Designing your website can be mind-boggling to say the least but when it comes to writing the text, sometimes that can just take you clear over the edge! It's difficult to figure out what to say, how much to say, and what wording to use to say it.

The easiest thing for you to do when your faced with this dilemma is to search around for similar sites and figure out what things attract you to those sites and what things turn you off. Chances are that these are similar reactions from most people, so search through with an open mind and take
notes.

I will list my 10 top items that I look for and try to accomplish when designing websites.

1. One really big difference in writing effective text for the internet and a printed book or article is the format it's written in. ALWAYS give the conclusion of your copy first!

Most people only stay on a site for a split second and if they don't see something that grabs their attention immediately, they are off to another site before you can even blink your eyes! Give them a reason to read further and see what all you have to offer. For example, if you're giving away something (this ALWAYS grabs attention), then put in FREE in caps and what they can get. If it's something that will interest them - they will want to read the rest of your text to see how to get something free.

Use bullets for highlights and keep wording to a minimum. Only write what is absolutely necessary! If they are interested, they will want to read more in depth. Remember that most visitors will glance at a page, scan quickly and move on unless something grabs them quick!

2. This doesn't really have a direct correlation with 'writing' effective text but is one of my biggest pet peeves online!

Make sure that your text and items are clearly visible, easy to see and easy to read! Not everyone has a computer monitor exactly like yours, so if you create a page with a dark background - just because it's easy to see on your monitor - it may appear as a big dark blob on someone else's. The last thing you want to do is drive everyone away.

And, that's what you'll be doing if visitors can't see the items or read the text well. It can give people eyestrain and headaches when text is too bright or too small also. So keep all this in mind when you start to work.

3. Along the same idea as #2, keep graphics to a minimum and make sure that they aren't too large. If you need a picture to get an idea across - by all means use it!

Try to stay away from flash pages though unless there is a good reason to have one! There is nothing more annoying, especially on a dial-up connection, than to get to a site and wait, only to find out that you have to click again and wait longer to even get to the main page!

Stay away from 'falling' graphics too. These can be distracting and annoying to a lot of visitors and have no connection to what you want them to see.

4. Formatting pages... Try to keep all your pages of similar design. This lets the visitor know that they are still on your site. If all your pages are created differently, they will get confused as to where they are or even what they were looking for.

5. Show and use product pictures but keep them small so that the page loads quickly. Using thumbnails is a great way to enhance a page. If the visitor wants to see the picture larger, they can click on the thumbnail to do so.

Nothing attracts someone quicker than a picture! But make sure to use visual text also because search engines do not 'read' pictures. You have to tell what the picture is of, or about, to get that text copy to search engines.

6. When writing your text, keep in mind what you would like to know about the product or service. Make sure to include sizes, descriptions, weights, colors, choices if available, length of time it takes to receive, how much the shipping would be, etc.

Remember that you want people to stay interested so keep the wording to the point and try not to repeat yourself. Don't keep saying "This is so cool!" Use only necessary and professional wording about your product or service.

I really hate going to a site and not being able to figure out how much they are going to charge me to ship a product, or something of similar importance that I would want to know. If I'm aware of this information ahead of time, it saves me time and could gain you a sale!

7. Another reason to give detailed descriptions is because many search engines "spider" sites for text. The text is then filed away into their data banks to give search results once entered by surfers as an inquiry.

For example, if you wanted to find information and you go to www.google.com, you might type in 'Personalized Books for children'. This would yield tons of sites offering personalized books and these sites would come up listed in a certain order because they were listed as keywords for those sites, not only in the meta tags area but within the site's descriptions also.

Now say you wanted to find a particular personalized book and typed in 'Personalized Sesame Street Books'. This would again give you many sites but would narrow that search down to a particular type of personalized book. I'm sure you can understand how important the text on the page is. So when you design your page, you would list titles, descriptions, and all the information regarding that product.

You would also list these descriptions up in your meta tag keywords, (ex: 'Personalized Sesame Street Books'). By doing this you have created several ways that your site is now optimized for search engines to find your site if someone types in this string of text as a search.

8. ALWAYS use proper wording and spelling on your website! If this is hard for you have someone else proof read your text. Even once you've read through your text - read it again and again. If you decide on a better way to word something - change it, build on it, and grow your site.

Continue to research for similar sites and figure out what attracts you, what annoys you, etc. It's important to research what the competition is doing but NEVER copy or TAKE someone else's ideas and words. This is copyright infringement and can get you in a lot of legal trouble.

9. Save extremely lengthy descriptions for product pages. Just basically highlight what is within your website on the home page. If something grabs someone's interests, they can click on that item for further details.

10. Your home page should give the highlights of what is within your website, pictures of popular items or best-sellers, sales you may be having, freebies you may be offering etc.

Try not to have links to "other's websites" right at the top of your page or you will be turning all your traffic toward those sites instead of yours first.

Save additional links for the bottom of the page or preferably specific pages within your site designed for links, partners, top sites, etc.