Make Your Website Writing Irresistible to Search Engines – And Website Visitors

Internet copywriters often talk about writing website copy as if search engines were the only thing that mattered when it comes to online text. But all website copy should be written with two audiences in mind: site visitors (people) and search engines. Between these two audiences, people are the most important. That may sound like heresy to many internet marketers, but think about it like this; it’s people who buy your products or services, not search engines. While it’s true that performing myriad SEO tasks, creating search engine-friendly websites, and writing keyword-rich text will help your site appear higher in the search engine results pages and thus attract more potential site visitors, it’s the words on the page, in addition to your offer, pricing and other factors, that turn visitors into buyers or leads. One of these factors is what I like to call “irresistible writing.”
Think of the term “irresistible.” What image does the word conjure up in your mind? I like to think of magnet, pulling metal to it with a gentle, invisible tug. Or the ocean tides as they wash into the shore, pulling along seaweed and jellyfish, and then suddenly surging back out to sea, taking with them sand castle, shells and more. The irresistible ebb and flow of the tides can tumble jagged glass smooth or carve great gashes in the shoreline.
Your irresistible website copy can have the same gentle power and effectiveness as the magnet or the tides. The secret lies in using time-tested direct response copywriting theories in your online copy.
Understand the Difference Between Features and Benefits
Marketing writers talk a lot about features and benefits, and the importance of emphasizing benefits. What’s the difference between the two? Features are facts, and benefits are the gifts received by your customers by those facts. A glass of water has the features of glass and H20; the benefits are zero calories so you can drink as much as you like without gaining weight; life sustaining, thirst quenching beverage; available at no cost so anyone can afford it. Which is more interesting to you: the fact that water contains no calories and is available free of charge, or that it is contained by a glass? I’m guessing that the little benefit facts I included here are more interesting, and with good reason. Benefits speak to your best interests. It’s why including benefits in all your marketing, advertising and internet copywriting projects works so well. People tune in to what is in their vested interests, and benefit statements speak to those interests. When you include them, you subtly attract them because you’re talking about what they are interested in – how they gain from the product or service. That’s why benefit statements create powerful, irresistible marketing writing.
Write from the Verbs
Another trick up the sleeve of professional copywriters is to write from the verbs, not from the nouns. If you can’t remember the difference between the two and grammar terms elicit a sarcastic eye-roll, then perhaps you may want to stop what you’re reading and find a copywriter you can trust to write for you, because like many other things in life, you’ve got to understand the tools available to you before you pick them up to build a house. In this case, your “house” is your website, and the “tools” are the words, among other things, that you choose to put on your web pages.
Verbs are important tools in the copywriter’s toolbox because they are the action of the sentence. Like benefits, verbs attract. Action-focused statements are instantly engaging and irresistible. Choose strong verbs and write from the present tense as much as you can (like this sentence) to create engaging copy that draws rather than bores readers.
Focus 99 Percent of Your Efforts on the Headline
Headlines have always been important to any marketing copy, but today headlines are even more critical than body copy for a variety of reason. Online headlines are especially important. As site visitors skim your website, they will likely see only the headlines, and see them quickly, before making a snap decision to continue reading and clicking around your website or moving on to the next site. The headlines alert them to the contents of the pages and if interesting enough, draw them into the body copy to learn more. One secret of top copywriters is that they write the body copy first, then work on the headlines last, because often the best writing emerges after the main content is written.
There are many articles, tips and suggestions for headline “formulas”, or systems of writing headlines, that are known to elicit a stronger response from consumers. Using questions instead of statements, incorporating certain words and other concepts gleaned from direct response market may be helpful when writing website copy intended to generate responses from visitors such as leads or sales.
Write for Online Reading
Another way to make your writing irresistible is to understand the differences between writing for the online world and writing for print-based reading. Website reading is different from magazine, journal, newspaper or book reading. Screen size and resolution tend to encourage skimming of text. Including bulleted lists, using bold for headlines, and using certain techniques for arranging copy on the page helps make website copy more readable. When you write online reading, you write not just for the intellectual engagement of your audience but for visual engagement, too. It’s helpful to think of the words as they will finally appear on the intended website, and write blocks or chunks of shorter paragraphs than one would normally write for print-based materials.