Website Content Authoring and Copywriting
covering Hertfordshire (Herts), Bedfordshire (Beds) and Buckinghamshire (Bucks)
Content is everything!
.... to your website visitor and to the search engines!
Your website is the world's window to your business. Your website creates an impression. Is it an asset or a liability? Are you proud of it or ashamed of it?
Good copywriting will help create a positive impression with your website visitors helping them move to the next step.
Effective Website Copy
The content of your website is the reason anyone visits your website. They may visit to find out something, to research, to get an impression, to make a decision, perhaps to buy something. Your website should create a positive impression with visitors, to do this visitors need to easily find what they are looking and be impressed with what they read.
Whatever it is you want to say use the language of your target audience.
Know your customer. Your website copy should focus on well crafted content that meets the needs and requirements of your target audience. It should speak their language (for people and search engines).
You should explain the benefits of working with your company clearly rather than include superfluous marketing hype.
Search engines love good copy, you can make a big impact in your ratings with well considered text, as well as getting the message across to your clients. See search engine optimisation.
Informative Website Copy
What do your customers want to know? How can you use your website to help them?
There are millions of websites in existance. Most of them leave a lot to be desired. Your website should stand out in the crowd.
Quality and Quantity are both important when it comes to copy. The web has been around for a while now, the medium has matured and most website visitors are quite sophisticated. Your customers and prospective clients are now likely to want detailed information especially if you want them to revisit.
Search engines love large quantities of quality copy.
Views and opinions of independent third parties are a great help. People like to see what others have to say. It is only natural to consult other sources before making a decision. Help them by providing user feedback and third party validation. This can go a long way towards gaining trust for your business.
Well Presented
The web is a very different medium to print and web design requires different skills. The messages and information may be the same but the presentation is likely to be very different.
Good presentation is important however everyone has very different views on what they like and don't like when it comes to design. Clear and clean presentation is more important than the actual look. Graphic elements such as images and photos can inhance the presentation but that is all they do. They are not usually a suitable replacement for text content. The look impresses people for a few seconds but it is the content they then concentrate on. Too much graphics or over design tends to be detrimental to a website as they can be distracting. Animated content and advertising banners are distracting and do detract from the main content of the website. Most mature web sites avoid such distractions.
Brand image can be important. We can take your logos, brochures and other branding materials and ensure they are effective for your website. Alternatively our web designers can design something from scratch. You can read more about web design here.
Keep your website copy up to date
This is where the web should score over all other forms of broadcasting.
Keeping your website up to date can be a challenge. We can provide easy to use - Content Management Software (CMS) designed to allow easy and instant updates to the content of your website.
If you prefer we can take on the site updates for you with a maintenance contract, a fixed monthly fee tailored to your needs or pay-as-you-go if you prefer.
Michael Spencer,
michael@epsilis.co.uk
Epsilis - Web Designers and Website Optimisation Specialists
47 Farthing Drive
Letchworth Garden City
Hertfordshire (Herts)
SG6 2TR
UK
Articles on various aspect of web design:
Web Design Hints and Tips - Short hints and tips that do not warrant a whole article.
SEO and Web Page Design.... an overview of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) and relevance to Web Page Design
Thinking about your Branding - Implications of Web Design - with print you have millions of options - unfortunately only a tiny fraction of these options are available to web designers
Legal issues concerning websites - There are a variety of legal issues that may relate to your website - Minimum information to be provided on websites - Copyright - Data Protection - Opt out or Opt in- Email Marketing - Distance Selling and Online Trading - Charge on Returned Goods - Trade Mark Keyword Online Advertising - Disability Accessibility The Disability Discrimination Act 1995 - Disclaimer.
Content is Everything .... to your website visitor and to the search engines!
A Quick DIY Review of your Web Site. Got a web site but you are not sure if it is any good – well here are a few things you can look at to give you a better idea.
Useful Website Design Resources - Here are some resources I find useful: Photos, Graphics software, Favicon, Web Safe Colours, Websites Fonts, Coding Software for Web Pages, Uploading Your Website to Your Hosting (FTP), Running Online Surveys, Marketing Emails.
Marketing Your Website - a brief overview of most aspects of website marketing activities and our services.
Getting the words right - by Susannah Ross
Susannah Ross is the author of 'A Simple Guide to Writing for your Website'. In this guest article, she addresses how writing for the web is different to writing for print and what you need to know to make your words work for you.
What can you do with your web site: a generic list of benefits of a web site serves as a basis for discussion.