Don’t use large words but opt for strong verbs over weak ones. Use active voice instead of a passive one. i.e. Instead of “a good score was achieved by team”…say “the team scored a season high”. Speak “to” but not “at” your visitor. Keep your sentences short and snappy.

7. Include searchable keywords – use targeted keywords in your web copy that will allow search engines to find your site. Include these keywords in your meta tags, links and file names also.

8. Eliminate fluff - don’t waffle on in your writing. You will only bore your visitors and they will click elsewhere. Try to remove filler sentences that contain phrases like “for those of you” and “all of you”.

9. Proof read your web copy – errors in your web copy give impression of being unprofessional or sloppy. Read copy aloud to yourself or get someone else to proof read it. Often they will find more errors because they are more objective.

Use spell checker but don’t rely on it. Often it doesn’t pick up all incorrectly spelt words. Print a copy of your content. It’s easier to find grammatical or spelling errors on a hard copy.

10. Take a break – revise your web copy after taking a break from it for several hours or a few days. This allows you to see it from a different viewpoint. You may find a better way to say something to further improve your copy.

11. Use images sparingly – images should only be used if they relate and support your web content. If not, they will only distract visitor from reading your web copy. Too many images will slow down time it takes for your visitor to load your site in their browser.

12. Use effective navigation – your navigation bar should help visitors easily find main sections of your site. Read: "How to Create an Effective Web Site Navigation Structure" (http://www.isitebuild.com/navigation)

Writing effective web copy is key to converting visitors into buyers. Getting 1000s of visitors to your web site doesn't guarantee sales. Reading your web copy should pre-sell your product with words you use. Once you achieve this, your web site will become very profitable.

* The overall taxonomy should be wide, not deep * Use primary terms rather than marketing oriented or slang terms (the goal is to use language that can be understood by a new employee on their first day of work) * Try to keep some rigidity to taxonomy, at least at top levels -- this promotes familiarity for users and enhances usability * Build two taxonomies; primary being functional-centric and secondary being organization-centric underneath functional-centric * Try to limit your structure to just 2-7 items under each branch, otherwise consolidate * Use real content to validate your taxonomy * Define, validate, re-tool, define, validate, re-tool, and so on –- taxonomy development is an iterative process * The structure should be very broad on top and narrow at lowest levels

Remember that taxonomy is a tool to locate content. The best way to verify you have a model that works is to use focus groups to test structure. Ask group where they would expect to find a specific example of content within structure and see if that maps with what you’ve defined. If they keep missing, you need to go back and re-work structure based on their feedback.