by : Karin Peavy

When a prospect lands on your website will he or she understand what you are presenting? Do your ordering/sign up instructions make sense? Can prospects easily find the information they are searching for? If you don’t know the answers to these questions you may be driving away potential customers.

As a writer I put a lot of effort into making ideas clear. Therefore, I sometimes find it annoying when I can't figure out what a webmaster is trying to say. I admit I sometimes don’t grasp a concept because I’m in a hurry. However, I’ve run across poor formatting, grammar and spelling as well as poor continuity that make web content difficult to understand. This is a big turn off for visitors.

If you are not good at writing consider hiring someone to do it for you. Or, perhaps a friend or relative can tackle this job for you. By doing so, you are assured your web content is proficient and easy to understand. You can then use the time savings (the time you would have spent writing) to focus on other facets of your business.

If you plan to handle writing responsibilities yourself keep a grammar book handy for reference. Ask someone to proof your work.

Not sure of the spelling of a word? Look it up or ask someone for the correct spelling. Even if you believe you know the spelling of a word, it’s still a good idea to look it up. Maybe the person who wrote “of coarse" rather than “of course" was in a big hurry or maybe they didn’t know the difference.

Regarding explanations, it’s sometimes appropriate to SHOW instead of TELL. For instance, if someone signing up for a program must choose a password that is a combination of letters and numbers, include an example of how the password should look.

Employing the use of charts is another good technique. Many MLM companies use charts to explain their compensation plan.

List the benefits of your offer using bullet points:

• A list is easier to read than one long paragraph.

• The visitor is more likely to keep reading.

• And that’s your goal, isn’t it?

I recently visited a website that promised a free ad in an e-zine. I was directed to a link that promised more information. When I landed on the website I could not find what I was looking for. I studied the navigation bar. Which button would give me access to the information I was looking for? I decided to guess. I clicked on three buttons before I finally found the right one.

The purpose of the “free ad" was to draw me to the website. Once there the website owner wanted me to look at other offers and possibly buy. Perhaps the owner felt if the free ad information was too accessible, I would not take time to look at other offers. However, the reverse could have also been true. If I found the free information easily accessible I might have been more inclined to purchase something because I viewed the site as “customer friendly."

If you make it too hard for potential customers to get to the information they are looking for, some will turn away and find another source.

Not sure if your website is customer friendly? Ask customers/visitors to evaluate your website. Keep the survey short and simple. You could ask, “How would you rate the flow of our website? The choices: extremely easy, easy, extremely difficult, somewhat difficult. Ask your customers to add their personal comments. To keep your survey response rate high give participants a free gift (e-book, ad in your e-zine, etc.).

When potential customers land on your website it’s because they are drawn to your offer. Once they click through, make sure they remain interested by providing well-written content, easy-to-read formatting and by ensuring the information they are searching for is easy to find.

(c) Karin Peavy