While the quality of your content is essential, if it isn’t presented in a visually appealing manner that attracts—and keeps—the attention of visitors, no one will stick around long enough to read it!

3 Website Content Tips for Visual Appeal

• Create Short Paragraphs: Website visitors don’t stop and concentrate on what they’ve found unless something draws them in when skimming a page. Long paragraphs may have great information, but they can easily be overlooked by the website visitor. With short paragraphs, it’s more likely that the information a visitor is looking for will “pop.”
• Use Bulleted Lists: Using bulleted lists to present key concepts can be a great way to make important information catch the attention of visitors who land on your page. Visitors’ eyes will automatically be drawn to bullet points, making them a perfect tool for capturing attention.
• Separate Content with Subheadings: When visitors glance at a website only to see what appears to be an endless stream of continuous paragraphs, the idea of reading through the information can seem overwhelming. Separate the paragraphs using subheadings and you’re much more likely to capture the attention of visitors and draw them into reading all of the information provided.

Mary Gormandy White is co-founder of Mobile Technical Institute, where she works with clients throughout the U.S. as a professional trainer, consultant, and speaker, focusing on topics related to HR, management, and public relations. She has extensive professional writing experience and is the author of 101 Human Resource Management Tips and 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series.

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3 Effective Website Content Tips
If you want to create effective website content, keep these tips in mind!

1. Engage Visitors Immediately—When a visitor lands on your website, you have just a few seconds to capture—and keep—that person’s attention. Website content has to be engaging, complete with catchy content and visual appeal. Use a visual element to draw the visitor in and keep him there by providing concise, easy-to-read tidbits of information that are genuinely interesting and useful.
2. Use with Objectivive Language—People search the Internet looking for information, not to provide website owners with an opportunity to sell them something. While browsing they’re likely to come across many sites where the copy is filled with flowery statements and exaggerated claims. What they are looking for useful information that can be trusted. Use a journalistic writing style, speaking in a tone that is authoritative and objective to begin building trust with visitors.
3. Embed Internal Links—Rather than expecting visitors to find their way around your website on their own, make it easy for them to learn more about how your company can meet their needs by using an internal linking strategy. Hyperlink key phrases so that readers can simply click to find targeted information on your site easily. After all, the longer you keep visitors on your website and the more you can educate them about what your company has to offer, the better you’ll be able to improve conversion.

Mary Gormandy White is co-founder of Mobile Technical Institute, where she works with clients throughout the U.S. as a professional trainer, consultant, and speaker, focusing on topics related to HR, management, and public relations. She has extensive professional writing experience and is the author of 101 Human Resource Management Tips and 101 Successful PR Campaign Tips in the LifeTips book series.

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You can view how fast Google says your site is in Google Webmaster Tools.  Under ‘Labs’ select ‘Site Performance’ and your performance analysis will be displayed. At this time it looks like this is solely based off the amount of time the page takes to load versus the average but they do offer a browser add-on recommendations to help you pinpoint speed issues.

You can read more about it on their blog:

http://bit.ly/c8kYyf

Information Architecture and Usability

The internal linking strategy is optimized for the placement of the links on the page. SEO professionals will track users’ navigation within the website to know what link placements perform the best, provide an improved user experience and which help most with SEO.

Brand Strategists and Online Marketing

Companies are finding that they have to compare online search data to language used in other forms of advertising while unifying the branding, voice, messaging and content across different mediums. Online language use is often less formal than what is required in print advertising like brochures, magazine ads, etc. If a site has been tracking traffic from search engines the best data is the historical data the company has collected.

Content Writers and Quality Assurance

When it all comes down to it, the content writer is the one charged with the task of implementing the keyword strategy and internal linking strategy in a way that makes sense grammatically and contextually. Keywords and links should be placed within text that is the most relevant so that someone reading it will be able to find out more about that topic. Final copy should always be proofed by several layers of editors and if specific technical knowledge is communicated, an appropriate expert should also review the final copy and links in that copy for relevance and accuracy.

Jennifer Gniadecki loves to write. You can find her on any given day writing lists, blog posts, articles, assignments, outlines or fleshing out story ideas on her laptop.

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Are you trying to improve conversion rates from your landing pages? Here are three mistakes could be costing you visitors and sales.

Landing Page Optimization: 3 Mistakes To Avoid

1. Don’t dazzle me with automation. Most web users hate to feel like they have lost control of their browser. Avoid too many flash intros, auto play music or dancing, flashing graphics. The most common response to over the top web special effects is for visitors to immediately close their browsers in order to regain control.
2. Don’t ask me for too much information. Lengthy registration forms can kill the conversion rates of your landing pages. Some experts estimate that you lose 30% of your respondents for every registration field you ask visitors to complete. Stick with the minimum requirements you need to effectively communicate with your potential customer going forward.
3. Don’t end the conversation abruptly. Once I’ve filled out your registration form, will I find myself on a simple “Thank you for registering” page, or will you give me the option to go further? Provide me with links to more information or invite me to download a free eBook. Maybe I can follow you on Twitter or become a fan of your Facebook page. Whatever you do, don’t be the one to hang up first.

Landing page optimization should be focused on simple design, while always considering a possible next call to action for your visitors.  Most important, always be testing!

Britt Reints is a freelance writer living in Orlando, Florida. She is leading a statewide crusade against auto play music.

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It oughta be a law, or something. As a simple condition of their continued existence, internet merchants should be required to buy all of their material needs online. I’m talking everything: from toilet paper to shoelaces, and from DVDs to food (Omaha Steaks serves up an absolutely delectable Chocolate Lover’s Cake). In my opinion, it’s an idea that’s been way too long in coming.

Think of the positive implications. First of all, it’s never a bad idea—always a great one, in fact—to support the local economy. And if that “local” economy just happens to be the world wide web, so be it. Same principle, right? But there’s actually an even better reason for it. It’s something that could be easily filed under “educational purposes” but would really be more of a “public service” issue. Because maybe (just maybe) if online merchants really knew what it was like to live a day in the shoes of us cybershoppers, life would get a lot easier for everyone.

Believe it or not, shopping cart abandonment is a serious deal. And it actually comes as a surprise to some online merchants that upwards of 75 percent of their shoppers are walking away (clicking away is more appropriate) before finalizing their transactions. It’s become a point of controversy so severe that some have even hired help to try and figure out why their shopping cart abandonment rates are so high. They should have asked me. I’d only have charged them $20.

The secret? Don’t give me an opportunity to change my mind! If your checkout process is so long and tedious that I actually have time to get buyer’s remorse before finalizing the sale, your process needs a serious overhaul. A smart merchant compares their checkout process against all others, and wastes no time making improvements.

Vince Font is a freelance writer with a burning desire to teach the world the difference between there, they’re and their. He currently resides in Utah with his wife, two dogs and a mouse he’s convinced the D-Con didn’t get rid of.

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White Papers
Nothing says authority like a white paper. Go beyond the mundane, and infuse yours with your corporate personality, humor, even graphics and video.

A professional freelance writer can take even the most technical topic and make it easy for anyone—even beginners in your field—to understand.

Not Your Ordinary User’s Manual
Have a new product? Re-print the user’s manual on your website. But we’re not talking about the same, boring content. Spice it up with a blend of humor, anecdotes and quick tips and tricks to make using your new product the fun experience you know it can be. Well, unless you make something like dentist’s drills, of course.

Articles
Anyone can write articles, but only the best content providers will offer timely, unique information helpful to your site’s visitors. Every article you post on your site should give the reader information they didn’t have before, that will help them in some way.

Dawn Allcot is a full-time freelance writer and blogger. She frequently writes about technology, business, parenting and paintball.

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This is all important, but so is understanding the power of searches once an audience has arrived on your site. If you’re thinking of updating or improving your blog or e-store, a good website tip is to allow your visitors to conduct internal searches (which sounds more clinical / dirty than it really is. We assure you, no rubber gloves are needed for this!). An internal search is when people are able to type in a word or phrase in a field on your website and search only your website’s content for hits.

There’s two big reasons why you want to create a search field within your website:

1. Make things easier for your audience. After all, your content marketing is about them. While I’m sure all your content is just fabulous, not everyone wants to read through everything (in fact, no one does). Blog tags and categories can be helpful, but when people arrive on your site looking for something specific, they sometimes need more than that. A search field on your website allows them to do this easily.

2. Find out what your audience is thinking. A search field on a website is the next best thing to a mind-reading device. Analytic programs that track how visitors arrived at your website are really important – but so is understanding what they’re doing while they’re in your virtual space. In fact, if you own an e-store, gathering information from internal search queries is golden. Customers use searches to type in products they hope you’re carrying, giving you a pretty good clue toward what your market wants and how they’re phrasing it. Don’t have an e-store? If you’re blogging, understanding the internal searches made by readers can give you ideas for new content topics, key focuses and marketing strategies (such as potential hot keywords for your SEO strategy).

Many basic blogs like Wordpress and Blogger allow you to add an internal search function easily through a simple patch or widget. If you have a fully customized site, e-store or blog, your programmer shouldn’t have any trouble adding this valuable feature – just make sure there’s a way for you, as the site’s admin or marketing manager, to easily see what’s been entered in searches.

I tend to believe the old adage that there is very little to be said that hasn’t already been said before. About anything. My job as a website content writer is simply to come up with a new and interesting way to say the same old thing. One of the ways we tend to try to be new and interesting is to be cute and thematic. But being cute could have a negative impact on your website optimization.

For example, maybe your content is about weight loss. You’ve decided to repackage old diet tips under the title “8 Songs That Keep You Thin,” and use popular song lyrics to give weight loss advice. Tip number one, in a big bold header font, says “Whip It, Whip It Good,” and you go on to explain how sugar-free Cool Whip is a good substitute for fatty creams.

Creative? Yes.

Effective website optimization? Not unless you’re selling vintage Devo t-shirts.

Your page titles, headlines and bold text tells search engines what your website content is about, and search engine spiders don’t get sarcasm, irony, humor or analogies. If you’re going to be cute (or creative, if you prefer), make use of that valuable website real estate by incorporating your keywords. “Musical Diet Tip #3: Whip It, Whip It Good,” for example, is creative and more useful for website optimization.

Remember this when you’re setting up your site navigation links also. Your page title and menu links may reflect your corporate attitude, but they also need to be informative—for your visitors and Google.

Britt Reints is a freelance writer living in Orlando, Florida.  She’s going to have Whip It stuck in her head for the rest of the day.

Image from NYtimes.com