How long do you linger on a site with bad writing?  Hours?

Nope.  About a 1/4 of a second, actually.  Design plays a big role, but your copy is just as important. 

So don’t make common mistakes.  What mistakes, you ask?  These ones…

Adding Filler Web readers don’t have the time or desire to read filler.  Just give them what they want- information.  Using tons of adjectives is a dead giveaway that you’re just writing stuff to write it.  So are filler phrases like “a wide variety of…” and “something for everyone”.

Writing A Narrative A narrative has an introduction, offering some history or background.  If I see that, I’m going to bounce over to a competitor that gives me the information I’m looking for, right up front.  Start with your main points.

Making Readers Understand How You Do It Just because you always, always check the bottom of a page for more information if you see an * doesn’t mean your users will.  Examine your info from every angle, so it’s easy to find.

Selling And Yelling Here’s the thing about the internet- your competitor is a click away.  If you push hard for sales up front, before readers have had  a chance to get at least some of the info they want, they’ll go somewhere else.  Sell after your readers have found what they want; sell after the conversion.

There’s No Point You’ve written every conceivable fact about your business anyone could possibly want to know on your site.  But to make it effective, you need to direct users somewhere.  Once you do that, you can start measuring conversions by how many visitors go where you want them to.

Big Unbroken Pieces Of Text No one is going to read your laundry list of things to do.  Or, at least, they don’t want to.  Break down the information on your pages by using subheads, bullets, numbered lists, and text blocs.  Stay away from paragraphs with more than 70 words.

Centered Text Not even your headers should be centered on your pages.  And especially not the main body of copy.  Reader’s eyes will flow much easier over justified text.

Using Big Words “Initially, filling out username and password fields by participants is mandatory” or “First, you must choose a username and password”?  Which do you prefer?  Don’t turn your site into legal-ese in order to appear business-like.

Changing Styles If one of your subheads is a direction, the next a question, and the third a statement, where does that leave your reader?  Use the same style throughout the page.  It takes more planning, and it’s worth it.

Wasting Links You never, ever have to write “click here” or “more” for your link.  Be descriptive, and highlight the words that describe where the link goes. The internet has been around long enough for everyone to recognize that an underlined word is a clickable link (and if you’re using underlines in your copy that aren’t links, stop.)

And those are just the most common mistakes you’ll find.  Which ones are you guilty of?