Is your website worth more than '3 seconds'?

You'd give any website 3 seconds, right? Wrong. And worse, 3 seconds may not be enough to sell your product or services.

When I presented a copywritten website landing page copy to a client this week, I confused him. Not on purpose, of course, but I used newspapers as an example for why website photos similarly need captions**.
"But it's a business website, not a newspaper," he said.
Two totally different mediums? Newspapers and webpages are much more alike than you think. The question is, how much do you know about how you read online?
Let's talk about the 3 seconds you give any website.

You read newspapers fast--and how do you read online? Faster.

You have 3 seconds to hook your reader onto your business website. It's true, within 3 seconds of loading your homepage, most readers have already decided what they are going to do with you, your website, and your company. What do you want your website visitors to think:
a) "This site is too hard to read, I'm outta here!"
b) "This site looks OK, maybe I'll bookmark it for later." (You probably wouldn't go back, will they?)
c) "This is exactly what I'm looking for, how do I call them, or sign up?"

Now putting your best foot forward in business no longer just means "graphic design" or "having a website."

To put your best foot forward in 2010 business (SMEs especially!)--you need copywritten content. Copywriters* make sure your website visitors think "C" every time.  So, with copywritten content on your webpage, more people will call your business; and you'll sell more of your service or product.
** Captions are those little descriptive lines of text that you see below photos in a newspaper. Captions tell you why this particular photo is important enough to accompany the text.