And that question is: What’s in it for me?

That’s what visitors to your web site want to know. They want to know why they should care about your product, why they should consider using your services. Yes, it’s all about them.

Yet I see a lot of web sites with content that proclaims We’re wonderful! Maybe you are wonderful, but your visitors care more about themselves.  To turn those readers into clients, let advertising your wonderfulness come secondary to answering their question.

Here are some ways to let them know what’s in it for them:

• Talk to them. Increase …
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Just because your visitor has arrived to a specific product page, it doesn’t mean he will add the product to the cart. The product detail page needs to continue the conversion effort that the landing page and the category page started.

On this page, visitors will explore your offer more closely.

In terms of the product, you want to provide:

• A large enough photo (or a link to enlarge)
• Alternative photos if applicable (different angles, colors, etc.)
• Main product features and benefits
• Product options or accessories
• Price, availability, or sale/discount options
• Customer testimonials
• Product warranty/support options

Out of the list above, the product photo may be the most …

Online store category pages are crucial in helping the visitor:

• focus on the items he is interested in
• choose what he wants to learn about next
• guide the visitor one step closer to making a buying decision

We are so used to category pages that we take them for granted… until they are not there. They act like filters, grouping items in ways that make sense to us. They show a list of items with something in common, basic information about the items, and ways to sort the list itself (by price, color, size, etc.).

Category pages answer the following questions:

• Did I choose the right …
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A landing page has the tough job of:

• keeping the visitor’s attention on the offer so he doesn’t immediately leave
• increasing or re-enforcing his interest after he has chosen to stay on the page
• guiding the visitor to take action.

Since every visitor is different, landing pages do indeed have a tough job. Their design has to be very well thought out for them to perform well.

Here are some guidelines to follow when designing a landing page:

1. Make sure it looks professional, credible, and industry appropriate. Your landing page might be the first impression a visitor has of your company. It needs to match …

The goal of the landing page is to move the visitor to take the primary desired action. Whether that action be signing up for a newsletter, purchasing a product, completing a survey, it needs to be a business decision driven by an online business strategy.

Business goals will differ from website to website, and landing pages will vary accordingly.

If your business goal is to:

1. Capture leads. Your landing page would contain a form that captures information from potential customers qualified by showing interest in your offer (free newsletter, free white paper, free tips via email, etc.). The desired action is to …

A landing page is a custom web page developed to meet, assist, and convert visitors into customers. Most landing pages appear when a potential customer clicks on an online ad or a search-engine result link. The page will typically display content that is a logical extension of the ad or link, and will be optimized to include specific keywords or phrases for indexing by search engines. They can also be customized to measure the effectiveness of different ads.

The key to a successful landing page is to make sure it creates a custom experience for the visitor. Your visitors should answer …

Small business owners share the same problem when it comes to content: they are too busy to write it themselves but they are the only ones who know enough about the company and its products or services. They’re even too busy to work with a professional writer and allocate a few hours a week until their input/help is no longer needed.

So what are these business owners to do?

First, do hire a professional writer. I have been part of way too many projects where business owners want to save money and decide to write the content themselves… only to delay the …

Coming up with content for a website can be the hardest part of the development process and most often the cause of schedule delays. Even if you are using a professional writer, there is a lot to think about and prepare. Here are some general guidelines to help you.

1. Gather all of the marketing materials you have (and like) where you can get content from.

2. Define your audience or audiences. You need to put yourself in the shoes of your site’s visitors. What information do they need and how might they look for it?

3. Work on your site’s structure or …

Spiral design is a way of laying out information that makes it easier to internalize.

Cognitive scientists have shown that people learn better when they are allowed to revisit the same topic over and over, especially when they can use information from a previous exposure to help them understand the next.  This is equally true for learning which brand of product fits your needs as it is for gaining an understanding of US History.

When producing content with a spiral design you assume that you cannot share all the relevant information in just one page.  Instead you start with something critical, and …

Hey! Stop It with the Exclamation Points!

Wow! I get lots of emails that shout at me! Maybe the sender is on her third espresso! Or maybe she hopes her excitement is infectious!

She’s wrong. Exclamation points are more annoying than exciting.

In your business communications, email, newsletter, web content, brochures and flyers, don’t rely on punctuation (or fancy fonts and words in color) to make your point.

Use too many exclamation points and your readers will stop paying attention to any of them. Be deliberate: Exclaim when you know precisely why you’re doing so it and how the punctuation aids your message.

Exclamation points …