Seven
rules for making words count on your business web-pages. Helpful hints
from a writer who understands.
Words on the Web
1. Website copy
Millennium cyber-boom turned to bust; but what did we learn? Not enough,
judging from a many of today's business websites... The experience
of dotcom meltdown confirmed that business success depends on substance
rather than hype - there is no future in powerful advertising that
can't deliver. Despite the headline crashes, web-trading continues
and grows, though most business websites are still failing to deliver
significant results. So far, the winners in web-trading are businesses
who have learned some extra tricks, but had already established themselves
through traditional trading methods.
The Internet is not traditional. It is a new medium that demands
new rules of combat. Poised between printed magazines and broadcast
television, web marketing uses elements from both media, plus new
features of its own. Like printed magazines, it combines words and
images; like television, it is beamed remotely to users who choose
what they see by clicking buttons. Unlike TV or printed media, Internet
marketing is open and affordable for businesses of all levels, whether
multi-nationals in prestigious concrete-and-glass towers or sole
traders in home offices. It is the most democratic and the most
universal communication medium that the world has seen, allowing
us to broadcast to a world-wide audience our sales messages, our
prejudices and our mistakes.
Yes; you can make yourself look very silly in front of a large
number of people. Errors with your graphics may cause site visitors
to grimace; spelling and grammar goofs will make them laugh at you.
This medium is not yet mature, and nothing shows its immaturity
more than the standard of word usage on the web. Forget, for the
moment, the whiz-bang sites of super-traders and look at the companies
listed in your local Yellow Pages. All types of businesses have
websites these days - after all, it costs less to publish a web-page
than to place a small ad in a local newspaper. Because it is cheap
and easy, web publishing is often treated casually. Take a look.
Your website may look pretty, with smart navigation bars and well-chosen
pictures. But it is words that tell customers the information they
need. Words are not as important as the pictures, they are
more important. 'Sticky content' is text that people want
to keep reading. True, you can destroy a site's image by over-use
of visual effects, but that is rarely the problem with small business
websites. The quality of the text determines whether your site is
taken seriously; so you need to choose words with care.
Let me give you a few simple rules.
Rule 1. Get the spelling and grammar right
If you are no good at spelling and grammar don't display your ignorance
to the world. Use your spell-checker, of course, but people who
rely on Microsoft to correct their English are soon shown up by
mid-Atlantic terminology. Learn how to do it right but, in the meantime,
get someone else to check your text or even to write it for you.
Rule 2. Web visitors are impatient - reward them with quick
headlines
High Street behaviour applies on the net - people look at your shop
window (the Home Page) then wander in to browse the shelves. If
something catches their interest they look closer. If they don't
find what they want, they walk out.
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