There are more than 2 billion websites on the planet. To get readers to stay on yours and to return, you need to offer what nobody else does – or at least in a way that no one else does. That’s a challenge certainly, but it can be done. Simply follow some basic principles of website text.

Your website text should be:
• Unique – Rather than be a copycat of a competitor’s site, you need to present your business by using original wording and descriptions. You may sell the exact same products and even offer the exact same services, but your website is an opportunity to distinguish your business from the rest.
• Useful – Readers come to your site to obtain information. You must then provide the information that the majority of them want so that they’ll stick around, increasing the chances that they’ll then purchase your products or services. Rather than offer vague wording (such as a lot of superlatives), tell them exactly what you offer and why it’s better than the rest. Think about this wording from your readers’ point of view. What do they want to know? Figure that out then provide it.
• Updated – If your website was created even a few months ago, you may need to update it, whether it is because there are new employees whose pictures need to be posted or because prices have changed. Providing outdated information to people makes your business look bad, causing potential customers to think you’re scamming them or less than competent.
• Fresh – Among the worst mistakes businesses make is creating a static website. To keep potential customers coming back to your site and to convince them that you can provide the best services or product, you’ll want to regularly provide new information that demonstrates your expertise and knowledge of the field. A blog with posts two or three times a week is a great way to do this.

In addition, sites that are purely meta-lists, meaning they only provide links to other sites, aren’t a great idea. Despite being easy to build, they offer no original, unique content. Of course, meta-lists can be useful as a component of your website; for example, if your site reviews hiking gear, perhaps you’d provide a list, with links, to businesses that sell backpacks, trekking poles and boots as one of your pages. But if your site primarily is a series of links to other sites, once the reader discovers a great webpage via your meta-list, they may decide not to go back to yours.

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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past decade, I’ve helped more than 300 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the 7 Minutes a Day… writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.