Almost every business has a web site these days, but how hard is your web site working for you? 

  

Clearly establish your site’s purpose.  Is it to sell?  To share information?  What do you want people to do, to feel when they come to your site?  Once you have that purpose established, be sure that everything – from content, to design, to colors – reflects that purpose.

 

Keep your content current.  “Nothing makes me cringe more than visiting a site and seeing that registrations are still being taken for a conference that was held months ago, or that some old event is still being “announced” as news. And, you’d be surprised by how often I see things like that,” says Diggs.

 

Your web site is the last place people expect to find old information and, when they do, they often get disgusted and click away to the next site.  Even if you don’t have time to update your site, be sure to remove the old material in a timely fashion.

 

React to relevant news and events.  This let’s the reader know that you’re living in the same world they’re in and builds a certain level of camaraderie and trust.  Feel free to react to things that people in your target audience are reacting to, even though they may not exactly pertain to what you offer.

 

For example, I once wrote an e-letter for a doctor who was responding to a national tragedy.  This tragedy had nothing to do with him or his services, but was simply a way for him to connect with others at a depressing time.  While actions like this can’t be measured, we did hear from a few readers who appreciated this unexpected act.   

 

Of course, copy on your site should also react to things that pertain to your industry, especially those items that your audience may not know about.  An example of this is the nutritionist who made mention of National Diabetes Month on her web site home page. 

 

If you’d like to get the full report, just send a short email to contact@gcdwritingandmarketing.com and we’ll email it to you, with our compliments.  It’s our way of ridding the world of lazy web sites!