You want to save money but creating content for your small business website is expensive.
In time, effort, and the knowledge required to write copy that appeals to your audience.
Most small business owners want their website to generate enquiries without worrying about cold calling or chasing leads.
There is a lot more to creating a website, whether from scratch or refreshing an existing one.
SEO, keywords, UX are all part of the process that goes into managing a successful website.
Here are my 7 deadly sins that impact your website’s performance.
Pride
You’re ecstatic you’ve designed and written the content for your website.
It’s authentic and a true reflection of your business and its values.
It’s all about you, how great you are and how you’re going to save a ton of time and money for your clients.
Wrong!
Your website is never about you; it is only ever about your customer the person that buys from you.
You aren’t thinking about your customer only luxuriating in how fantastic your website looks.
When you create the content, what are you really offering the visitor?
People need a reason to buy, and without clarity in the copy, they’ll shrug their shoulders and say ‘so what?’
Greed
Your website serves two purposes to educate the customer and make them feel great about buying from you.
You want your website to drive traffic, generate leads and revenue.
You want long term and regular paying customers.
80% of your business comes from 20% of your customers.
Appeal regularly to your current customers by ensuring that your website is updated with news, new products and services.
Don’t assume that your clients don’t visit your website after they buy.
They most certainly do.
I know, because my customers regularly check out the website to see what’s new.
Writing your own website content might mean you save money short term, but if it’s not written with your customer in mind what will the real long term cost be?
Lust
Your expectations are high; you have strong desires to be successful and top of google like your main competitor.
You’re seeking attention from the right audience, and these are all super goals to achieve.
But you need to attract the right visitor, not any visitor so while you are lusting after your competitor’s website who most likely runs paid Ads.
Concentrate on your niche or audience. You won’t attract everyone, so don’t waste your time.
Envy
You sit staring at a blank screen desperate for inspiration.
Who knows more about your business than you?
Why hire a content writer when you write perfect English.
You’ve visited some of the companies that offer similar services to you looking for ideas to help you write that elusive bit of content.
It can’t be that hard, surely?
You want to be the envy of your competitors, family and friends.
One of the reasons you started your own business is to elevate your status, improve your income level and attract business.
Your writing should reflect your customers’ needs, so their buying objectives are satisfied.
The way you convey your message might not position your business favourably even though what you do is first class.
Don’t let pride and envy get in the way of outsourcing your content to an SEO qualified writer.
They can work wonders with your brand and message so you will be the envy of your competitors.
Gluttony
Its literal meaning is not lost in the context of website content.
Too much contextual background and going into minutiae isn’t conducive to keep the reader interested.
Writing copy for the web requires a conversational tone, as though you are chatting with the visitor face to face.
Plain English and informalities allow the visitor to understand what you do without deciphering long and complicated prose.
Too much information is irrelevant and time-consuming to read and won’t satisfy the reason to buy.
As tempting as it is to go into detail and gush about the wonders of your products and services, the reader really doesn’t care all they want to know is can it do what it says.
Wrath
Leads very nicely to what you do to frustrate your visitors.
How many websites have you visited recently and found yourself bouncing from one page to the next unsure what the heck it was you went there for in the first place?
Are your visitors ‘bouncing off’ hurriedly because they can’t find what they want?
Are the links contextual, do they relate to the page’s content and make sense for the reader?
For example, if your page is about dog training, why serve up a page on what kennels are worthwhile investing in for your pooch?
Sloth
Which leads me very nicely to the last deadly sin, sloth the reluctance to work or laziness.
Consider all of the above and then ask yourself why would you consider writing website content when you can get an expert to do it for you.
Writing copy takes time you need SEO and keyword knowledge and an understanding of how and what to write to successfully convey your message.
This takes time and will take longer than you envisage; eventually, the content plan starts to waiver, and you give up.
You start with a plan, and you’re determined to stick to it, but you can’t find the time.
You say it, but you can’t write it.
Before long two months has slipped by and you haven’t written that much-needed case study or white paper and that blog you keep meaning to write gathers dust even though you know its a game-changer.
Imagine your web copy written precisely or your blog posts carefully crafted and presented on schedule, leaving you time to get on with your business.
Luckily for you, I’m a qualified SEO writer, and I love to work with small businesses.
The next time you stare at a blank screen unable to think up the right words, call me for a free 30-minute discovery call.
You’ll be glad that you did.
Further Reading for you
https://onewomansview.co.uk/6-quick-ways-to-plan-your-content-marketing-seo-content-writer/
https://onewomansview.co.uk/copywriting-for-your-small-business/
