We have discussed the layout, navigation, and design elements that work both for and against your online success. Now, it is time to discuss one of the most important aspects of your entire site —its copy.

Consider Content Carefully

Content for websites is different than text for print. Your visitors are either captured immediately or gone in a click of the mouse (which is actually quicker than the “blink of an eye”). While you may secure many visitors to your site, they won’t stay if your content doesn’t captivate.

Web content should educate, enlighten, and entertain. You should:

• Be sure your topic has a natural progression

• Use headers to break up sections

• Have someone else read your copy for clarity

• Edit your work to be sure that you don’t have repetition or excessive explanations

• Use keyword-rich copy, particularly on your index page

• Address any grammar issues

• Check your spelling – then check it again

Brief is Best

Superior websites should provide the information visitors seek, without requiring them to wade through details they don’t want. Text should be “scannable.” Most people select a book if they want to relax and read -- they use their computer to get information quickly. If they have to hunt, you lose them. On the Web, brevity is best.

Good layout gives an overview of topics with the tools to get more in-depth information through a hyperlink, a pop-up window, or a rollover text box. If they already know what a term means, the hyperlink won’t slow their reading. But, if it’s new to them, they can click for more information. Using this format, you cater to all levels of knowledge and ensure better service to your website visitors.

In all areas, you should use short paragraphs. White space is particularly important when reading text from a monitor. Use bullets. Break it down.

An Exception...

The one exception to these rules of brevity for real estate is the property description. This should be a complete, compelling description. It can be abbreviated for a group of listings, but you should offer a convenient one-click opportunity to get all the details. In the full description, use fresh descriptive words and phrases to paint a picture for the potential buyer. Make them WANT the property, NEED the property, and FEEL what it would be like to live at that address. Be creative and describe all the details. If you want to wax poetic – the description is the place.

Everyone Writes for the Web

The web has opened a new world to people who never considered themselves writers. Suddenly, anyone can publish views available to a worldwide audience, despite the quality of writing or technical savvy. And they do.

Perhaps the overabundance of less-than-professional copy is why scanning online text is more common than reading. With this quantity of text, visitors quickly determine if the site offers what they seek. So they scan.

Writing Your Own Copy

Your content – the text – should be a comfortable reading level. Sixth to eighth grade level is your target for the general public. This is not the place to dazzle with your extensive vocabulary. Keep it simple. Keep it easy to absorb.

Skip superlatives and overly energetic claims – stow your advertising vocabulary and your extra exclamation points. Instead, instill confidence with quiet facts and solid information. Avoid the hype.

Visitors should absorb 80% of your content in a quick scan. Once they locate the area they need, visitors will slow down and read more thoroughly.

Provide original content. Don’t subject your visitors to the same content they see on every other real estate page in your area. Don’t cut and paste from copy services. Bring your own sense of style and your own unique approach to customer service. Highlight your real estate expertise by using your own voice and real-world experience.

If you do consider writing your own copy, really give some thought as to how much it will ultimately cost you in lost time doing other productive things (like listing and selling!).  Unless you are a particularly gifted spinner of golden prose, it is perhaps best left to those who do it for a living...

Hiring a Pro

If you don’t feel comfortable writing your own copy, hire someone. Select a professional writer to create the content you need while capturing YOUR style in the process. Find a writer who will communicate with you, not write for you blindly. The writer should interview you and maintain regular contact with you during the writing process.

If you don’t communicate and respond to the writer, the product will not be in your voice and will not address your audience. When you read the final product, you should say… “Now, that’s EXACTLY what I meant!” You should be hands-on during the editing process. Don’t be afraid to say “that’s not how I would say that” or “this second paragraph of information needs to be changed.” When you hire a writer, you must work together, so the relationship must be a good fit to produce desirable results.

A Few Final Thoughts...

Be sure your web copy reflects your business, your areas of expertise, and is presented in a way that captures visitors’ attention and provides answers to their questions.  And, perhaps most importantly, have it reflect who you are as a human being —after all, that is what people really want to connect with regardless of the communications medium.  It is this kind of attention to your Web copy that will help you turn casual visitors into enthusiastic clients.

Angela Allen is our WORD MAGIC columnist and a RESS Certified VA. You can visit her web site at Wicked Wordcraft and contact her via e-mail at angela@vacentral.com