5 critical website writing steps that make it easy for buyers to find your website via search engines and compels visitors to become clients

1. 5 Website Copywriting Tips to Attract
Quality Visitors and Turn Prospects into
Customers
Developed by Kim Cornwall Malseed
B2B Technology Marketing Consultant
www.MarComInk.com
kcornwall@marcomink.com
703.327.9269
Connect with Kim on LinkedIn, StumbleUpon, Twitter
Text hyperlinks enjoy a privileged status on the
Internet. Search engine spiders value the text
In the literary world, "good writing" is
within them more highly than ordinary body
notoriously subjective and difficult to define. copy. More important, they're virtual tour
But on the Web, good copy has two clear guides for your visitors. Good links direct your
objectives: readers to the destinations they seek. But when
they're poorly composed, your readers may
1. It captures and holds the attention of overlook important content or be misdirected
your prospects and customers to irrelevant pages.
2. It elevates your search engine rankings Make your text links informative and use your
and attracts qualified traffic top SEO keywords in them if possible. Instead of
click here for more information, write copy that
If yours is an e‐commerce site, your copy must
has appropriate keywords and tells readers
also assume a third role as a virtual salesperson
what they can expect upon arrival, such as try
capable of closing the deal.
SalesLeadsNow.com for 30 days to increase
sales lead generation or download Smith &
On the Web, your words carry a lot of weight.
Jone's top 10 retail stock picks for the upcoming
Fortunately, you can quickly build your
quarter.
websites’ muscle. Following are five tips you
can apply right now, with a minimum of time or
2. Use headlines and subheads
technical hassle, to dramatically improve the
effectiveness of your website writing. Headlines attract attention, whet the reader's
appetite and encourage investigation of
1. Include informative, keyword‐rich
subsequent text. Subheads break long blocks of
hyperlinks in body copy
text into smaller, less‐intimidating pieces, and

2. 5 Website Copywriting Tips to Attract Quality Visitors and Turn Prospects into Customers
they provide a content summary to the large and maintaining the integrity of your brand
number of readers who will scan your text. identity.)
They're standard features of articles and
brochures, yet remain underused on the Web— 4. Be ruthlessly specific and prove your claims
where they have an additional advantage: the
formatting devices used to distinguish heads Print out your Web pages—or the drafts of the
and subheads, such as bold print, italics, or a Web pages you intend to post—and grab a
larger font size, give them added weight with highlighter. Mark every phrase that contains
search engines. broad abstraction ("enterprise process
solutions"), vague promises ("exceeding
A page about graduate degrees for educators, customer expectations") and empty boasting
for example, might lead with the following ("best in class services.")
headline: "Weekend certificate programs for
working K‐12 teachers." The subsequent Now take a look at your page. Good copy
subheads would not only interrupt the should have very few, if any, marks. Replace all
monotony of long copy but also communicate the highlighted copy with specific promises,
the most important elements of the story at a facts, benefits, features and other pieces of
glance: "Finish your degree in just 14 months," concrete evidence that can support your claims.
"We'll bring the courses to your school," and
"Enroll online in minutes." You might transform the previous parenthetical
examples thus: "enterprise process solutions"
3. Include alternate spellings becomes "browser‐based manufacturing and
inventory control"; "exceeding customer
Many common words and phrases, such as expectations" becomes "a 30% decrease in
email (e‐mail) and Web sites (websites) have material waste in just 60 days, guaranteed"; and
legitimate alternate spellings. In the traditional "best in class services" becomes "recognized as
print world, this ambiguity is tackled by the industry standard by the Institute for
consistency—you pick one spelling and stick to Chemical Forensics."
it.
5. Learn from your Web stats
But on the Web, this is a rule you should break.
Since you cannot control the spelling a searcher Chances are, your Web site host provider, or
may use, anticipate them all. If you provide a the internal IT people who monitor your
"business to business" service, you'll want to servers, create thorough reports of your site
express the phrase in its common aliases, traffic. Sadly, too few writers have access to
including "business‐to‐business," "B‐to‐B," and these reports, or, if they do, they don't take
"B2B." (Just as there are exceptions to rules, advantage of it.
there are exceptions to breaking them: If your
site's reputation rests on editorial quality, you These Web stats contain a wealth of
may want to sacrifice some search engine information of enormous practical value,
optimization by sticking to consistent spellings including:
©2008 Kim Cornwall Malseed www.MarComInk.com Page 2

3. 5 Website Copywriting Tips to Attract Quality Visitors and Turn Prospects into Customers
● Referrer data The source pages of links
that were used to access your pages.
Some of these will be search engines, of
course. But others will be blogs and
other content‐rich sites. Consider this
data as a clue to the kinds of copy and
information that attracts attention— About the Author
and encourages others to build links to
your site.
● Search queries, search words The
keywords and keyword phrases people Kim Cornwall Malseed has over a
used that led them to your site. Read decade of global marketing, public relations,
these carefully as you'll find search analyst relations, and inside sales experience
terms you'll want to apply more with Fortune 500 and startup high‐tech
liberally in your Web copy. Conversely, companies. As the founder of B2B technology
you'll discover that words you thought marketing communications firm MarCom Ink,
were important fail to show up—which Kim has worked with small and mid‐size high‐
means they're not being used to find tech companies on marketing strategy and
you. implementation that significantly increased lead
generation and sales conversions, leading to
● Request report A ranking of your improved revenue. Several clients have
files/pages by requests (popularity). received leading industry awards as a direct
Look here to see which content really result of her marketing efforts.
pulls (and should be expanded) and
which fall flat (and may be candidates Formerly the Marketing and Public Relations
for deletion.) Manager for Parature, Kim implemented
marketing initiatives and secured media and
And one bonus tip... industry analyst coverage that increased sales
revenue and positioned the company for
Consider your Web site content an evolving venture capital funding. Prior to Parature, Kim
work in progress, rather than a one‐shot project managed marketing and public relations for
that requires monumental effort and is then webMethods, including launching numerous
otherwise abandoned. Unlike printed materials, products and services and completing an entire
Web pages may be revised quickly and corporate re‐branding after several company
inexpensively. New content can be created, mergers and acquisitions. As an account
published and assessed within days (sometimes executive at a Washington D.C. PR firm, Kim
even hours), so it pays to experiment. Apply the managed media relations for early stage high‐
preceding writing tips, watch the Web stats for tech companies, obtaining business and
the results, then revise, review, repeat. industry press coverage. Kim holds a Bachelor
©2008 Kim Cornwall Malseed www.MarComInk.com Page 3

4. 5 Website Copywriting Tips to Attract Quality Visitors and Turn Prospects into Customers
of Arts degree in Public Relations and Marketing
from Miami University (Ohio).
In 2006 Kim placed 2nd out of
200+ entries nationwide in the Tech PR Idol
Award competition hosted by a Washington,
D.C. technology PR firm. Also in 2006, Kim won
a WebAward for Outstanding Website from the
Web Marketing Association for a software
client’s corporate website.
Kim's B2B technology marketing and
copywriting insights have been published in
MarketingProfs, MarketingVOX,
MarketingCharts, and several industry blogs.
Kim also publishes the B2B Technology MarCom
Blog and e‐newsletter.
For a free consultation and no‐obligation quote
on your next marketing communications
project, contact Kim at
kcornwall@marcomink.com or call 703‐327‐
9269.
You can also connect with Kim on LinkedIn,
StumbleUpon, and Twitter.
Free B2B Technology Marketing Resources
More free resources for B2B high‐tech
marketers can be found at Kim’s blog, B2B
Technology MarCom, by subscribing to the B2B
Technology MarCom Newsletter, and on the
MarCom Ink website.
©2008 Kim Cornwall Malseed www.MarComInk.com Page 4