“Can you design the web site first and then add the copy later?” they would ask.  Not knowing any better, and wanting to be agreeable, I would always say yes.

So while I designed the web site, the client would plug away at the copy. And that’s where all the problems began.

You see, writing copy for a web site is often a clarification process.  What begins as a general and rather vague idea for a web site becomes more focused and specific as words are put on paper.

As my clients began to clarify what they needed, their vision for the design of the web site often changed.  Sometimes the changes were dramatic, involving an entire rework of the logo, images, and layout. Other times, the changes were more simple, such as additional navigation links or a second or third column.

Either way, it ended up being more work on my end.  And since I charged by the project and not by the hour, I became frustrated by the extra time I had to put in to get the project done. All of which could have been avoided had the copy had been completed first.

Eventually, I learned my lesson.  These days, I insist that my clients have the copy at least 90% completed and finalized before I will start on a design or redesign.

Advertising Always Begins With Words

When you think of how other advertising methods are developed, it’s easy to see why web site design should begin with the words.  After all, who would shoot a TV commercial without having the narrative in place?  Or design a newspaper or magazine ad without knowing what it’s going to say?

It simply isn’t done, because it would be inefficient.  Likewise, it is inefficient to design a web site first and then write the copy for it later.

Start With the Home Page

While there are no hard and fast rules as to what page should be written first, the home page is a perfect starting point.

Writing the home page copy will help you determine what other pages you will need on your site.  And it will help you focus on your customer and what they expect to find on your web site.

One client of mine, while researching her customer’s preferences during the copywriting process, discovered that her target audience wouldn’t be attracted to her original logo and graphics.  She ended up having everything redone.  Her original look was meant to convey her service as fun and unpredictable, while her redesigned look conveyed her service as something that is highly valued and treasured, which is exactly what appealed to those she wanted to attract.

The next time you prepare for a web site design or redesign, focus on the copy first and the design second.  Doing so will result in a process that saves time and money, all while helping to ensure that your web site is focused is on your customer.

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From the birth of the Internet, people have been taking the rules of text alignment for print and applying them to the screen. But onscreen reading is up to 25% slower and causes more eye strain than reading something in print. Therefore, the text alignment guidelines that work beautifully for print almost always cause readability issues when used online.

How People View / Scan / Read Web Pages

In order to understand why a certain alignment works and others don’t, we first need to understand how people view web pages, scan web pages and read web pages.

Eyetracking studies have shown us that when someone arrives at a web site, their eye is immediately drawn to the upper left hand corner of the web page. From there, the eye moves down the left side of the page, occasionally moving horizontally towards the right. This particularly occurs towards the top of the page and less so while moving further down a page. The result is an “F” shaped eye movement pattern.

This is really no surprise, is it? From the time we sat on Mom or Dad’s lap with our first book, we have been programmed to start reading in the upper left corner of the left page. We read from left to right. This learned behavior carries over from print reading to screen reading.

The primary difference between the two is that people tend to scan web pages and only read what they’ve determined to be of importance to them, rather than reading straight from beginning to end as they do with a book.

Why Left Alignment Rules Online

When text is aligned to the left on a web page, the eye can easily and comfortably follow the straight edge as it moves down the left side of the page or column. Therefore, it is the alignment that is preferred for both scanning and reading online.

Most likely, you are sitting there with a smug look on your face and patting yourself on the back for being smart enough to use left alignment. But are you really? What about headings and subheadings? Are you left-aligning those as well, or have you fallen into the trap of centering them so they “stand out?”

In addition, what alignment are you using for navigation links, ads and testimonials? Most people find themselves using center alignment for these things. Why? The reason is three-fold:

1. It feels comfortable.
2. It’s a way to make these elements “stand out,” or to draw attention to them.
3. It’s what everyone else is doing.

Yes, center alignment does feel comfortable. And quite frankly, it will be more than a mite uncomfortable to break away from using it. But it interrupts the flow of people who are scanning when their eye has to jump to a section in the middle of the page. As a matter of fact, your readers may be intentionally skipping over those center-aligned headings and subheadings that we all know are such an integral part of web site copy. GASP!

Here’s a suggestion. Instead of using center alignment to make your heading, subheadings, etc. stand out, align them to the left and use a larger and bolder font size for them. Using a different color is also a consideration, but use caution. Colored text can also cause readability issues.

Sure, everyone else is center aligning like crazy. That means a lot of web sites are difficult to read and causing unnecessary eyestrain on their poor visitors. But by left aligning your text, you’ll keep your web site visitors blissfully reading and sticking around, which is exactly where you want them.

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A handful of these visitors might proceed to the FAQ page (if one exists) in hopes of finding clarification. An even smaller amount might fill out the web site’s contact form asking for an explanation.

Most, however, will leave.

It’s been pounded into us that the layout, colors and navigation should be consistent throughout the web site in order to avoid confusing the visitor. However, just as important, but often overlooked, is consistency in what the web site says.

Let me give you a couple of examples.

Inconsistency in the Product Guarantee

During a recent online shopping experience, I noticed that the product I was interested in came with a 30-day guarantee. When I got to the shopping cart, however, the company had a statement claiming all their products came with a 90-day guarantee.

Even though it really didn’t matter to me one way or the other, it distracted me. Instead of continuing with my purchase, I flipped between the product page and the shopping cart, trying to figure out why one stated 30-days and the other stated 90-days. Eventually, I did make my purchase. But I still don’t know which guarantee is the correct one.

Inconsistency in the Shopping Cart Options

In another situation, I was checking out an item I was thinking of purchasing, but hadn’t made a firm decision about yet. The web site said it was backordered, but was available for pickup at most stores. However, when I added the item to the cart, the option for store pickup was faded out.

In this case, I dumped the shopping cart. I wasn’t interested in waiting a couple of weeks for my purchase to be shipped to my home. I was, however, interested in purchasing it online and then picking it up at the store. But since their shopping cart wouldn’t allow me to select the “pick up in store” option, I would have had to call or visit the store if I wanted to make my purchase. And I had no intention of doing either one.

What We Can Learn

This lesson here is that inconsistency is a distraction that causes confusion. It has the potential to cost you the sale.

If you state you offer a 30-day guarantee on all your products, then make sure that the verbiage consistently states “30-days” throughout your web site. If the product is available for in-store pick up, then the customer should be able to choose that option and continue with their purchase.

How You Can Improve

Take some time to review your web site today. Are there inconsistencies in what your web site is saying to your customers? If so, you’ll want to make an effort to correct them as soon as possible.

In addition, are there certain questions that you get asked time and again by your customers? Then end the confusion by taking time to add wording to your web site that answers those questions. The more informed your customer is, the more confident they will feel about buying from you.

Remember – it’s always about the customer.

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According to Clayton, the answer is no. And he backs up his claim by giving a real-life example of a Nissan commercial from the late ’90’s. You may remember it: The dashing action figure, GI Joe, escapes from the jaws of a dinosaur and rescues Barbie from a dull date with Ken by enticing her with his sporty Nissan. (You can watch the Nissan commercial here).

Entertaining? Yes. Memorable? Yes. But did it sell Nissans? Nope. In fact, Nissan sales plummeted. Their rival, Toyota, however, stuck with boring, customer benefit-focused commercials and their sales thrived. It wasn’t until Nissan pulled the commercial several months later that they were able to see their sales rebound.

And so Clayton says croaking frogs don’t sell beer (Budweiser) and Chihuahuas with a Mexican accent don’t sell tacos (Taco Bell). And I have one to add. Dancing lizards don’t sell vitamin water (SoBe).

I like lizards. And I grew up in the ’80’s, the era of Michael Jackson and “Thriller.” So the SoBe Life Water commercial that ran during the 2008 Super Bowl featuring lizards dancing to “Thriller” has been a recent favorite of mine. (You can watch the SoBe commercial here).

But when my 16-year old son picked up a SoBe drink at the supermarket the other day, I got to thinking. And I realized that as entertaining as that commercial was, it didn’t persuade me to buy SoBe. I didn’t drink SoBe before I saw the commercial and I never thought to try it after I saw the commercial, even after watching it numerous times.

So I headed over to the SoBe web site to see what they do – if anything – to convince people to try their products. Their web site consists of an opening Flash movie that’s cute and entertaining and fun. But where is the persuasion? The convincing? The benefits? Why should you or I or anyone else buy SoBe?

And so here lies the problem that plagues so many web sites: Like “good” commercials, they entertain, but they don’t sell.

Clayton Makepeace states that every ad (and yes, that includes web sites) should accomplish 4 essential missions:

1. It must create a desire for your product by presenting the benefits it will bring into your customer’s life.
2. It must convince your customer that the benefits obtained from your product are unique and not obtainable from competing products.
3. It must leave your customer feeling that it is urgent to buy your product as soon as possible.
4. It must compel your customer to action to purchase your product at the earliest opportunity.

Is your web site accomplishing these missions? If not, you’re probably losing sales.

Remember – it’s always about the customer.

Related Links:

Clayton Makepeace

The Nissan Commercial

The SoBe Commercial

The SoBe Web Site

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When I sold this web site, I emailed the owner of the consumer confidence organization with a request to cancel my membership since it was not transferable to the new owner. And even though I have other web sites, I did not wish to continue my membership with this organization.

Here’s why: During the 5 years of my membership, I never once had a client tell me that they found me through this organization, nor did they express any increased confidence in my company due to my membership. I think it was because the organization simply wasn’t well-known enough, therefore, it wasn’t recognized by my customers to be something of value. The membership seal I so proudly displayed on my web site meant absolutely nothing to most of my site visitors.

But getting back on track here. A full week went by and I didn’t hear back from the owner regarding my cancellation request. I thought that was rather odd, so I emailed her again, reminding her of my cancellation and requested also that she remove me from her mailing list since there were no options to unsubscribe in her emails or on her web site (membership required that you receive her newsletter).

I’m assuming she received this email since I never received another newsletter from her. But she never did respond to me. She could have used it as an opportunity to try to retain my business or at least say she was sorry to see me go. In my opinion, her lack of response was unacceptable. After all, her business was about integrity, ethics and good customer service. Maybe she felt I wasn’t worth responding to since I was no longer a paying customer.

This is exactly why you can boast that you have the greatest customer service on the face of the earth and it means nothing to your site visitors. In truth, it probably makes them roll their eyes. They read promises of exceptional customer service on nearly every business web site, yet almost every business will fail – at some point – to deliver. Just like the consumer confidence membership seal on my web site, the words “great customer service” mean absolutely nothing to web site visitors.

Which brings me to the point of this post: Don’t waste valuable space on your web site claiming great customer service – unless, of course, you want your visitor’s eyes to glaze over while they mutter “yeah, right,” and click away. Instead, use that space to tell your visitors what they want to hear through customer-oriented copy that is targeted towards their wants and needs.

Web site space is valuable and you have just a few seconds to capture your visitor’s attention and draw them in. Don’t waste it with meaningless, overused words.

Remember – it’s always about the customer!

Want to learn how to write web site copy that gets your customer’s attention? Karon Thackston’s Step-by-Step Copywriting Course will teach you how. Packed with real-life examples and exercises to help you sharpen your skills, you’ll soon be on your way to writing web site copy that sells.

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