Writing web content that visitors will actually read

To survive in today's competitive business world, most companies need some kind of presence on the web. Whether it's a basic website describing their products/services, or a fully interactive site complete with e-commerce, a company can benefit greatly just from having a website.

But buying a domain name and throwing up a website isn't enough. You still must keep visitors at your site long enough so they know what you're all about. A large chunk of retaining visitors, and even converting them into paying customers, falls on the shoulders of the site's written content.

If you are a new business about to see your website go "live" for the first time, then the following tips for writing effective web content will benefit you. And even if you're an established business that has been on the web for years, maybe it's time to review your website to see if the written content is helping you, or worse, hurting you.

• Keep it brief. Most visitors to your site will have a short attention span and will move on if there are long paragraphs that describe complicated concepts.
• Avoid jargon. Keep you site's content in laymen terms. If a visitor does not understand what you're talking about, you'll never convert them to a customer.
• A visitor should know exactly what you do and what you are selling just by visiting your homepage. Don't force visitors to dig deeper into your site to find basic information, because 99% of them won't.
• Check for spelling and grammar errors. And then check again. Nothing will ruin your online professional reputation faster than misspelling words that any spell check program can find. Same goes for grammar.
• Use bulleted lists. They are easily scannable and a great way to get your main points across.

The above 5 tips are just the tip of the iceberg for writing good web content. The biggest piece of advice I can give is to just keep it simple. Don't try to use fancy marketing language, and don't try to impress visitors with big words.

Finally, don't forget to include a call-to-action. If you want visitors to your website to call your 800 number to place an order, then make the number easy to find and include something like call us today!" Most visitors need to be motivated to action.