Language is an important aspect of optimizing a website. In many cases, the way you pitch your sale is far more important than what you’re saying. You can’t avoid the issue – making certain your visitors understand and remember your site is absolutely critical.
Kevin Potts, of GraphicPush, wrote the other day about making a prospective client remember your pitch. In it, he points out that you can use fancy words, politically savvy speech, and all your business expertise to make your point – but, when it comes right down to it, the most memorable statement might be:
I make your shit look good so it sells more stuff.
Short, to the point, and says what you do.
Your website needs to consider memorability in addition to any other sales pitch. Granted, cursing at your visitors is possibly not the best tack to take. However, grabbing their attention and seizing the opportunity to make certain they’ve noticed you can be the best thing for your business.
So, what about your site can really seize attention? Obviously, there are "better methods" and "not-so-good methods". You could fill your site with pictures of scantily clad bikini vixens. (Ooh, I’m going to catch some "unique traffic" now.) Of course, this may not be the most appropriate way to move custom-designed office furniture. On the other hand, it may be very effective for selling surfing supplies. Considering your market is pretty critical.
It’s an unfortunate truth that being obnoxious is a great way to catch somebody’s attention. Using pop-up ads or slide-in ads, animated ads – any of these will grab the attention of your visitor. They may be very obnoxious, but they can serve the purpose you need. There are good ways and bad ways to implement them all, however. If you are so obnoxious that you chase your visitor away, you’ve lost your market. But, if you give them an easy way to stop what’s bothering them (close advertisements or stop animations), then they’re more likely to let it pass – and you’re one step closer to making a sale.
Remembering your site is one of the reasons a good domain name is critical. If people are struggling to remember your site’s address (What was that url…digitalstrategy.com? Internetstrategies? Digitalinternetstrategies? Hmmmm…) then they’re less likely to come back. A big part of what makes a site successful is being remembered.
But the core of catching attention and keeping it needs to be in the content of your site. Writing text filled with industry buzzwords and technical terms is a great way to make your site disappear from my memory in 30 seconds. A text laced with unfamiliar terms is keyed to be forgotten. Copy which features well-known, common terminology to explain a task will be much more easily remembered.
Getting visitors to your site is a pretty minor part of effective internet marketing – keeping them there and bringing them back are also important challenges.
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