(If you're reading the "ultra-short tips" series for the first time, these are the tips I send out every second week to give you a break from the in-depth stuff)

I'm typing these lines on my sister's-in-law PC 7000 km (almost 5000 miles) away from home while waiting for my darling laptop to get repaired from the water I spilled on it.

Things I learned this week:

• Don't put your laptop just like that in your backpack if you're planing to put a water bottle there as well.
• Typing on the phone makes your wrists hurt and raises your stress levels while you keep missing the right letters.
• My blog made a unilateral decision not to show a "leave a comment" section. So, if you wanted to leave a comment on my post from last week on how to get more clients online but couldn't, my apologies. I fixed it now, so if you still remember what you wanted to say, please do. Your comments always brighten up my day.

Things you are going to learn this week:

• Contrast ratio - a scientific way to find out if people have problems reading your text.
• Why your website should be 80% like everyone else's (no kidding).
• How to make sure you aren't applying all those website tips and tricks on a cracking iceberg.

Let's do this.

Tip #1: Mind the contrast ratio between your text and background to make sure people can actually read your texts.

How ironic is that: You've been obsessing over your tagline, header image and page copy but have never checked if people can actually read it with ease.

Given all the overlays, color backgrounds and text on images your website theme allows you to use, it's easy to forget that readability comes first.

And what's readable anyways?

Luckily, there's an objective answer to that called "contrast ratio".

It's defined within Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (now say it fast 3 times in a row 😄) and measures the difference in perceived brightness between two colors - foreground and background.

Aim for contrast ratio over 4.5:1 for normal and 7:1 for large text.

❌ Don't trust your website theme default colors (I've seen them fail this test many times).

✔️ Check the contrast ratio for your text and background using this free online Color Contrast Checker:

✔️ To find out what colors your website uses, install a free plugin called ColorZilla. It lets you find out any color of any website element, be it text, background or an image.

The image below shows some examples of insufficient vs good contrast ratio all the bad examples taken from real websites.

Tip #2: Why your website should be 80% like everyone else's and only 20% different.

Ok, I admit, I made the 80/20 ratio up. But the bottom line is indeed this: Your website should largely resemble other websites in your niche (whaaat?!).

Let me explain.

Your website won't be the first ever website your prospects see in their lives. Moreover, it won't be the first website they see *in your niche*.

So, when they think, for example, "copywriter", they already have a mental image of what a copywriter's website should look like.

This is called "prototypicality" - a mental image your brain creates to categorize stuff.

If something is prototypical (i.e. matches the mental image people have for this category), it's easier to understand and use.

Which means:

1. If your website has the similar look and structure as other websites in your niche, your visitors will have less trouble using it.
2. Plus, prototypical feels familiar, and familiarity evokes trust.
3. Pluuuus, people shop/hire by comparison. And if your the websites of your competitors has some particular info about their team or offer and yours doesn't, you aren't going to win that comparison.

Not sure what's prototypical for your niche?

Check out your competitors' websites and note:

• How many colors / what color palettes they use
• How many / what pages are in their navigation
• How's the homepage structured
• Do they use real photos, etc.

Here's a real-life example:

A couple of weeks ago, I was reviewing a website of a law firm in London. As I always do, I asked them to provide a couple of links to the websites of their competitors.

When I checked those websites, I noticed that they all used at least a couple of photos of their lawyers on their About page. But "my" firm didn't. If I was a potential client this would ring some alarm bells.

"What are they hiding? Are they even real people?"

Ok, maybe with less drama, but still. If your competitor's website looks as good as yours but they show their face and you don't, guess whom your prospect is going to contact?

It's possible, your visitors expect things from your website it's not providing. Or, if it looks too different, they don't feel like they can trust you. So make sure to check other websites in your niche and be "prototypical".

Tip #3: Don't be that Ice Age squirrel. It's not fun in real life.

Have you seen Ice Age 2? There is a moment when that crazy prehistoric squirrel rams her nut in an iceberg, and the iceberg starts breaking.

He tries to plug the holes with water shooting out of them, but at some point there are just too many holes, and the iceberg collapses.

That's you applying website tips and tricks to something that isn't whole.

But let me tell you a story first:

When I got this inquiry with no capital letters, missing punctuation and quite some typos, I thought nothing good could come out of this. But I replied, and what followed was a great lesson.

Jim was a contractor running a family-own business. He wanted me to review his website.

He wrote the copy himself, so I was prepared for the worst when I checked it out.

But boy, was I wrong.

Sure, it was wordy, had typos and was packed into never-ending paragraphs. But it was a valuable conversation.

He asked questions, mentioned real benefits and empathized with his prospects the way only a person who knows his business and clients in and out could do.

And here's where Jim is better than you - a real copywriter, someone who took writing courses or had an A in English:

He knows his product and he knows what his clients need. Not from some generic niche research but because he's been doing it for 18 years.

And you can't quickly google that.

So, before you apply all that AIDA-shmaida or quick tips and tricks, ask yourself / your client the following questions:

• What is this?
• How is it being sold?
• Why should people buy it?
• Who'll benefit most from it?
• What's important for the prospects when they decide to buy this?

Because otherwise, there won't be enough plugs for the holes in your copy.

Seriously, just take a piece of paper and write the answers to these questions, and you start creating better sales pages, better blog posts and better social updates.

I know it sounds like a pain in the butt and something totally boring. But I'm afraid without it you would be no better than that prehistoric squirrel trying to close the holes on an iceberg that is about to collapse.

***

This would be all from me for the week.

Warm greetings,

Gill

Disclaimer: This email may contain typos, and I'm fine with them because cloning humans is, unfortunately, still impossible. Spending more time proofreading my emails would mean I'll have to share fewer tips with you. And sharing more and better tips is more important to me than sharing tips that are grammatically perfect. I hope that's fine with you, too.