Do you remember “The Gong Show”?

Brave contestants would go on stage and display their talents (or lack thereof) in front of three judges. If the contestants made a mistake, or just didn’t impress… GONG. Game over.

The world of online business has a gong equivalent. It’s called your bounce rate, and it tracks how often prospects click away without bothering to learn more.

When prospects click away, it means your time is up. It means you won’t get any more chances to win them over with your products or services.

Keep these tips in mind to avoid gong-worthy online writing mistakes, and keep your prospects on your site:

1. Nobody likes Bossy Betty. When you were little, I bet you didn’t want to play with the kid who bossed you around. Adults don’t either. Your prospects need to make up their own minds. Share what you can do for them – by showing, not telling. Suggest; don’t demand.
2. Empty promises = empty bank accounts. Online promises, guarantees, or over-confidences can come off cheap. Be careful of making empty promises. The Internet is full of them, and your prospect is wary.
3. Keep it human. Do you ever talk to those automated people on customer service hotlines? The ones who never understand your answer? Wouldn’t you rather talk to a real person? Me, too. The same goes for your Web presence. A warm, welcoming, powerful voice attracts prospects. Be personal. Show your human side.
4. Don’t assume. Your prospects are smart, but they don’t know everything. Especially when it comes to the intricacies of your product, your industry, or what you can offer them. Share this information in a way that makes people comfortable. Incorrectly assuming what people know leaves prospects confused – and you without customers.
5. They’re not third graders. Unless your prospects are, in fact, eight years old, then you shouldn’t treat them like third graders. It’s tough to find a comfortable balance between providing information, in a manner that works, and speaking to your audience like they are adults. Know your audience, know what they know, and know what they need more about. The goal is to make information accessible without condescending to visitors.
6. Watch for silly errors. A silly mistake in your content can make you seem silly to your reader. Professionalism means checking it twice, three times, or more. An extra set of eyes can make a big difference. By finding mistakes before they do, you help your audience focus on your message instead of your blips.

As many of “The Gong Show” contestants might have benefited from vocal coaching or dance lessons, your business can benefit from expert help, too.

If you’re too close, it can be hard to see things objectively. Market It Write can help you create powerful content (and avoid gong-worthy mistakes). Get in touch today.

Let’s face it, you’re going to read this paragraph.

More than likely, you’re going to read this one, too. They’re both short paragraphs, with short sentences.

However, the further you get into this blog post, the more likely you’re going to start scanning, rather than reading closely. You’ll start looking for keywords or sentences with bold text that grabs your attention.

Subheadings Also Convey Useful Information and Hold Reader Interest

According to Jakob Nielsen, an established authority for more than a decade on how people read on the Web, readers respond most favorably to web pages that are:

• Concise – minimum word count for quick reading
• Objective – neutral, factual-sounding language
• Scannable – bulleted lists and lots of white space

Readers seem to expect that material on the web is more factual, so they respond more strongly to writing that sounds factual, avoiding hyperbole and overblown marketing language. According to Nielsen, web users forage for information and facts. If a web page doesn’t appear to provide the facts we seek, we move on quickly.

Readers tend to scan past large blocks of text.

Font types also affect readability. In print, readers prefer serif fonts such as Times New Roman or Georgia. However, on the web, readers prefer sans serif fonts, such as Verdana or Trebuchet.

Large Font Sizes Promote Scanning

Small font sizes and large blocks of text encourage closer reading, but only if the page already has the reader’s attention; otherwise, they will most likely be skipped.

Eye tracking studies show that readers are most likely to notice things placed in the upper left corner of the page; their eye movements then flow down and generally toward the right. Therefore, place the elements of maximum impact at the top and at the left, a strategy that leads to an inverted writing structure. Put the major, broad-stroke elements at the top, and expand into finer detail deeper into the page.

The bottom line is that partial reading–of everything–on the Web is common. Knowing how to grab the reader’s eye and hold it long enough to convey your message is critical to Web communication.

The ultimate goal for nearly anyone with a website is to attract more visitors. Because search engines can account for as many as 80% of those visiting a website (and sometimes even more), taking proactive steps to get your website found in the search engines is a no-brainer if you want more traffic.

Some Quick Search Statistics

• The Search Engine Marketing Professional Organization (SEMPO) estimates that 14 billion searches are conducted around the world during the average day.
• As the chart shows, Hitwise estimates that for the four-week period ending December 4, 2009, Google handled 72% of all U.S. search volume. Just three search engines – Google, Yahoo! and Bing – accounted for 96% of all U.S. search activity.

Position Matters

It stands to reason, and studies have confirmed:

The higher a website ranks within the search results, the more likely it is to draw traffic from searchers.

Again, a no-brainer.

The default setting for Google, Yahoo! and Bing is to return just 10 results per page. However, most searchers don’t realize they can set their preferences to return as many as 100 results per page (50 in Bing), and some of those who do know figure that returning more results will just take more time. And who has the time?

Like any average consumer in today’s high-tech society, attention spans and patience levels are at a minimum with those who use search. They really don’t want to leaf through 60 or 70 pages of search results to find what they want.

• If searchers find what they’re looking for on the first page – great!
• If searchers find a result that looks like what they want without even having to scroll down the page – awesome!

So what does that suggest?

To get the most traffic from search engines, pages from your site need to rank as high on the page as possible. Ideally on the first page, but at least within the first three.

But how do you do that? Two words: search marketing.

Next up: Part Two – Website Traffic and Search Engine Marketing
Part Three – Website Traffic and SEO

Have you taken steps with the search engines to get your website or blog found? What were the results?