You can't write your web site like a book, where you assume each visitor to your site will visit certain pages, visit pages in a certain order -- or actually read certain pages.  So where do your unique points of differentiation go, to ensure the maximum number of visitors understand why you're different?   Here's a short list:

- Home page, About Us page, every product page, every solution page, your Customer Service page -- in other words, pretty much every page. 

With search dominating Internet usage, virtually any page in your well-optimized site could show up in the organic search results.  So your unique points of differentiation need to be woven into virtually every page.

And as you ramp up your social media efforts, you'll (hopefully) be linking to various pages on your site -- another reason why your unique messaging points need to be virtually everywhere on your site. 

But website visitors rarely (read: almost never) do that.  In fact, website visitors first scan the page they're on -- about 85% of visitors will only scan.

And few (if any) website visitors will visit every page on your site.  It's also true that few will click on each of your menu options in order.

So if you include your key points of differentiation only on your home page -- or maybe on your home page and on your "About Us" page -- but nowhere else, it's highly likely that a huge percentage of your visitors will never learn the answer to the key question, "why should I buy from you?"

That means a large percentage of the money you've spent driving traffic, leads, and potential customers to your site will also be wasted.

So how should website copy be crafted?  And if 85% of visitors are only going to scan, how will they ever learn what you're all about?

What if those few pages featured very little information?   What if the copy really didn't answer the all-important "why should I buy yours?" question (or even the simpler "why should I stay on this site and look around further?" question)?   Wouldn't you think this company wasn't worth your time?

The question of "how much copy is enough copy?" is actually an easy one to answer from a make-the-sale perspective.  Here's the standard we use:

- Say everything you would say to me if you were face-to-face and had to convince me to take the next step.  

You should talk about your brand look and feel with your web strategy team.  And you should review the look, feel, and elements of competitive sites.

You might provide examples of some web sites that you like.  It's useful for you to review with your web strategy team exactly what you like about each site -- is it the overall visual look of the site, do you  find the navigation particularly easy to use, do you like the use of video or Flash on the site, etc.

It will be important to talk about what strategy might be appropriate for the type of site you need, if the sites you provide as examples aren't the same type of site you're looking to create.  You'll want to talk about logical elements of the site that should be included.

And it will be critical for all to understand the types of target customers -- or personas -- the site will be built for.

So we'll assume your web team understands the brand image you wish to create online, what elements of other sites you like, what elements should be included in the site, and who your target personas are.  And they've proposed a web strategy for your site, in terms of navigation and specific elements to be included.  Now you're ready for some design concepts -- what could go wrong?

When last we left Company C, they had hired a web design firm that focused on great Flash effects to create an e-commerce site. ( Yes, someone should have seen this train wreck coming, but they didn't . . .).

The web design firm created an all-Flash site that was supposed to sell.  Unfortunately, the resulting site was frustrating to visitors.  The all-Flash menu system kept disappearing.  Visitors had no idea where they were within the site.  And the copy panels featured reverse type that was very dim -- until you figured out that you had to move your mouse over the copy to "brighten" it and make it readable (no, I'm not making this up). 

Flash can be a wonderful tool to make a web site come alive and dazzle and involve visitors.  But web designers need to use Flash in the right places -- Flash, essentially, needs its own strategy.

Company C told the web design company they wanted a site modeled after the Prada site.  The web design company was experienced at creating visually beautiful web sites with lots of Flash effects.  Unfortunately, they weren't very experienced at developing the right web strategy for each client. 

The resulting site draws the eye away from the copy and focuses on the visuals.  The visitor can't always locate the navigation.  And there is no way to tell what area of the site you're actually in.  

But beyond the visual,  there is no clear point of differentiation to make the visitor want to spend money on this premium -- and unknown -- product.  How did this happen?

"When we started the project, we told the web designers we wanted a site similar to the Prada site."

And so, the project began, seemingly without thinking about whether the overall approach of the Prada site made sense for Company "C".  The web design company was experienced in creating sites in Company "C"'s industry.  What could go wrong?

Who would have thought that copying the overall look of another site, without thinking through your own strategy, could be a recipe for disaster . . .

"Think of every page on your site as a book."

When you pick up a book, you read the book title.  Then you might read the short description on the back of the book.  Then you might browse the table of contents to see what the chapters are about.   This, suggested the speaker, gives the SEO copywriter a great analogy for writng SEO tags for every web page.

Have you recently checked your ranking for your most important keywords -- and then checked out what all of the sites ranked above you are doing in terms of SEO?   SEO isn't a "set it up once and forget it" effort -- it should be addressed at least monthly.

What about your keywords themselves?   Have you checked their search volume lately?   Have you looked to see what other keywords may be hot right now and generatng more search volume?  

Selecting the keywords your site will focus on is now a much more far-reaching decision that it has been in the past.  Every press release you send out, every blog post you make, every Twitter tweet you make -- all should be supporting those keywords on which you focus.

"One effective technique when you have a lot of information on a web page is to organize it into 'chunks.'"

"When testing various search engine pay-per-click programs, you should always allocate some funds for 'exploring' new options."

Speakers at an online marketing conference made these web marketing "best practices" pronouncements.  But is this anything new?   Aren't these the same "best practices" that direct marketers have been using for decades in magazine ads and direct mail?

Unfortunately, I had no idea what the answer was to any of the 7 Riddles.  No phone number or web address appeared on the 7 Riddle pages.  So I tossed the mailer in frustration.  Why would such a creative package fall apart when it came to Offers?

" . . . Architectural Digest's new marketing website . . ."

To the average consumer, what does a "marketing website" mean?   It's likely not a positive connotation, and may actually prevent readers from visiting the site, as most consumers don't want to be marketed to.

Can we help Architectural Digest with some better copy?   I'd suggest they:  1) Get some "you" into this copy;  2) stop talking about "advertisers" and start talking about more of a product source list (readers could care less about "advertisers", they only care about where they can find products);  3) include the hottest features of the site that actually work; and 4) be as specific as possible about the benefits to the visitor:

"Instant Getification" (from search engine Ask, in a TV campaign)

"Instant Grassification" (from Marathon Sod)

"Haunt Couture" (Grandinroad catalog on the Halloween costumes page)

These humorous headlines work because they're simple concepts, and the audience can quickly grasp the meaning of each headline -- as well as the humor.   Another related type of humorous headline:  basing your headline on a familiar phrase.  I recently saw this effective headline in a women's magazine:

"It was a dark and puffy morning" (for Neutrogena eye concealer)

It you're going to try to build humor into your headlines, be sure you use simple concepts.  Humor in advertising works best when the target audience doesn't have to work hard to "get" your meaning.

Every word should be there for a reason in your copy.  Have you ever really listened to the words of some of the current television ads? 

A #10 window envelope from Thawte caught my eye, with its purple envelope flap above the return address area.  The BACK of the envelope (uh oh) features a cool cartoon look.  See how this direct mail package rates on these Direct Mail Moments of Truth, and what we can learn from this mailing: