Hello,
This week I want to talk a little bit about site copy.
Copy...that may be a new term for you. If so here's a short
definition. Copy is the text that makes up your web page.
All the words you write...that's copy.
I could write volumes on writing copy. After all, copy is what
persuades people to buy whatever you are selling. So copy
may be the most important aspect of your web site.
Strangely, many people don't spend much time on their site's
copy. They throw up some graphics, briefly tell what they
are selling, and expect orders to come pouring in.
Copy writing is a science. It can make or break your site.
It's the art of convincing people with words.
That makes it difficult, it's both science and art!
As I said, I could write volumes on writing copy. Today
I want to focus on just one aspect of it. And that's length.
How long should your site copy be? You've probably seen
two types of sites out there. One which is mostly text,
long pages of text explaining whatever the person is selling.
The other type of site you probably see are short pages
with mostly graphics, and not a lot of text.
Which method is better? That depends on what you're selling.
I've tested both kinds of web sites...exhaustively. What
I've found, time and time again, is that sites with more
copy, always outsell sites with little or no copy and
lots of graphics.
Why is that? Because people are parting with their hard
earned cash. They want to know what they're buying. When
money's involved, people will read and read and read till
they are satisfied.
So I always advocate LONG copy for all my web sites.
How long is long? Well the ancient and honored copy writing
geniuses all say the same thing: "Your copy should be
as long as necessary to make a sale, and not a word longer".
Well phaaf! That may be helpful to you, I dunno. Basically
you'll have to experiment yourself. Don't write long
copy just to write long copy. Keep writing till you've
thoroughly explained what you are selling. Then stop.
As I said, copy writing is a science and I could go on and
on about it. But we're running out of space for this week's
article.
There is one other good reason to write long copy. And that's
search engines. Search engines spider your site, they scan
the whole thing and categorize based on the text they find.
While writing your long copy, you can weave your site
keywords throughout the page. The search engines will see
your keywords actually USED in your web page (not just listed
in your site's keyword meta tag) and therefore give you
a higher priority when ranking your site.
That's all for this week. See you next Monday!
-John Skorczewski
