Why do words matter?

If you're selling online, you probably know the answer to this--words stand in for the salesperson. Unfortunately, words can't qualify the customer and adapt to their needs on the fly. This makes what and how you write at least as important as any other element of how you market your products online. Seems obvious, but few online retailers really pay attention to the quality and function of the words used to persuade visitors to buy from their website. I find the following attitudes nearly everywhere:

"The admin can do it when he's not answering the phone"

No, he can't. Writing words that both persuade someone to part with their money and contribute to your site's visibility is a specialized skill that takes years to develop.

"I can just use copy the manufacturer provides"

Well, it's certainly better than nothing, but not much. Manufacturers who move product through a retail channel are focused on their customer (the retailers or reps), and the words they use reflect that bias--filled with industry-centric jargon, and more about reminding the retailer what they've bought than convincing a consumer to buy. This will not give you a competitive edge

There are many other reasons to think hard about the words you're using to close sales on your website. One great resource I recommend is the Grokdotcom newsletter from the folks at Future Now. They are all about conversion, and the role of words in persuading people to buy.

Well-Written SEO Copy?

Is it possible to write persuasive copy that also gets you noticed in search engines? Of course. Is it worth doing? Absolutely. Are large SEM firms routinely providing this to clients? Uh, no.

I'm thinking of one company in particular, one of the biggest players in the industry, who seems to take a "path of least resistance" approach to SEO copy. This means they find a few good keywords in Wordtracker, jam them into collections of words that might be called sentences, and call it a day. Here is a one sentence sample, currently live on the web:

Is your living room shaped where it's hard to fit a lot of furniture in it?

Some of you are thinking that sentence doesn't look too bad. You may stop reading now. For the rest of you (if there are any), my point is this--good writing should always trump jamming keywords into sentences. Don't let SEM firms write copy for you unless they have demonstrated that they actually understand what good copywriting is.