Been sitting at your computer for a while? Need some exercise?
A long time ago, a Yellow Pages advertisement used the slogan “Let your fingers do the walking.” Now you can let your fingers do your exercising by scrolling for a mile. (That web page is a mile long: 6,082,560 pixels at 96 ppi (monitor resolution) = 5,280 feet = 1 mile).
Twenty years ago, web-page scrolling was considered bad design maybe because most folks used slow dial-up Internet and page content had to be kept minimal. As broadband Internet became the norm, longer pages, and scrolling, became popular. Five or six years ago, scrolling went out of fashion maybe because it took too much effort or because people were in too much of a hurry to go below the fold. Today, scrolling is trendy again probably because scrolling is easier and more preferred on mobile devices.
Both the photo pages and blog pages on my web site have several long pages with lots of text. Scrolling is often required on my site. This is intentional and the reasons are:
Improve search engine ranking
Suitable text is absolutely required to improve your search engine ranking. Search engines see text, not photos. If you have little to no text on your site, you lose.
Long-form content tends to attract long-tail searches. Long-form content also tends to increase the number of inbound links and social media shares both of which increase your search engine ranking.
Having lots of useful text increases the quality of a web page. Higher quality pages rank higher in searches. Editorial and informative in-depth content boosts your search ranking:
“…the more text you add to the page, as long as it is unique, keyword rich and relevant to the topic, the more that page will be rewarded with more visitors from Google.”
Give customers lots of information
I’ve had many customers comment favourably on my lengthy web pages. Customers and even non-customers have thanked me for providing so much information. An informed customer is always a good customer because an informed customer is not usually a price shopper.
The hard part is trying to be succinct without being too wordy. How much information is too much?
Certainly you have to respect people’s time. Must customers spend a half hour reading your site? No one has that much time, right?
If you’re trying to sell $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000 worth of photography then you probably need to have a corresponding amount of marketing information. How can you persuade someone to buy $5,000 worth of photography services if you have only a couple of paragraphs?
Compare the marketing used for expensive items to the marketing used for cheaper products. Houses, cars, watches, cameras, cell phones, clothing, shoes, etc. It takes more marketing effort to persuade a customer to spend more money. As a photographer, your marketing effort requires more text not more photos. Yes, it’s ironic.
The more facts you tell, the more you sell. An advertisement’s chance for success invariably increases as the number of pertinent merchandise facts included in the advertisement increases.
– Charles Edwards, former dean, Graduate School of Retailing, New York University.
Filter out price shoppers
Price shoppers usually don’t read long web pages. They just want to see the price and if they can’t, they leave. Long pages scare them away because price shoppers want a number not lots of words.
Web-page visitors either leave a web page quickly or they stay longer. This means the average person will either skim a couple hundred words or, if they’re interested, they’ll read to the end. There’s little middle ground where someone will skim a thousand words or read only halfway.
Price shoppers only want the price. On the other hand, good customers are looking for answers to their “problem” and value for their money. If interested, these customers will read to understand your business offerings. They want to see what’s in it for them.
Also, if you choose your words carefully, you can target and qualify your customers more precisely. Short, casual words or longer, more business-like words? Your text should always appeal to your desired audience rather than anyone and everyone.
I tend to be wordy
Sad but true. Also true is that few other photographers make the effort to write long text. Fortunately this helps me stand out. Longer content builds credibility and trust.
I’ve had businesses call me for general information and advice on a variety of photography matters. A few times, these folks told of problems they had with other photographers and asked what they could do about it. Long content seems to imply expertness. Two of these companies later hired me.
Of course, length has to be balanced with usefulness. You don’t want customers scrolling for no reason.
