Once upon a time I was an editor at Butterworth Scientific which published technical journals and books. As well as honing my own journalistic skills I spent many happy hours editing and proofreading content from our contributors.
Almost as many moons ago I used this knowledge in a collaborative chapter with the late, great Ron Brown from KBC on editing technical writing. It's old, but it's still relevant, and not just for technical writers. There are tips here for anyone who writes or edits for business - marketing, articles, journals and books. And it's short.
Here's our guide to editing for accuracy and style.
Showing posts with label copy writing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label copy writing. Show all posts
Six tips for writing great web links
When you send out an online newsletter, sales letter or invitation, you want your audience to find out more by clicking on a link that takes them to a place where they can find out more and buy.
How much do you think about the positioning and look of your web links?
1. Are they saying something useful? "Click here" gets your reader to the next page, but it's much better to say something like "Download the white paper" or "Buy here". That's a clear signpost to your audience - and to search engines who will give you brownie points for good links and help to raise your search engine ranking.
2. Are you being too clever with your links? As Gerry McGovern, web guru, points out, if the world is used to web links that are blue and underlined, why try to do something different? It may look great graphically, but it's not going to help your reader get to the buying stage if you disguise your links.
3. Don't be mean with your links. Again, Gerry McGovern shows that the same link at the bottom of the page as well as the top can greatly increase the clicks through to the next stage
4. Think about where your links are taking your audience. If you link items in a newsletter to the home page of your web site, and then expect your audience to search your site for the information they want - they won't. Make sure your links go straight to the appropriate point of the right page.
5. Spread your links generously but with discrimination. You can add links to web sites and blogs to your signature on emails and in communities. This is person-to-person marketing and again appealing to search engines. Don't overdo it though - there's always a thin line between a reasonable marketing push and just being irritating to your readers.
6. Test all your links before you go live!
How much do you think about the positioning and look of your web links?
1. Are they saying something useful? "Click here" gets your reader to the next page, but it's much better to say something like "Download the white paper" or "Buy here". That's a clear signpost to your audience - and to search engines who will give you brownie points for good links and help to raise your search engine ranking.
2. Are you being too clever with your links? As Gerry McGovern, web guru, points out, if the world is used to web links that are blue and underlined, why try to do something different? It may look great graphically, but it's not going to help your reader get to the buying stage if you disguise your links.
3. Don't be mean with your links. Again, Gerry McGovern shows that the same link at the bottom of the page as well as the top can greatly increase the clicks through to the next stage
4. Think about where your links are taking your audience. If you link items in a newsletter to the home page of your web site, and then expect your audience to search your site for the information they want - they won't. Make sure your links go straight to the appropriate point of the right page.
5. Spread your links generously but with discrimination. You can add links to web sites and blogs to your signature on emails and in communities. This is person-to-person marketing and again appealing to search engines. Don't overdo it though - there's always a thin line between a reasonable marketing push and just being irritating to your readers.
6. Test all your links before you go live!
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