How to Promote Your Organizing Business with Effective Web Content
This page may contain links to Amazon.com or other sites from which I may receive commission on purchases you make after clicking on such links. Read my full Disclosure Policy
If your plans for growing your business include a new website or a revamp of your existing site, there are many questions for you to consider. One of the most important elements of your website is your content.
It’s a great idea, especially if you’re new to the organizing profession, to look at other professional organizer websites for inspiration. Seeing what others have done can give you a good sense of the type of information to include on your own site. You might even see one and think,
I offer the exact same services as this organizer. I’m sure they won’t mind if I use the same wording. After all, we’re hundreds of miles apart, so it’s not like I’ll be taking away business from them.
Guess again! Even though technology makes it easy for us to simply copy and paste text and images from other websites, it’s no different than a student copying information out of a book and submitting it to the teacher as their own work. It’s both unethical and illegal. Furthermore, technology also increases the likelihood that you’ll get caught, potentially damaging your reputation or even having your website taken offline by your hosting company.
Taking that text and mixing it up a bit isn’t enough. According to Wikipedia,
Plagiarism is not only the mere copying of text, but also the presentation of another’s ideas as one’s own, regardless of the specific words or constructs used to express that idea.
In other words, your web content needs to be original. As it should! You may not be the only professional organizer in the world, or even the only one in your town, but you are the only YOU.
At a minimum, it should answer the following questions:
- What services do you offer?
- What areas do you serve?
- Who is your ideal client? How will they benefit from working with you?
- What are your qualifications?
- Do you belong to any organizations?
And most importantly,
- What makes you different from your competition?
When writing your content, be sure to include the keywords and phrases that people are most likely to use when searching for your business online, but remember, it’s more important to write for human visitors than for search engines spiders. We’ve all seen websites that were so heavily laden with keywords that it was a challenge to understand the actual message. That’s a surefire way to get people to leave your site in a hurry!
Keep in mind that when gathering information online, most people prefer browsing over reading. You should therefore avoid dense blocks of text and instead use a combination of lists and short paragraphs.
I know some excellent copywriters, and I’ll be happy to connect you with one, but if you’d rather do it yourself, it will be worth your while to read Authority Hacker’s extensive guide to SEO Copywriting. It’s pretty detailed, but writing the content for your website is too important to just throw something together and hope for the best!
This post was originally published in 2011 and has been updated.
Did you find this post helpful?
Share it with your network, and sign up to get new posts by email every week!
Join the Conversation
I recommend...
Thanks for the great information and tips for my website I check it all the time to find ways to make it better.
Michelle
Thanks, Michelle! Your website is coming along very nicely!
I like that statement that “When you know what something is supposed to say, that’s what your mind sees, whether it actually says that or not.” How often do we all run into this dilemma when proofreading?! A great reminder to get another set of eyes to look at our work. Thanks for sharing!
One of my friends ways it’s easier to spot your errors if you read the text backwards. I’ve never tried it myself, but I guess when you lose the natural flow, mistakes are more likely to jump out at you.
This is an excellent reminder. Our businesses all have common elements, but be yourself! I think readers relate more when we speak and write our own ideas in our own words. Isn’t it interesting that people browse more than they read? Not sure this is a good thing, but it is certainly true!
It is! Do you think it’s because we’re in such a hurry these days, or because reading on screen is different than reading a printed page?
Janet- As always, you’ve shared such sage advice. And while this post is from 2011, it’s still pertinent and timely. What I most appreciate is your advice to feature what is truly “you” and unique. As you said, “…you are the only YOU.” And how true that is.
Thanks, Linda! I have to say that you are a shining example of someone whose personality comes through in their writing. After reading your book and your blog, when we finally had the chance to meet in person, I felt like I already knew you!
What a great reminder! I completely reworked my website a year ago but haven’t revisited the copy much since then. I thinks it’s time. Also when I redid the website, I did browse other Organizers sites, not so much to get ideas on things I liked, but rather to find things I didn’t like and wanted to avoid.
I love that idea, Andi! Identifying what we don’t want is a great starting point to deciding what we do want!
Great reminder for people revamping their website too. I love that you mentioned this question: “What makes you different from your competition?” I find that this question should be answered first because it takes a little thought to answer. And, after you determine the answer, deciding the layout of the website and adding the other pages to answer the other questions is a lot easier. Thanks for sharing.
That’s a great point, Sabrina. Clients often want me to create their design first, but I emphasize that the design is there to emphasize your message – not the other way around.
It can be challenging to create or revamp a website. I love the questions you pose as a “way in.” Growth is always in the quality of the questions we ask, and you’ve asked some excellent ones!
Thank you, Linda! I think for many of us, it’s easier to figure something out if it’s presented as a question.