You have a smart, well-designed website that’s not complicated or cluttered to look at. You have a great business message to get across. And you have a potential audience, ready to leap forward on your call to action.

That sounds like a dream scenario for most business owners who have a company website to showcase themselves (which, nowadays, is most people).

Content is king as far as website copy is concerned. Get it right, and you’ll capture your audience and hold them in the palm of your digital hand for a few precious seconds or even minutes as they read all about you. But get it wrong and you have probably just lost a valuable ‘unique hit’ as they disappear off into the internet ether for good.

You might only have one chance at this so it’s important that users of your website fully understand what you are trying to achieve straight away. This comprehension means fully grasping the sense of your text and being able to draw conclusions from it so that users can move on to decisions and even actions from it.

What are the main things to look for?

First, use only simple, clear language that users will understand instantly. This ‘user-centric’ style of writing should avoid business jargon and ‘in-words’ that people don’t understand and your copy should talk to the audience, not at them.

However, if you are targeting a specific type of audience for a particular piece of text, it is fine to use the language that people from this field will comprehend. Use, for example, automotive, construction or food industry terms if they are appropriate to those specialities.

Cover off the subject matter and conclusion early on in your piece and then describe how you reached that point. Readers will understand background material more easily if they already know where it’s heading.

Be as brief as possible – say what you want to clearly, precisely and without unnecessary detail. The less readers must take in, the more chance of them understanding your main points. Pictures or diagrams might help too, rather than a block of descriptive copy.

Your text must be legible, clear, easy to distinguish from the background and above all comfortable to read and enjoy. If your site users are enjoying their experience while on your site, you are increasing the chances of keeping them there that little bit longer.

And the longer you keep them, the more chance you have of building a relationship with them.

To learn more, and to join Business Writing Academy, click here.
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