It's In the Words

Compelling content, content that attracts search engines, content that compels others to link to your site, requires text. How much? Enough to fully convey your message and move the visitor to conversion.

Website owners often resist this need for text. That's understandable. Writing is hard work. Good writing is very hard work. Most people just don't want to do it and many people won't admit their writing skills are average or less, so they find excuses not to write.

Too Much Text?

There is no evidence that site visitors are prone to leaving a site just because they think there is too much text. They will leave if the text is presented in seemingly endless sentences and paragraphs and the overall look of the page is just a big gray blob. But, the notion that a visitor will think, "there's too many words here" and click on to another page is unfounded. I think it is propagated, at least in part, by site owners who don't want to write the necessary text content. That's not surprising. Writing is hard work. Good writing is very hard work. But if you're not willing to do the work you are unlikely to reap the benefits.

Avoid Brochurespeak

A common practice is to just take your company's brochures and place them on your website. This rarely works well. Brochures are typically written from the company's perspective and interests. They usually provide a list of services offered but rarely a list of benefits delivered.

Talk to Your Visitor in Their Language

Your website visitor is your potential customer. They come to your website seeking solutions to problems and answers to questions. They come to satisfy needs and wants. To effectively engage them you must speak their language and talk in terms of their interests.

Don't talk about what your company does, is proud of, tries to do, etc. Talk about the benefits the customer will receive. Take the focus off yourself and put it on the customer. Visitors to your website are far more likely to become your customer if they believe you care more about them then yourself.

Every SEO expert I've read says the same thing. They don't rely on tricks, techniques, smoke and mirrors to generate traffic to their own web sites. They rely only on Compelling Content. Why would you be different?

A picture is worth…

You've heard it all your life, "A picture is worth a thousand words". Although generally true, that bit of wisdom doesn't completely hold true for web pages. The problem is that for any picture those thousand words are likley different for each person viewing that picture.

Check It Out

If you doubt that just visit an art museum or a photo gallery and eavesdrop on the patrons as they view the paintings and photos. You are likely to hear spirited debates as to what the image means or what the artist was saying.

The Lesson

You can't expect to plop some photos or illustrations on your website and have every visitor derive the same message. You must supplement those images with text. That text provides context and guides the visitor to your desired message.

Photos? Yes. Just photos? Rarely, if ever!