Thread: Does Your Website Turn Customers Away?

DOES YOUR WEBSITE TURN CUSTOMERS AWAY?

Just as personal appearance can be ruined by a shabby pair of shoes a website will lose its impact if the English copy is poor. Website content is often spoiled by schoolboy howler text. Would you trust a service provider who can’t spell? Do your really want your gas–fired heating system fitted, or your wheel nuts tightened by a bloke who hasn’t yet figured out his own language?
Sentences are often far too long and the marketing message quite frankly is cringe-making. The classic example of spoiling a ship for a ha’porth of tar, yet modifying a website’s poorly written content is invariably less than a mere 50€.
Freelance journalist Peter Clayton says: “Many websites are technically excellent but are let down by the poor standard of English text.” Company Director, Alex French agrees: “How guilty are we of disregarding a website for looking cheap and unprofessional no matter what the quality of their product or service?”
Michael Walsh is a freelance journalist. His columns and articles appear in the United Kingdom’s premier lifestyle abroad magazine, A Place in the Sun. He writes for the English-language media from Peñíscola to Cadiz.
Drawing on thirty years of writing and marketing experience he modifies websites to a standard that is easier for English speakers to understand. He is also able to add marketing flair to copy.
By doing so he makes a product or service more appealing to potential clients whilst improving the professional image of a business or service.
Invite Michael Walsh to check your website. If he thinks it is professional and no further attention is needed, he will tell you. If it needs improvement he will explain by example and suggest a modest fee for giving it his attention.

Perhaps you should point this out to the A.H. guy who does the "Spanish news" posts on here - his English is atrocious.

Originally Posted by baldilocks

Perhaps you should point this out to the A.H. guy who does the "Spanish news" posts on here - his English is atrocious.

nearly as bad as his geography--- Gibraltar..an island.... sheesh

Michael, your Avatar looks almost a dead ringer for Dr Desmond Morris

text on websites needs to be "optimised" for the search engines, so quite often the wording is not "wat it oughta be" because they are using "keywords" for the SEO of the page. Do you take this into account?
(ps, there is a spelling error in your ad)

I don't think the problem is keywords. It's about bad grammar, bad spelling, commas in the wrong places. It's about people not realising that writing is a skill and has to be learned and honed and practiced. The net is awash with absolutely abysmal writing. It never ceases to amaze me how people will pay good money for design and pictures and so on, but think they can do the writing themselves rather than pay a professional to do it or at least to edit and polish. It's exactly the same as what we've been saying about translation. If you think a professional is expensive, wait till you try an amateur.
Above all, bad writing is really a form of lack of respect for the customer.
Valerie

Originally Posted by Valerie

I don't think the problem is keywords. It's about bad grammar, bad spelling, commas in the wrong places. It's about people not realising that writing is a skill and has to be learned and honed and practiced. The net is awash with absolutely abysmal writing. It never ceases to amaze me how people will pay good money for design and pictures and so on, but think they can do the writing themselves rather than pay a professional to do it or at least to edit and polish. It's exactly the same as what we've been saying about translation. If you think a professional is expensive, wait till you try an amateur.
Above all, bad writing is really a form of lack of respect for the customer.
Valerie

Hear Hear!

Originally Posted by baldilocks

Perhaps you should point this out to the A.H. guy who does the "Spanish news" posts on here - his English is atrocious.

Hear hear!!!
Valerie

Sorry couldn't resist!!!!!!!!!!!!