by Scott Flood, Brand Acceleration Writer
Many people have an aversion to repetition in marketing communications. At times, repeating yourself isn’t a good thing, such as when you’re writing a blog post or an ad and you need to make a quick impact. Or when you’re writing something like an ad or a blog post. Oops. In those situations, you have a limited amount of time to interact with your reader and can’t afford to waste it.
But websites … now, they’re a different animal. Most people will go through an ad, a blog post, or a brochure in a linear, start-to-finish process, but will navigate through websites with specific goals in mind. They’ll drill right down to the information they’re after without even a glance at the rest of your site. They may read only one page in twenty – but what’s on that page is what’s important to them. Repeating website copy also helps search engines rank a website, pushing it up in the search rankings.
That’s why having some repetition on your website can be more effective, particularly if you’re trying to convey something that’s very important or a key differentiator. Don’t assume that every visitor will peruse every page of the site, because they won’t. Instead, develop copy as though they’ll only look at one page. That’s how most people use sites these days. They’ll never notice your repetition, but they’ll come away with your message.
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