How to Write Effective Online Copy for Your Website

Creating a persuasive presentation for your readers are the essential elements of effective websites. Every website needs a key point, a significant message that keeps visitors engaged and coming back. This is especially important for websites trying to sell something; while direct sales tactics also work online, it's usually the subliminal ones that last in the long-term. If you want your visitors to keep coming back, or just to find out more, there needs to be some motivation to keep them there. Here are some tips to write effective online copy for your website:

1. Less is more. Clear, concise, and succinct messages are the best way to get your point across. Keep it simple. Keep it short. Be direct. All of these make your idea or message much easier to read. Ideally, each page should not contain more than 250-400 words; articles are a different story, and can reach up to 800 words very reasonably.
2. Keep headlines to eight words or less. This is important for both search engines and readability. In eight words you can develop the key elements of your website, outline your key message, and use important keywords.
3. Use tags in your titles. This is the code inserted in the browser, and can help improve search engine rankings considerably.
4. Emphasize the benefits. You will need to describe the benefits of anything you present. Use the active voice whenever possible.
5. Keep paragraphs to 40-70 words. This is the ideal amount for writing summaries, and help's to keep readers interested. Extra-long paragraphs will bore your audience!
6. Include plenty of links. Now that blogging is becoming so popular, it's helpful to link out to other information on the web. Google also looks for relevant links of this nature, so it may improve search engine rankings as well.
7. Watch for mistakes. Run that grammar and spellchecker. Twice. Make sure you proofread and edit as needed; remember that you need to keep things short and to the point whenever possible.
8. Use ‘you' as much as possible. Reading on the web can be very personal, and the tone and style you use needs to be directed to your target market. Make sure you're using words and phrases that include your readers. It's a part of the experience and will increase the chances of visitors coming back for more.
9. Use headings, bullet points, and summaries. Visiting websites to stay informed needs to be a ‘fly-through' experience; most readers are looking for information at a glance, and you can help by providing key information in a suitable format. Take the time to ‘slice' up your information using headings, bullet points, and summaries as often as possible.
10. Write like a conversation. Overly structured web copy can be hard to read-and comprehend. Try speed reading the copy yourself and envision someone talking like that; if it doesn't make sense, start editing!
11. Be careful with images. While images can help improve the overall experience of your website or article, too many will simply distract your readers. Limit pictures to 1-2 per 400 word article, and you'll still achieve plenty of results.

Writing effective online copy is an important skill to grow and develop, and you can start to grow readership and high traffic counts in a very short period of time. Just tweaking and editing your current content might be all you need to get started!