article in this series of articles:
(1) Define YOUR Internet Success.
(2) Target Action of a Website.
(3) Market Research and Analysis.
(4) Build a Website.
(5) Website Quality Control.
(6) Managing Your Online Advertisement Channels.
(7) Online Customer Service.
(8) Stay Updated & Innovate Online.