Starting an Online Business All-in-One For Dummies®, 3rd Edition

Words Are Words — Right? Wrong!

How do you know what works when it comes to describing your products, welcoming your customers, and engaging in any other communication that requires the written word? Effective Web copy helps you accomplish these four objectives:

• Help search engines notice your site
• Convince customers to visit your site
• Elicit in your customers a desire to act (to buy stuff!)
• Entice customers to come back and do it all over again (buy more stuff!)

Now that you know what earns the official stamp of approval on your Web copy, it's time to start writing. You should know that not all words are created equal. Some words pack a wallop when they're delivered. Others hang in the air unnoticed.

With millions of words in the English language, choosing the right ones for your Web site might seem daunting. Not so. Writing for the Web is easy if you use words, phrases, and sentences that are

• Attention-getters: You're fired! Real estate tycoon and on-air personality Donald Trump gave new meaning to this phrase when he used it to oust participants on his reality television show. He certainly knows how to keep a viewer's attention as he delivers the now infamous line. You have to do the same online. Visitors to your Web site are unforgiving. If you don't catch their attention quickly (and keep it), they desert you in a heartbeat. Choose words, especially in headlines, that command attention and pique interest — all in a blink of the eye.

  You have only a few seconds to attract ...