Writing for the Web: Part 1

Your marketing plan should include the Internet. At the very least, you need to have a website. You might also want to consider a blog, a Facebook presence, a Twitter account, a local social media, LinkedIn, Google Advertising, an ebook, and more. For many businesses, Internet marketing is a large portion of their advertising. Therefore, it is important to know a few things about your potential readers.
 
Research suggests that website users:

1. Visit your website for a reason. Most visitors are not just surfing around for fun. They are looking for something specific. If they can’t find what they want, they leave your site for another.
2. Don’t read everything. That’s right. Visitors often scan pages and read headlines.
3. Want to feel active. They want to click through to pages and take surveys and be involved, rather than just read along.
4. Visit pages quickly. Most visitors will scan from page to page without staying on one page for very long.
5. Have a short attention span.
6. Want everything to show on the page. They do not want to scroll up and down and really do not want to scroll left to right.
7. Dislike flash intros. Most visitors click the “skip” icon.
8. Don’t always enter via your homepage. As they search, visitors often come up with a URL for any one of your pages on your website.

Understanding what your website visitor is looking for will help you write good copy. In Part 2 of this series, I will give you some helpful writing hints and tips.