A professionally presented business website is a powerful
and essential marketing tool: it's the first thing prospective
customers will look at before they decide to contact
you. If the copy on your website is not written to an
acceptable standard, it may be losing you customers.
It’s not enough just to have amazing graphics
and imagery: you need the words to make it complete.
Is the spelling correct? Are punctuation marks in place?
Does the copy make sense? These are questions that website
designers should be asking themselves before they upload
a new site.
One of the biggest flaws with website copy is inconsistency:
for example the word ‘website’. Some sites
spell it as one word, some as two words; as far as I
am aware both are acceptable, but not both versions
on the same site! In my opinion, a lack of consistency
will deter a significant amount of would-be customers
from using the services of a company that has not taken
the trouble to proofread their website.
Poor spelling on a website is another costly but
avoidable mistake.
The majority of visitors will leave the site very
quickly if they find too many spelling errors. This
again will give them the impression that the site
owners don’t really care; and they would be
right! I am also convinced that copy that has been
‘padded out’ with insignificant trivia
is also a big turn-off for visitors – clear,
concise and informative is the order of the day.
Anything containing textual content should as a matter
of course be proofread: it's important that not only
are mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar
found and corrected, but that the text flows smoothly
for the reader. The copy on a website should not be
treated as the 'poor relation' of the project. You
can have the most up-to-date, eye-catching graphics
available but you will still need well-written copy
to compliment them.
There are the odd few web design companies around
that will happily inform visitors how they can supply
them with a state-of-the-art website but then insert
second-rate copy, which totally negates any good work
they have achieved. This will reduce the initial impact
of the site, and more often than not will have an
adverse effect on business.
It pays to have the copy checked professionally, whether
the design company has written it themselves or had
it supplied by the client; it may cost a lot less
than you think to have a website proofread - it could
cost you considerably more if you don't!
Remember: if visitors to your site cannot find the
information they are looking for because of badly
written copy they will simply leave the site. The
only people to benefit will be your competitors.
About the author:
John Sheridan is a professional proofreader of hard
copy items and website copy. He also writes web copy
and occasionally accepts small copy-editing assignments.
He can be contacted at: john@textcorrect.co.uk website:
www.textcorrect.co.uk
