Here are some guidelines to write your website content. We ll focus on 5 pages: 1. Home page 2. Store page 3. About You 4. Contact 5. Blog Home page which is the first page of your website, the one that is visible to every visitor but other popular pages will be your blog/articles page and your store where customers can purchase items., 1. The Home Page Here are some guidelines to help you write your home page content: 1. write down 3 or 4 things about yourself that you want people to know about you and how that relates to your message, information, transformation and product. 2. write down 3 or 4 things about your business that you want people to know as soon as they come to your website about how you can serve them or provide them with the support, transformation, or guidance they need 1
3. Now put those two together in 1 or 2 paragraphs so that anyone who reads it will know: Who you are, what you offer (your product) and how you offer it (your services), and the benefits they can get from them. You solve a problem for people what kind of problem do you solve? When clients come to me they will get the they need to _ It seems like a lot to say in a few short paragraphs or sentences but if you make the home page content too long no one will read it, they will just get bogged down in the details. That s why you can direct customers to other pages on your website to learn more about your products and services and the other information you present. The area that is initially visible on the home page, without scrolling down, is the most valuable area on your site. Whatever is in that space should be informative, compelling and entice your customer to visit other areas of your website. Keep this in mind when designing your content this area is called the most valuable real estate on your website. It is also where they should be able to find your subscription box for your newsletter so they can join your mailing list. Your home page content is the first thing that visitors see on your website, and what they see and read will either make them want to see more or move on. You can keep your content short (on most pages) because you can add a Read more link (internet visitors are used to seeing this) that they can click to go to another page in your website to read an expanded version of the content. Be sure to include your photo on the home page if you want to create a connection with your customers. You can include your photo in your header graphic, in which case you do not need it in the content section. Whatever your customer sees in this section of your home page must make them want to read more and visit other areas of your site. A small note here, website pages can be short or long and whatever the visitor sees when they first access the website is the most important part of your website. Anything you want visitors to focus on should be in this section, and that includes any featured items, your newsletter signup box, and the most important content. Your header (the big image on top of the page) will also be included in what visitors see first, so your header should reflect your business and not be so large that it takes too much space, which leaves less room to feature your content, although web design is changing and often the header is a beautiful image with a few words that compel the visitor to check out the rest of the website. 2
Write your content in a simple word document, so you can give it to your developer or copy and paste it from the word document. It is easier to write the content first and then put it into your website template (if you are doing your website yourself) than it is to write the content when you are working on the website. Again, you can use the examples you see from other websites to write your content, just remember to not copy anything directly so you do not violate others copyright. Who I am & my relevant experience and expertise What I offer _ 3
2. The Store Page Accessing your Products & Services What you sell and how customers purchase is featured on your Store page, which is where customers make their purchases. The most important elements on this page are: The description of each product or service, including the price The image associated with each product, i.e. a book cover The payment method for each product or service, your payment button Although we discussed how what you offer is a product and how you offer it as a service, think of services as also including what you would call products such as programs, courses, workshops, events, individual sessions with you, coaching, single or group programs those are all different ways you offer your product (what you offer) to your customers. Some of the things you can sell are workshops live or virtual, courses, audios, videos, ebooks, reports, classes, or physical products such as car parts, handmade toiletry items, things you make, bird feeders, or products from other people. There is no limit to what you can sell on your website. You do not have to offer a large array of products but you will have to sell something because that is how your business brings in revenue, from sales. Start with a few products, including individual coaching, readings, or sessions with you if that is what you are offering. Describe the product and what it does, set a price, and have a payment method so it can be purchased. My Product message, transformation, or information I offer is: _ What customers will purchase from me to access my message, transformation, or information (this is the service ) Write a short description, not more than 2 sentences, to describe each item, and that is what you ll put on your page when you have items to sell. 4
Each of these is important and will let the customer know what they are buying and how much it costs. If you are selling a book, your listing will include a small image of the book cover, your graphic artist can provide this for you, a short description that can open into another page with a longer description, how much the product or service costs and a payment button that customers can click to purchase the item. You can use images to highlight a product. You can hire someone to create the image for you, a great resource is fiverr.com Or you can create your own on a graphics site like canva.com The description can be short, as mentioned above, with a link to a longer description that opens on another page. Try to write a one or two sentence description that is intriguing enough so customers want to read more. We ll discuss payment methods in Module 4 but if you want to explore some options you can begin with paypal, a secure and widely used payment processor, www.paypal.com, that provides easy to use code and formatting for its buttons. Your customers will be familiar with Paypal and will know how to use it. A more professional option is a shopping cart, which has more features, such as product bundling, coupon codes, sales & discounts and affiliate programs. If customers do not want to use a credit card, and you are willing to accept a check or money order, explain that policy towards the bottom of the page or somewhere in the general description on this page. This can be a section on the bottom of the page that indicates your shipping policy (if necessary), refund policy and accepted payment types. If you do not have products but have Services, such as coaching, consulting, counseling or other services that you deliver either in person or on the phone, you can set up your payment information in the same way, by providing the name of the service, a description and a payment button. You can also include a Read More link or a Testimonials link that customers can click to read a more detailed description or testimonials from other customers. NOTE: Use testimonials with permission and keep them anonymous unless you have specific permission to use the customer s name. You can use initials and a city or country, or a first name. But be sure to get permission, in writing, to use a customer s testimonial. You can send them an email and then keep their reply. 5
3. The About You Your Bio & Credentials On this page you provide your photo and information about you, your product/message, and some history about you. This is your personal testimonial about your business and page, where you provide a biography and information about who you are and what you do. How you write this depends on how you want your customers to perceive you. You can have a personal, chatty tone or a more professional tone, depending on the message you want to give to your customer. Include your personal story of how you started in your business if this is appropriate and fits in your business type. If there are any credentials that customers should know about, such as degrees or certifications, also put those on this page. You don t need credentials unless you are in a profession that requires them. Your personal experience and expertise are your primary credentials and your customers will want to know how you relate to their situation whether you have the life experience that allows you to relate to them and the achievement that you can share with them. You can also include publications you have written or written for, with links to articles, and any other information you feel may be important to your viewers and customers. Include a photo on this page so your customers can see who they are interacting with and this personalizes your bio. You can also include a photo of your office or work space, if appropriate, and photos and bios of your staff, if you have them. If you are not sure of what to write, read the About Me or bio pages of others in your industry or those who provide some of the same products and services you do. From these pages you can get an idea of the tone and style you may want to use in your own bio information. Remember to not copy their information, use it as an example. This is another page that you could to post testimonials on, just remember to get permission and make them anonymous unless you have specifically asked for and received permission to use the client s or customer s name. 6
The Contact Us page This page lets customers know how to contact you and is often the last page of a website. This can include a form that they can complete or an email link. You can include your telephone number and address, if appropriate. Also include where you are located, as there are multiple time zones in the U.S. and around the world. If your customers call you from a different time zone, they need to know where you are to make the time zone calculation. You can use a form that asks for information too, such as what areas customers want to address in their contact, and a text box for comments. You can tell your website developer to limit the text box to a certain number of characters so your customers do not send pages of commentary in their request. An email link is not a contact format that customers like or appreciate (I know I don t). Use this page to personalize the contact form so your customers have some idea that their comment or contact has been acknowledged. If you use a form, once it is submitted the customer can receive a thank you page that lets them know their comments have been sent. If you have an office or physical office space, this page should include the address, including city, state and country, hours of operation, and phone number. Be sure to include your time zone with your hours, especially if you do not have a physical office but do take customer calls. You can include a small map and a link to a mapping website, such as Mapquest or Yahoo, so customers can get directions to your place of business. Does your Contact page create the image that you are interested in hearing from your customers? Do you make it easy for them to contact you and know their comments have been received? And remember that you have to respond to customer contact, so be sure to put your response policy on your contact page. For example, you can put a statement that emails will be answered in 24 hours or the next business day if received on weekends. This lets customers know that you are going to read and reply to their comments and when they can expect a response. 7
Your Blog Page We will discuss blogs in Module 6 Marketing & Promotion in greater detail but it is a page you can start planning now and even begin to write content for. This page will be updated frequently and that should be part of your website management plan. Your customers will learn to visit this page to read new, interesting information, testimonials, affirmations or other information that you post on this page. Your newsletter can link articles to this page so customers can visit your website from your newsletter (this is what I have done with my newsletter for 15 years and it is very successful). Since you know this will be the most visited page of your website, after your Home page, make it informative, easy to read and use it to feature a new product or service regularly. How often do you update this page? Plan this out now because if your customers become accustomed to visiting your blog page every week, as you post new messages or articles, they will expect to find new information there when they visit it. In fact, they will remember to visit it to read the new information before you tell them to. So do not overextend yourself by teaching your customers to visit this page often if you do not think you can update this page regularly. Although you should be doing this, it s how you connect with your customers. This page can be a link from your Home page, where you feature new information or articles with a few opening sentences and then a Read More link that takes customers to this page. Don t worry that people won t know how to do that, most will and have done so on other sites. The internet has been around for a while and people are fairly knowledgeable with the different ways to navigate around websites. What articles could you write about, starting now, that teach and inform prospects and customers about your product, the information and transformation that you offer them? Write in a conversational style that tells a story, shares details of your life (another very effective marketing strategy) and lets them know you relate to their issues or problems and have solutions for them. How often will you write a blog post or article (I suggest 1 article every 7 to 10 days and smaller updates in between if you do not like to write) Write down a few blog or article topics here and start writing. 8
Other Pages You are not limited to just five pages on your website, it can have as many pages as you like. Some websites have hundreds of pages. But remember that what you build must also be maintained and updated regularly. Your customers will visit your site and they want to see new information, new products and services, and updated material. So do not commit to a website that you do not have the time and/or money to maintain over the long term. Other pages could include a membership section, special download pages, sales pages and short term pages that are live during the time you are promoting a product or service. There are many different ways to design a website, talk to your website designer about what you want on yours and approach any website design process with an idea in mind of what you want. Learn more by visiting other sites to get ideas and see what others are doing. Remember that you cannot copy their specific content, as that violates copyright law, but you can get ideas for your own layout, colors, and elements by seeing what others are doing on their websites. Remember to send questions to support@enlighteninglife.com I am here to support your business success! Jennifer Hoffman Founder,, your Expert Source for Business Advice, Resources & Training Gpsbusinessacademy.com Founder Enlighteninglife.com, your Expert Source for Life Transformation & training to have a rich, happy & successful life Enlighteninglife.com Remember to send your questions to support@enlighteninglife.com 9