Writing Landing Page Copy That Converts

Changing Your Landing Page Copy Can Often Double Your Conversion Rate

"How users read on the Web: they don't" was the title of a 1997 report by Web Expert Jakob Neilsen PH.D.. He found -

How Users Read on the Web

They don't.

People rarely read Web pages word by word; instead, they scan the page, picking out individual words and sentences. In research on how people read websites we found that 79 percent of our test users always scanned any new page they came across; only 16 percent read word-by-word. (Update: a newer study found that users read email newsletters even more abruptly than they read websites.)

As a result, Web pages have to employ scannable text, using

• highlighted keywords (hypertext links serve as one form of highlighting; typeface variations and color are others)
  
• meaningful sub-headings (not "clever" ones)
  
• bulleted lists
  
• one idea per paragraph (users will skip over any additional ideas if they are not caught by the first few words in the paragraph)
• the inverted pyramid style, starting with the conclusion
  
• half the word count (or less) than conventional writing
  

We found that credibility is important for Web users, since it is unclear who is behind information on the Web and whether a page can be trusted. Credibility can be increased by high-quality graphics, good writing, and use of outbound hypertext links. Links to other sites show that the authors have done their homework and are not afraid to let readers visit other sites.

Users detested "marketese"; the promotional writing style with boastful subjective claims ("hottest ever") that currently is prevalent on the Web. Web users are busy: they want to get the straight facts. Also, credibility suffers when users clearly see that the site exaggerates.

The "inverted pyramid" style eh? Where readers can get the gist of the story from the beginning - 'Who,' 'when', 'where', 'what' and 'how' are addressed in the first paragraph. Hmmm...did I do it here?

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Jakob Nielsen has been called:

* "the king of usability" (Internet Magazine)
* "the guru of Web page usability" (The New York Times)
* "the next best thing to a true time machine" (USA Today)
* "the smartest person on the Web" (ZDNet AnchorDesk)
* "the world's leading expert on Web usability" (U.S. News & World Report)
* one of the top 10 minds in small business (FORTUNE Small Business)
* "the world's leading expert on user-friendly design" (Stuttgarter Zeitung, Germany)
* "knows more about what makes Web sites work than anyone else on the planet" (Chicago Tribune, March 6, 2000)
* "one of the world's foremost experts in Web usability" (Business Week)
* "the Web's usability czar" (WebReference.com)
* "the reigning guru of Web usability" (FORTUNE)
* "eminent Web usability guru" (CNN)
* "perhaps the best-known design and usability guru on the Internet" (Financial Times)
* "the usability Pope" (Wirtschaftswoche Magazine, Germany)
* "new-media pioneer" (Newsweek)

If you've read this far you can check out the full report Here at Useit.com