The killer copy has, and always will rule. Just having the coolest look doesn’t SAY anything for you, literally. Copy is time tested. Wether it be the newspaper, a T.V. news script or the article like you are reading now, it is the words that gain trust and acceptance of a company or image. Proper copy online is a different animal when you take into consideration of proper SEO, but the same premises stands. While the visitor doesn’t often care where your site ranks if you gain there trust through words, it is still important to make sure they see you. Take for instance a company like Google: No matter what they say they can get rankings (hmmm. I wander how that works? ;C)~ ). They can design copy that will be read so they only need worry about how the user will view it. Same goes for any traditional print media. The journalist with the front cover story of the N.Y. Times doesn’t need to worry about exposure, only how grabbing the words in the article displayed on the front page will affect the reader. We are all not so fortunate. We the masses need to combine a balance of exposure to our copy, but more importantly user attention and appreciation. To reach this equilibrium I suggest the following tips:

1. Write for the buyer.

Keeping this in mind will never point you in the wrong direction. First and foremost you are here for the customer. Wether your selling information, ideas, products it doesn’t matter: COPY NEEDS TO BE DIRETED AT THE AUDIENCE FIRST AND FOREMOST! This is the number one rule when creating copy.

2. Backup your claims.

Give the user want hey want. When designing your copy: make sure you view it from the user’s perspective, not yours. The best salesman (or woman) always keeps things in perspective. You want to view and edit your copy as if you are the one being pitched. If this means: adding media, flashy headings or any wording in your pitch that’s great, as long as the user or buyer will appreciate it. Try to go through revision stages only looking at your selling copy from a perspective users P.O.V. (point of view).

3. Keep in mind search engine optimization.

I made this the last point because, while important, the other two theories trump. Keywords are just that: KEY! When writing text for online publication it is great to have a properly winning sales pitch but the online world throws another kink into it. You must include your related keywords. By this I mean you need to include words relevant to what you are selling. This shouldn’t be hard since these words will be the topic at hand. It is important to to have a higher saturation of these words in your text than other terms used throughout your sales pitch. The search engines work with relevancy, so the more relevant your text is, the better it will be received by the engines. Stick to these principals and you will see more traffic, higher sales and better return on your time invested.

Todd Levi has been designing websites for over five years with much success. View his new web design company, LeviSolutions at http://www.LeviSolutions.com

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