Blog

148 power words designed to draw your customers in

by Robin Nobles

We all know how crucial it is to create captivating titles and descriptions for our Web pages. Those titles and descriptions should contain our keyword phrase, of course, but the true value of titles and descriptions is the clickability of them in the search results.

If you take your time to create titles and descriptions that are meant to drag your potential customers kicking and screaming to your Web site, they may skip over listings above yours and choose your site instead.

Prove it to yourself. Search for an important keyword phrase. Study the titles. Are the titles captivating and designed to pull in traffic? Would you click on the #1 result? Or the #4.

Let’s study the current top six results for the keyword phrase “halloween flower arrangements” in Google without quotes. (Note: Understand that Google doesn’t always pull its description from the META description tag. It may pull its description from the ODP or from other areas of the Web page. It also depends on the keyword phrase being searched upon.)

Can you see how you could easily create a better title and description for “halloween flower arrangements” than the ones we studied? Bring emotions into it. Make visitors want to click on that link!

Here’s an example:

Halloween flower arrangements in vibrant colors perfect for your spooky décor (title)
Order distinctive Halloween flower arrangements complete with spooks, goblins, witches, and black cats, intertwined with brilliant orange geraniums, shipped straight to your door. (description)

On to the Site Itself

Once you get visitors to your site, is the heading tag at the top of the page and the first paragraph written in a way to grab the reader’s attention? What words do you use? Are the words trite and overused? Are you painting a vivid picture in the visitor’s mind of the product or service, or are you slapping words on the page to hurry and get the page optimized and in the SERPS? Think about it.

If your heading tag and first paragraph don’t hold the visitor’s attention and direct them into the site, you’ve lost a sale.

Your keyword phrase must be something the potential customer would use when searching for your product or service. That’s mandatory. But beyond that, use muscle words, words with power and authority, to compel your customers into responding. Words are extremely powerful. Use that power – that muscle – in your content.

Let me give you an example.

How many times have you heard the phrase, “think outside of the box.” The first thousand times it was used, it was powerful. Now, it’s overused and rather trite.

What about saying something like, “a crayon box contains more colors than black” instead? It means the same thing, but it’s original.

Another example:

Everyone’s product can’t be the “best” or the “greatest.” There may be a time and place for those words, but try to substitute other words for those definitely overused terms.

What about “one of a kind”? Phenomenal?

Another idea:

Go through your Web site copy. Look for the word “very.” Delete it. If you need to come up with a stronger adjective or verb, do so.

Example:

This very old book is in perfect condition and has been kept in a clear plastic bag to protect it.

Change to:

This antique book . . .
This heirloom book . . .
This museum-quality book . . .

“Perfect” is pretty lame too. Change it to:

flawless

Change “clear” to “sheer.”

Our new sentence would read:

This museum-quality book is in flawless condition and has been kept in a sheer plastic bag to protect it.

Quite a difference, wouldn’t you say?

Let’s come up with a list of muscle or power words you can print out or save to your hard drive, words you can use on your site in your title and description tags along with your keyword phrase, and in your heading tags and your content. These words are descriptive words that draw the potential customer in . . . words that also sell.

Think about it. The words we use now reflect the country (s) and era we live in. We’re concerned about security issues both nationally and internationally as well as on our computer systems.

We’re concerned about the economy, technology, and our health. However, we also have a part of us that holds on to our history and our past, to our childhood, and may we never forget what it feels like to be a child.

We don’t take things for granted. We have blogs that constantly keep the news media on their toes, who turn around and try to keep the politicians on their toes.

All of these things affect the power or muscle words we use on our Web sites in many different ways. Glance over the words above and you’ll see what I mean. It’s a whole new world.

In Conclusion . . .

Try using some muscle, or power, words on your Web site in strategic areas and see how your visitors respond. Put them in a nostalgic mood by using words that evoke those emotions. Then, sell them old CDs or videos they used to watch when they were kids.

Try them in titles and descriptions to increase your clickthrough rate. Put them in your heading tags and content to keep readers more engaged on your Web site.

Don’t let your Web site be dull and boring. Write content that is alive and breathing by using words that are virtually guaranteed to bring your customers into the reality of your Web site.

Copyright 2002-2006 Robin Nobles. All rights reserved.

This work is licensed
under a Creative Commons License.