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How to Avoid Sloppy Web Site Copy

By Herman Drost

If your web site visitor can't find the information on your web site, within ten seconds or less, you will lose them. Two of the largest factors that contribute to this, are the lack of clear purpose and poor layout of your web pages. Let's look at how you can resolve each of these issues.

Lack of clear purpose - the first page of your web site must have a clear title and description, which immediately states what your site is about.

You must include a clear benefit of your product or service in your description. For example if you are a web design company, your title may be "How to Build a Web Site That Sells". Your description may be something like: "Let us save you precious time and hassles, by designing a professional web site that WILL sell your product or service".

In this example, you have stated the clear purpose of your web site (designing a professional web sites that sell) and given your readers a clear benefit (saving time and hassles).

The rest of your web page, should support the title and description of your web site. Continue to emphasize the benefits of your product to your visitors. You should conclude your copy with a call to action eg "click here to order".

Layout of Your Copy - you may spend a lot of time and money, to attract visitors to your web site, but if you have a poorly designed web page, then visitors will become frustrated and leave.

1. Alignment - There are three kinds of alignment for your web page - left side, right side and centered. Choose one, then use it on the entire page or even throughout your other web pages. Don't try to mix alignments, because this will make your web page look unprofessional.

One such example, is to align all the text on your page to the left. This will create a strong edge and make it easier for your visitors to navigate and read. Avoid bumping up your text to the navigation bar or graphics. Create an equal amount of space between all the elements on your page. If they are bunched up, it will create a cluttered appearance.

2. How To Use White Space - Visitors do not appreciate useless clutter and masses of content on Web Pages. Most users prefer a page with well distributed content resulting in less clutter. Users quickly scan pages and the more that they must scan through, the more information they will miss.

This does not mean you should not provide a lot of information. Just do not provide it all on one page. Each page should contain approximately 50 per cent less text than a printed version of the same information.

If you have a lot of copy on your web site, try to have only 4-6 sentences per paragraph. Split the page up into different topics, with the subject title close to the accompanying text.