When thinking about your content, it’s important to explain fully what you do, and how you can help your visitors.

You can’t assume that your visitors will know what you do, or how you do it. They might have arrived at your site on a product page, rather than your homepage.  They might not know what tool they need, or which plumbing service, or air conditioning unit will be right for them.

Why not make sure that you have  plenty of information for first time buyers, or those who aren’t likely to know what they need.

Alternatively, if you sell a very niche product, or provide an extremely specialised service, then you shouldn’t patronise your visitors by only offering basic information.    If you know that people will only find your site, or look for you, if they know exactly what they want or need, then give them what theyre looking for.

How can you make your site better for visitors and help them find what they need?

When thinking about who uses your site, remember to think about how and where they use it too.

Remember that not everyone will be sat at a desktop computer with a 22″ monitor.  Nowadays people will browse shopping sites, and use Facebook and Twitter on a laptop in front of the TV.   They will also be using their phone too.

If your site is for a venue, such as a restaurant, or a theatre, or maybe a theme park, or a car dealer, or even an electrical store on an out of town retail park, it’s essential that your site will work properly on a phone.

Don’t underestimate the importance of being able to find your site whilst on the move.  Think about the sort of people who will be looking for your site, and the situations they will be in.

A mother might be looking for an all night chemist with a poorly baby in the car.  A family lost on their way to a theme park after a long and hot drive on a bank holiday might need to know how to get there avoiding the motorway.  Somebody looking for a museum, or a zoo, a football ground or a stately home or an art gallery might need to check opening hours, or where the best car parks are.

If your site does give directions, then make them useful.  Not everybody knows road names or numbers, and just because the road name is listed on the map, it doesn’t mean that there is a street name sign at the junction.

Why not think about using local landmarks, or prominent buildings.  It’s much easier to suggest that drivers follow signs to Somewhere, and then take the turning after the Pub, than it is to tell them to follow the A123 for 2.3 miles, and then take the B456 for approximately 1 mile.

If you’re located directly opposite the Supermarket, or behind the church, or next to the post office, then why not tell people.  Not everyone is local, and so it’s easier if they have a landamark to look out for.  In addition, if they need to ask for directions, they’ll know what to ask for.

Don’t forget to put your post code prominently on your site,  so that those using satellite navigation can quickly get directions.

Why not make sure that you have your opening hours or entrance prices clearly visible on your site?

Why not make sure that visitors can find out where the branch of your shop is in Anytown? If people are searching for Your Company Name in Town, does the relevant page come up showing them the directions, address and phone number? Is the top result a complaint about your company?

It’s worth making sure that you perform searches like these, so that you know what results your potential visitors and customers will get.

How else can you make it easier for those people on the move to find you?

Thanks to Boagworld Podcast 211, at http://www.boagworld.com for inspiration and the nudge.

When you’re writing sales copy, you’ll want to use emotional words, calls to action, and make sure that your reader is involved.  You’ll want to ask questions of the reader, and make them visualise scenes, or evoke memories.

Doing this will enable your reader to understand what your product or service does and why they need it.

Think about the difference between:

“these headache pills contain abc123 which is more effective than xyz321″

and something like:

Remember the last time you had a headache? Remember how much it hurt, and how you struggled to see properly,  and to concentrate?  How long did it take you to find the headache pills?  If you don’t normally get headaches, and don’t know where to find the pills, or you were at work, or in the car and didn’t have any to hand, what did you do?  The new family sized pack of Superpills is slim enough to keep in your wallet or purse, so you’ve always got them with you, and thanks to new ingredients, they’re even quicker at getting rid of pain, and so allowing you to get on with your day.

Although it’s more text,  it puts the product in context, and plays on real feelings and experiences.  Nobody cares about the ingredients, or the new formula, they just want what the product does, and in most cases, now!  As mentioned before, in the Product Placement blog post, nobody wants to buy a drill, they want a hole!

Your product images and descriptions are really important on your ecommerce site, so it’s essential that they are compelling and include plenty of calls to action.

Why not make sure that your potential customer know as much about the product as possible?

It’s a good idea to put the product or the price in context.  By showing the product being used, or explaining the features and benefits,  you’re more able to convince cisitors to become customers.

Remember, nobody wants to buy a drill, they want to make a hole.  You don’t  want a £200,00 debt for 25 years,  you want a  nice house for you and your family.

What about showing your patio furniture in a garden on a summer’s day, rather than just on a white background? What about saying that your life or car insurance costs less than a cup of coffee a day, orare less than the cost of a daily newspaper.

Instead of showing a TV, and mentioning it’s technical specification, why not explain that pictures are clearer, meaning programmes are more entertaining, and that wildlife and animal are almost lifelike?

Instead of showing a pair of jeans or shoes, why not show complete outfits, or somebody wearing the clothes, so that potential customers can see what they look like.  It’s also a fantastic opportunity to cross sell products,  and encourage visitors to explore more of your site.

in the same way that some shops will show related products that go together, such as all the camping equipment you’d need , rather than just a tent or a pair of hiking boots, why not see how how you can create environments, or scenes, such as the kitchem, the bedroom, the dining room, the garden, the night out, the wedding, the office  and what ever else will be relevant to you.

As life insurance salespeople might use techniques such as mentioning your family members when explaining policies, why not see how you can use scenes and paly on emotions to make your products more desirable?

If you’re using relying heavily on images on your website, then it’s essential that you use them well so that your visitors can easily see them, and understand their purpose and relevance.

If you’re selling products, then the product image is just as important as the description, specification and price.  You’ll want to make sure that your images are clear, big enough, and relevant.

No matter what sort of site you are, any products that don’t have images, but have an “image coming soon” message instantly reduce the credibility of your website.  Why haven”t you got an image? If you haven’t got an image from the manufacturer, why not create your own image? Surely you can take a photograph, and amend it as necessary, at least until you can get an official image.

For each and every site, especially those selling clothes, or jewellery, you’ll need your thumbnail product images to link to much larger images, so that visitors can see what the product looks like, and can then decide whether or not to make a purchase.  If you have a link that says that it goes to a larger image, then why would you use the same small image on a new page?  A larger image should be just that.

Images need to be in focus, and clear.  If there is any text or specific design, such as a slogan on a T shirt, or feature on the product, it’s important that his can be seen.  Why not have a separate image of the slogan,  so that it can be read.  Why not have the ability to zoom in, or rotate products to make them more attractive to your visitors?

However, too many images or  products on a page, will be off putting, and instead of visitors exploring more, they probably won’t explore much at all.

How could you make your images better for your visitors? Why not see which ecommerce sites images you like? Why do you like them? Which sites would you, and wouldn’t you buy, from based on their imagery?

Remember, your website is helping visitors find what they are looking for,  they won’t want to spend time having to look for product details.  They won’t be impressed with your clever carousel, or lightbox method of showing images, if the images on your website are poor quality and don’t show what they want to see.

If you’re in the process of redesigning you website, or adding and removing pages, or revamping your content, it’s essential that you make a note of the existing pages, and redirect them to the new pages, as necessary.

People who have bookmarked you pages, or who link to your content will be greeted with your error page the next time they visit, and will think that there is something wrong with your site.

Using 301 redirects will not only help your visitors find what they are looking for, but will also help the search engines to know where your content has moved to as well.

If you decide to add more content,  or have separate pages or sections, or are adding and removing products from your range, then think your users, and how they will find what they need, if you haven’t used redirects.

In addition, have you got redirects in place if there are common misspellings of your products, or staff names, or other ways in which you can make it easier and quicker for people to find what they want.

Why not take a moment to ensure that all of your redirects are up to date in your .htaccess file?

What other ways can you make redirects more useful?

If  you’vebeen using the web for a while, and dabbled in Online Marketing, or SEO, then you will have heard the term that “Content is King”.

Despite all the web designers making sure that their design is pixel perfect, and the colours are just right, and the developers making their clever databases, and secure payment systems, the content of the website is the main reason that visitors will come to your website.

Whether you’re writing copy for your product descriptions, or telling the world why they should visit your town, or sign up for your newsletter, it’s important to get it all right.

You’ll need to make sure that your language, tone and contents is right for your target audience.  A site for teenagers will have  different lanauge to a corporate site, or a site aimed at the silver surfer.

You’ll want to make sure that you change your tone, and contents from your offline material.  With more calls to action, and perhaps less text, you’ll have the opportunity to entice your visitors to get them to do what you want them to do.

Content is the most important thing about your website.  Visitors don’t care too much about your design, or what your site actually does, they just want to read your contents.

It’s important to regularly check your contents, especially if lots of people upload content to your website.

If you can’t write well, or are struggling to get the contents and tone and right, then why not hire a professional copywriter? You wouldn’t do your own plumbing or car repairs if you weren’t up to the job, so why do your own writing?

As Relly, from the invaluable Boagworld Podcast commented, there is rarely any budget put aside for content when a website project is undertaken.  The budget is for design and development, not content, yet the content is the whole point of the website, and without it, your website is worthless.

Isn’t it time you gave your content more thought?

When was the last time that you checked out your forms?  Really?  By checking that your forms work properly, and that they are easy to use, and provide the information that both your visitors and you want .

Forms are an essential way for your visitors to find the information they want, and for you to to get the information you need too.

Every drop down box, radio button, and check box, as well as free text area is an annoyance for visitors.  Especially on ecommerce sites.  If your visitors are ready to buy, then they want to buy now.  The more questions you ask them, the more barriers you put up, and so the more likely they are to go elsewhere.

Whilst some questions have to be asked, such as size or colour, and delivery and payment details, do you need any more information?

If visitors are signing up for your newsletter, then surely all you need is their name and email address.  If visitors are enquiring about your service, then why not ring them back and find out what you need to know.  People are much more likely to tell you what you want to know over the phone, than by a series of check boxes, or from a drop down list.

Why not consider making your site even easier to use, by allowing purchases to be made using Google Checkout or PayPal? What about using Facebook Connect to register?  Do visitors really need to register at all?  Although it might be a great data capture method, what are you going to do with all the animus and email addresses?

Perhaps you will make the time to look at your forms, and the way you direct visitors to your site, and how easy you make it to find the information or products they want.  Remember, they’re doing you a favour by visiting your site, make it a pleasant experience!

In my previous post I mentioned that I was submitting free press releases.  As these are a good source of traffic and links to a website, they are worthwhile, and can see your comapny news picked up by a wide variety of publications, both online and offline.

However, some of the free press release sites (and I won’t mention names, but you know who you are!) are extremely difficult to navigate.  Even as an experienced user of the Internet, and knowing exactly what I wanted to do,  I still found it hard.

It’s not a good idea to have Adsense, or other adverts right under your navigation, so that it’s not clear which is your navigation, and which are adverts.  If you don’t clarify, it’s likely that visitors to your site will click on the advert, rather than on your website.

it’s also extremely bad form to make your visitors hunt for what they are looking for.  As an example, on these press release sites, the premium paid press releases are heavily promoted on the homepage.  The free press release is often hidden in the navigation block containing the “About Us”, or company details.  Although they are right to encourage visitors to pay for their press releases, they shouldn’t make it hard for those that want to submit a free press release.

Also, be wary of what sort of language you use, and the amount of jargon you use on your site, especially in the navigation.  Your visitors might not be as au fait with your products or industry as  you are, and don’t know exactly what they are looking for.  On a well know UK baby site, the navigation for prams contains several different types , such as “2 in 1″s and “travel systems”, as well as push chairs, buggies and prams.  To the expectant parents, who might not have a clue what they need, this isn’t very helpful.  Why not have a buyers guide, or explain the differences on the prams page?

By making your site hard to navigate, and using jargon, or hiding what people are looking for, you won’t encourage visitors to come back, and they’re likely to tell their friends not to visit either!

Rant over for now!