10 Jul 09 Is Copywriting Important for the Web?

Yes, it is! Who said it’s not? If this is what you think then please go to all those article spinners who think just making 8 or 10 or god knows how much articles using some keywords, some verbs, and some conjunctions are enough to produce a great website.

There are people who think, a good design, a good layout and of course SEO is all it takes to make a good website. Content always comes secondary to the subscribers of this school of thought. They see no value in copywriting until they come to the verge of extinction, and many even do not realize the importance then.

They feel it was something else, not the lack of good content that forced their websites untimely demise. The group that put no value on a well-researched informative content feels, it might be the quality of the central idea on which the website was build that failed them. You bet, it does lead to a sudden death, and so does a badly written website.

We need to understand that users that visit our websites are humans (not just search engine bots) who come to our websites (by whatever means) because he or she is seeking some information of the topic we claim to cover in our websites. For them the clever design, and jaw-dropping technology is just a good to have things, not the things they are looking for. What they are looking for is information, and information can only be delivered via content, not via technology. And here written words along with videos, audios and animations, become important.

Indeed, there is no denial that, people have moved away from reading (active mode of information consumption), and went closer to watching and listening (passive mode of information consumption), nevertheless, they are consuming content only, not the technology. Each one of us, who is not meditating in Himalayas for last hundred years, is aware of the way in which the information consumption has changed.

Much of the contents are now converted into either a video or an audio file, but still there are things that cannot be put into video or audio, and which need assistance of written words to convey the idea properly. Despite the growing popularity of video sharing sites and podcasting, we spent most of the time reading on the Internet.

We might be time starved, and hence, use multimedia contents to help us become multi-tasking, but watching and listening (despite it’s being passive medium of information consumption) are still secondary to reading on the Internet, which is an active mode of information consumption. And did I say, it’s the written words that command more respect and trust then the spoken ones. Always remember, written words sell more products then its spoken counterpart. Hence, quality copywriting is still important.

Tags: Animations, Audios, Central Idea, Clever Design, Conjunctions, Consumption, Denial, Extinction, Himalayas, Hundred Years, Informative Content, Passive Mode, School Of Thought, Search Engine Bots, Spinners, Sudden Death, Untimely Demise, Verbs, Verge, Video Sharing Sites, Website Content