The Inside Scoop on How Good Writing Can Improve Your Web Site

We copywriters tend to be a snobby bunch. When we come upon a site with bad writing, instead of feeling bad for the poor business, which clearly couldn’t afford a decent copywriter, we count the grammatical errors and laugh at the awful spelling. What can I say, it’s a brutal business, and if you want your site to be taken seriously, you have to treat every word as supremely important.

Whether your business is a retail store or sells playground equipment, here’s how good writing can help improve your web site.

SEE ALSO: Sentence Without Words Is Life Without Flash

Image Credit: Elvert Barnes

Better Search Engine Optimization
Search engines are like seventh-grade English teachers. They like well-written compositions with no bad grammar, wrong spelling or typos, and they’ll reward you for producing them. But unlike in middle school, your site won’t get an A grade; instead it will move up the search engine rankings.
That’s because search engines punish sites that are only concerned about building traffic. They’d rather see well-thought-out, well-reasoned content with original ideas and interesting points of view than content that simply smashes keywords together in a bid to gain clicks. Search engines will move lucid prose to the top of the rankings, and punish those who can’t produce it.

A Real Help for Customers
There’s nothing worse than trying to find an answer to a question and getting foiled. Unclear writing can confuse your potential customer, which can also lead to lost business. If your potential customer is looking for specific information and cannot find it on your site, he will seek out another site where he can find the information, and you will lose your sale.

That, of course, is no way to run a business. You should not only have a well-laid-out site that has intuitive navigation but also one that puts an emphasis on clear writing. Don’t send readers running from your bad grammar.

Time to Hire a Professional?
Not everyone got A’s in language arts and English. If you are uncomfortable with writing, uncertain about grammar, or if you have no experience with copy writing, it may be wise to pull in a professional. Look around for a reputable, reasonably priced consultant who can provide concrete examples of her work.

Discuss your vision for your site and make sure the two of you are on the same page. There’s nothing worse than investing time in a relationship that’s not going to work for either side. You should instead use your time to work on the things in your business where you really are the best person for the job. Leave the writing to your new professional and you’ll see your web traffic soar.