Four Things Every Web Site Headline Must Do
As you know, I'm constantly making the point that the text on web sites is not given enough attention. Which is unfortunate, because the headlines on site pages make huge demands on the skills of any writer.
If you're writing a headline or heading for a site page, here are four things you need to keep in mind, four elements that demand your attention, four separate 'audiences' you need to satisfy.
1. Make the reader feel he or she is in the right place
Every time someone clicks on a link and a new page begins to open, the reader is thinking, in one way or another, "Is this page going to give me what I'm looking for?" This is particularly true of first-time visitors. It is also true of any visitor on any page in your site, even a repeat visitor who is accessing a page for the first.
Matching the headline to the reader's expectations is central to holding their attention and giving them a high level of confidence.
If the heading doesn't match the reader's hopes and expectations, their confidence in finding what they want will fall and your conversion rates will decline.
2. Make the reader feel good and want to continue
This is where a page heading takes on the characteristics of a print advertisement headline. The heading not only has to satisfy point number one, but also has to make a 'sale'. That is to say, it has to sell the reader on the benefits of reading the page. Just as an ad headline sells the reader on the benefits of reading the body text.
By way of illustration, if I were selling my search engine copywriting skills, I might write a heading that says:
"Yes, I write copy for search engines."
That might satisfy my point number one, but it doesn't cut the mustard with point number two.
I'd be better off saying something like:
"Ask me to make your Web copy irresistible to search engines."
Doubtless I could improve on that headline with a few rewrites, but as it is, it contains a benefit and a promise. It still covers point number one, but also goes further ? it gives the reader more of an incentive to actually read the page.
3. Appeal to the search engines
To ignore the needs of the search engines on any page is foolishness. You need to work with your page title, meta tags and headline to ensure that you are covering the most relevant and profitable key words and phrases. If you don't, you are losing traffic and losing potential readers and customers.
While some writers find it frustrating to have to accommodate the needs of SEO, doing so will actually help you with point number one. The better you know and understand what people are entering into the search box, the easier it will be for you to write text that is relevant to their expectations and needs.
4. Satisfy the needs of the company or organization
This is the tough one. This is where your not-very-net-savvy manager or client pressures you to make the heading more company centric, about the company or organization, and not about the needs of the reader.
At this point you have to fight the best fight you can. Gather together the best evidence you can find and persuade the manager of the errors of his or her ways. If all else fails, you can always suggest a test...testing your heading against theirs...and then measure the search engine traffic, and the conversion rate of the page. Nick Usborne is a copywriter, author, speaker and advocat of good writing. You can access all his archived newsletter articles on copywriting and writing for the web at his Excess Voice site. You'll find more articles and resources on how to make money as a freelance writer at his Freelance Writing Success site.
Related News
|
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Custom Writing Services: Market Overview
Market identification
Custom writing services market is a sector of the e-commerce industry. Custom writing services are fee-based.
How To Become A Freelance Copywriter In New York
As a freelance copywriter in New York, your work is never done.
Crank Out More Articles More Often With An Article Swipe File
If you write copy you need a swipe file. A good swipe file can save you lot's of work and enable you to crank out more articles more often
Copywriting for Astrology, Numerology, Tarot, and the Mystic Audience
These days, you don't have to traverse the dark forest on the eve of the Full Moon to find a gypsy, psychic or "intuitive" as many now call themselves. Chances are, the local astrologist or tarot reader is making more than a comfortable living for herself in a corporate complex near you. She's probably dressed in proper business attire, scheduling consultations from her art-deco office right now.
How To Find Editing Services Online
Quality is what you need. What you don't have is time. You need to find an editing service online that can help you get the work you need done, quickly and effectively. But, where do you look? Where can you find such a service and know that it is of good quality? While it would have been a difficult task to find an editing service online a few years ago, there is now an ever growing supply of them. You'll find quite a selection to choose from as well. Here are some guidelines that may help you in finding not only a service to use, but a good quality one at that.
Step One for Copywriters: Understand WHAT to Say
Find a passage of poorly written copy, and chances are you will have found a copywriter who never figured out what it was that he or she was trying to say.
Writing Great Website Sales Copy
Many small businesses fail because their owners don't pay enough attention to marketing and sales. Part of the effectiveness of a marketing effort is directly related to the sales copy you produce. This is especially true on websites. Sales copy is the words you use to convince prospective customers to buy from you.
?Super Adjectives? Boost the Power of Your Copy
Pretty or elegant? Good or scrumptious? Nice or delightful? There is power in the adjectives you choose. Just like Clark Kent and Superman or Bruce Wayne and Batman, some adjectives are plain, ordinary, everyday words. Others are alter-ego Super Adjectives that leap into your customers' minds in a single bound. Adjectives are boring, but Super Adjectives impress, inspire, and convince your customers more effectively.
12 Copywriting Tips to Make Your Advertising More Profitable
Year after year people make the same mistakes in
direct-response copy and advertising. You can avoid
the most common and costly blunders by following these
profit-enhancing tips...
Freelancers Can Jump-Start Your Publicity Initiative
If you find that your progress is blocked by a lack of time or experience, consider hiring a freelancer to jumpstart your project.
Internet Marketing 102: Copy What Works
Internet Marketing- Forget the experts, latest software program or even that book that someone is selling to get on the "best seller list" and the 200 free ebooks they are offering you. Here is what REALLY works, and it's something that you learned in kindergarden.
Want a Sticky Site That Sells? Forget Content!
An interesting debate is currently raging among copywriters, web designers and content developers about the differences, if any, between writing copy for the web versus writing content.
The Lost Art Of Fundamental Copywriting
What ever happened to good old fashion, fundamental copywriting? Has anyone seen AIDA? I mean, before you can run, you first have to learn how to walk, right? Yet, I see it over and over again. Marketers who can't even write a simple headline are trying to "hypnotize" readers with "psychological copywriting," because that's what a few of today's copywriting experts are telling them they should do!
Be That Copywriter Everyone Wants to Work With
So many copywriters think that it's enough to be a stellar writer and grammatical genius. Oh, but this is so far from true. One of the most important aspects of copywriting is project management. When you're tight and together, you can deliver a perfect draft BEFORE the anticipated deadline, that the client can easily decipher and that whomever is designing the project will absolutely love you for.
How to Write Carrot-Wielding Copy!
A significant reason behind websites that fail is the lack of an effective direct response sales message. Such a message is comprised of three elements (it must be):
Can 97% of Netpreneurs be Wrong?
Why Some People's Ads Almost Always Make Money
Art Of Writing Profitable Classified Ads
The art of writing profitable classified ads
3 Copywriting Tips - How To Edit For Mass Appeal!
Web copy that's intended to sell or generate leads needs to quickly reach out and grab attention and build rapport with a target audience. You can connect with your audience more effectively if you understand something about how people process information, and how they think.
Power Words And Phrases
I like to use power phrases when writing sales material. These power phrases add punch to a line or a paragraph and I usually use them to start off a sentence.
How to Get Instant Attention
Most of us have seen a heckler at a baseball game. Sure, he's likely to draw attention, both positive and negative. The louder he hollers, the more attention he gets.
|
