Category: News

With so many online touchpoints now available for customers to find, share, and interact with your brand, it can be very easy to focus in on one or two of those areas and leave other floundering.

One of the biggest mistakes we see being made by companies in the modern business spere, is based on a belief that once your website is up and running, the copy already on there will sell itself and will continue to remain relevant for months and years to come. The fact is that while your services may indeed remain the same, if you don’t refresh your copy, and regularly add content which will continue to draw readers in and convert readers into clients and customers, the words on your webpage aren’t really doing very much at all.

 

Hard Sell vs. Soft Sell

This is where it becomes important to understand the difference between your website copy and your website content. Copy refers to text designed to sell your products and services, with the main intention of sparking immediate action in the reader. Content is there to give the reader something to engage with and to provide your brand with a tone of voice and the foundations of industry expertise.

Some of the best web copy and content we have seen, takes a specific tone of voice and a target audience and delivers that same style of writing consistently across every word and statement. These are the brands that know what they are offering, know who they are offering it to, and who understand the power of both the hard sell and the soft sell in achieving a strong sales funnel.

 

Back to copy…

Now that we understand the difference between your content and your copy, it’s time to home in on the importance of website copy and how to make sure that yours stands out and does its job.

Your web copy needs to do three main things:

1. It needs to introduce the browser or reader to your brand and your products or services.
2. It needs to make them stop and consider how your product or service can solve a problem for them or have a positive impact in their lives.
3. It needs to do both of these things as directly as possible, using well-selected, powerful words which inspire immediate action.

There is a reason why external writers charge so much more for web copy than they do for content: it’s because the art of creating effective copy takes a lot longer, and often a lot more skill, to master.

Without further ado, here are our four key steps to delivering web friendly copy which will become a vital part of your website’s sales funnel.

 

Write for all types of reader

Great web page copy will target both in-depth readers and web page scanners – that is, it will provide all the information that a reader needs to know, whether they read it fully or simply scan the text and see what jumps out at them.

Just as you might if you were to flick through a newspaper or magazine, web page scanners are looking for headlines which stand out and bold statements and questions which make them want to read more. One of the most effective examples of web copy in action is the use of rhetorical questions, outlining a problem that you know your target reader will have, before introducing them to the solution: you.

 

Create a harmony between your website and other touchpoints

Social media is one of our most useful tools, as individuals and as businesses in the 21^st century. It allows us to be constantly online and able to engage with our followers and customers, and it presents an opportunity for us to combine visual marketing with strong and powerful captions and reviews. It also adds an additional online touchpoint to our digital marketing strategy and can be a great way to draw people towards your website, provided you give them a reason to go there.

Creating a consistent tone of copy is vital when it comes to fusing together your social media and your website, with one of the best tips we can give you being to understand exactly who is coming to your website through social media, and what their journey looks like. Earlier we identified the difference between copy and content, but this is where a harmonious tone delivered across both of these areas is key. For more information on the impact of social media, check out the latest social posts from our friends at Dot Dash Digital.

 

Be direct but friendly

It is important not to dress your website copy up with too many additional and unnecessary words, however that doesn’t mean it doesn’t have to be understanding, friendly and approachable in its tone. Your web copy needs to identify with your target audience and introduce them to the solution you can offer, to a problem you know they have. Whether it’s a product or a service, your goal is to encourage the audience to see you as a solution rather than a money-grabbing corporation.

 

Consider SEO – always!

SEO is what makes your website available and easily found on search engines. But with search engines and SEO algorithms constantly changing and adjusting the ways in which webpages can and should optimise their content, it is important that SEO forms an ongoing part of your strategy which you are regularly reviewing. SEO leads to natural and organic website traffic, made up of clicks through to your website from users who actually searched for and were guided towards your site by something relevant that they are interested in. This means that they are the audience most likely to be converted by strong webpage copy, and so implementing a high quality strategy is key to converting those website visitors. Some pointers to remember about SEO include:

 

– Include internal and external links to reliable and relevant sources – Google likes this!

– Know your keywords and understand how keyword ranking words.

– Find the right balance between keywords and readability.

– Make your webpage and copy so interesting, that a reader will want to share it.

 

You can find out more about SEO and how to maintain a strong SEO strategy for your business with our previous blog.

Delivering web friendly copy is a balancing act between what Google and search engine algorithms want, and what your target audience wants. The best copy can be a vital tool in converting readers to become customers and clients, guiding them towards an immediate action through a series of enticing statements and calls to action. For more information and guidance on how to create effective web friendly copy for your creative business, get in touch at info@helloslate.co.uk

Effective web design is increasing in importance as we approach a digitalised world, particularly as a result of the pandemic forcing many people online and into technology more than ever before. Despite its importance, good web design isn’t a given, and the reason many website creators and businesses stumble in this vital element is that they feel it may be unattainable if they aren’t a creative person.

Everyone deserves a great website – whether you’re creative or not! So here are a few great principles to start with, and some tips on understanding web design as a non-creative person.

 

UX  is the name of the game

UX (user experience) is about understanding your audience. What are they looking for — and how will your design make finding it easy? UX is about getting into the heads of your audience and seeing your design through their eyes.

When building your first website, keep these guiding UX principles in mind:

– Make things simple and intuitive

– Communicate concepts in a logical succession

– Meet your audience’s needs

 

Don’t forget UI

Where UX focuses on the overall feel of a design, UI (user interface) zeros in on the specifics. When thinking about UI web design, keep these UI principles in mind:

– The functionality of interactive elements should be obvious

– Uniformity must guide usability — actions should follow logical patterns

– Design choices should be made with a clear purpose

These two web design principles rely on not just the creative side of the brain, but the analytical side. Analysing your audience and leading your website design by being simple, functional and purposeful are all skills that non-creative people can draw from, and are central to doing a good job. Knowing how to improve readability, usability and navigability are skills that can be learnt from a number of great sources.

 

Now you know some basic principle, here are a few other tips that non-creatives can find helpful:

– Find designs you like – then copy them – Taking inspiration from what’s already out there is never a bad idea. Put time aside to look at sites within your industry and see what common patterns there are – take notes! as this will also help you in deciding what designs you like, and those you don’t.

– Find a designer and ask them to take a look at your work – when trying web design as a non-creative it can be difficult to carry it out without second-guessing yourself. If you’re able to, try finding a designer, or a friend who is creative and may be more familiar with those who do web design, and ask them what they think. This can help root out any issues that you may not have noticed or understood how to fix. If you don’t know anyone personally, sites like Meetup (which will likely be over Zoom now!)  are a great place to find web designers who might be willing to help.

– Read a book on design principles – the last option and perhaps the simplest. If you want to brush up on your understanding of web design by reading, then try a more practical book than a theoretical one. For a person with limited creative ability, the suggestions from a theoretical book may be a bit challenging to try out. They may make sense as you read them, but attempting to implement them may throw you right back into the confusion that you started with. Here’s a free ebook that keeps it simple.

Those are just a few ways you can understand web design as a non-creative person. If you really want to learn – it’s possible – so don’t give up! For even more tips for effective web design, have a look at our blog or get in touch with us at info@helloslate.co.uk

Google Search Console, formerly Google Webmaster Tools, is a free service offered by Google that helps you monitor, maintain, and troubleshoot your site’s presence in Google Search results. You don’t have to sign up for Search Console to be included in Google Search results, but Search Console helps you understand and improve how Google sees your site. 

Why is it important? 

Google Search console has become one of the most important Google SEO tools around. SEO is an ever-changing landscape, so it’s crucial to have tools that keep you up to speed with the latest algorithms and allow you to monitor your site’s progress. Search Console is also where you’ll receive messages directly from Google regarding any issues with, or actions taken against your website. This could be something like a detected hack attack, a malware warning, a manual penalty for bad linking practices or other technical notices which the search engine may send.

What does it offer? 

Search Console offers tools and reports that allow you to:

— Confirm that Google can find and crawl your site.

— Fix indexing problems and request re-indexing of new or updated content.

— View Google Search traffic data for your site: how often your site appears in Google Search, which search queries show your site, how often searchers click through for those queries, and more.

— Receive alerts when Google encounters indexing, spam, or other issues on your site.

— Show you which sites link to your website.

— Troubleshoot issues for AMP, mobile usability, and other Search features.

Who should use Search Console?

SEO specialists or marketers use Search Console to assist their online marketing through monitoring site traffic and optimising their site’s ranking. 

Site administrators use the tool to help them monitor and, where necessary, reserve server errors, site load issues, and security issues like hacking and malware. Administrators can also find Search Console effective in ensuring any site maintenance or adjustments made happen smoothly. 

Web/app developers who are creating the actual markup and/or code for their site can add deep linking to their apps (which allows app pages to show up in users’ mobile search results), connect their app with a website, handle crawl errors and more. Search Console also helps monitor and resolve common issues with markup, such as errors in structured data.

What features should I know about?

URL inspection: allows you to inspect individual web pages within a website. The results page shows quickly shows you whether the URL is on the Google Index, along with information about coverage and mobile usage.

Manual actions report: which allows you to view various issues found on your webpage. If issues are found, you can request a review from Google once it has been optimised. This means you can find issues much quicker compared to using website audit tools and helps to ensure that your website performs at its best, and resolving any issues can be done more efficiently.

To find out more about Google Search Console get in touch with us at info@helloslate.co.uk