1. Web Writing & Web Design

2. How to Effectively Write for
the Web

3. Effective Writing for the Web
It only takes 30 seconds for a user to make a decision as to whether
or not they will move onto the next relevant website. To avoid
loosing viewers, it is imperative that your website wording is short,
explicit, ,includes bulletins, headers and uses verbiage that a vast
majority of viewers will understand,
Web writing involves taking large content, reducing and summarizing
the content into smaller succinct paragraphs highlighting the
important information the viewer needs to know.

4. Tips to Effect Web Writing
Keep it Short

Make your copy short on each page. Doing this will engage your audience to
continue through your site. To much verbiage looses attention and interest.
You want your audience to move through your site and contact you or make a
purchase.
Headings

Using effective headings makes your copy scanned friendly and helps breakup
simple text. Headings organize your thoughts into a logical outline, which
improves the quality of your writing.
Bullets and list

Helps break up the text and allows for easy scan by search engines. Avoid using
BIG words. It’s important that your users don’t have to interpret your copy. Your
writing needs to be clear, concise and easy to understand. Bullets and list
provide that.
Contact Information

Don’t make your users search for you. Incorporate your contact information on
every page.

5. How to Make an Active
Website and Relate to Users

6. Making an Active Website
Your website is going to begin with a domain name for
example; abestfriend.ca. If you don't already have
one, make one that is simple, short and obvious to
your industry. Once the domain name has been
approved, you will need a web host provider. You
can Google hosting providers, for example;
http://www.hosting-review.com/canada.shtml?gclid
=cj2llrCzqboCF1amgod6wwACA and find the best
one that will work for you.

7. Relate to Users
The goal is to capture traffic to your website and it’s services.
This is where direct marketing is heavily used to grab the
attention of the visitors. A valuable piece of content or a paid
search ad or recommendations from social media channels, are
just a few ways in which you can obtain qualified traffic.
A landing page is a specific area of your website where traffic is
sent (via links from online advertisements, organic search
results, social media or email) specifically to prompt a certain
action or result. And since a visitor usually lands on a page after
clicking on a link, it’s important that the links you use to send
traffic to your website is relevant to what that person is looking
for. Once on your landing page, it’s basically a tactic of one-onone selling so if it’s not what people are looking for, you are
likely to get a low conversation.

8. Best Practice to Redevelop
a Website
A truly effective web site reflects not
only the image
of the business, but also its objectives

9. Update your Website
Study your site, find out what is working
and needs to be improved. Are you using
Keywords? Do you have media social
links and if so are they useful to your
consumers? Does your website have a
flow to make it user friendly.

10. A Best Friends Cleaning Service
Website
Here is a good example; http://
www.abestfriend.ca/ website
was created 13 years ago and
as such has never been
updated. When you first look
at it, you can see the writing
which is detailed, resulting in a
loss of interest. Additionally
the writing is an image and
because it is an image and not
text it cannot be scanned by
search engines, which
eliminates A Best Friend
website from popping up on a
organic Google search.

11. Make the Site More User
Friendly

12. www.abestfriend.ca
STEP ONE
Our first step was to view the current
website to see what worked and what
didn’t work. Without hesitation the
website was too busy. At that point I
decided to change the layout of the site
to make it cleaner, tighter and modern.
Additionally it was decided by the
business owner and myself to create a
layout that match the style of the
business cards and company vehicles.
After the web page layout design was
complete, I created a landing page that
was easy to navigate. I did this by
making key links at the top of the web
page and included a short and simple
content in the body. I added additional
links which were "quotes" and
“testimonials". Both features add value
to a website allowing consumers to
efficiently and effectively connect with the
business resulting in a sale.

13. www.abestfriend.ca
STEP TWO
The verbiage was extremely
detailed and repetitive. It
was imperative that who a
Best Friend was and what
services they provided was
not lost in the
summarization of text. Our
goal was to shorten the text
eliminate redundancy and
keep the viewers interest to
continue through the site. At
the same time I ensured
that key words were used to
allow the site for easing
scanning by search
engines.

14. www.abestfriend.ca
Step Three
I created a simplified and
streamlined look with a
black/white theme that
supported the companies
new business cards and
vehicle signage. It is
aesthetically pleasing
modern, crisp, clean and
tight. The redesign
represents the corporate
brand and presents
themselves as
professionals which is
exactly the image the
company is wanting to
portray.

15. Good vs. Bad Design

16. BAD
To the right is a screenshot
for WeighMax. This website
was on a list of bad
designs. You can see the
site is not cohesive. The
text is very hard to read.
There is not enough
contrast between the text
and the background. The
graphics feels like clipart
with the colour overlays.

17. GOOD
The website was
redesigned. It is much
easier to navigate, giving
you 3 points of reference
to choose. The layout
keeps important features
above the fold and the
colour is not
overpowering. Their
redesign definitely
represents the corporate
brand and presents
themselves as
professionals.

18. Incorporating Social Media

19. Twitter, Facebook, Deal Sites



Consumers are searching for
details through social media.
Following companies through
social media allows you to
create full exposure to update
on services, changes in
consumer product and
seasonal specials.
Incorporate your social media
links to your site.
Look into deal sites such as
Groupon – these can work
very well for business if the
right balance is found. They
bring in new business and
create repeated customers.