Do you want to know how to create website copy that isn’t boring? This is the place for you.
You’re familiar with the excitement and nerve-wracking nature of writing copy for websites.
It’s an exciting dream for a copywriter to put all your brilliant ideas back and forth. Writing copy for product pages and homepages is a pressure job.
It can be your company’s storefront, brochure, pricing guide, and billboard all in one. It serves many purposes and is more permanent than other types, so many opinions exist on how to approach web copy.
Do you want your copy to be sales-focused? Is it for your primary customer or all of your target audience? Do you want to be bold or safe? Are you using enough keywords for your SEO goals?
The answers to these questions will depend on your brand and the best approach for your business. There is no one “right” way to write website copy. Some rules will help you create great content.
What is website copy?
Website copy refers to the words that you use on your homepage, about page, product pages, and other high-level pages of your website.
It includes the headlines, subheaders, and body copy, as well as CTAs. Website copy can be any words that you use on your website, even if they are not part of your content marketing or blogs.
How to write website copy
1. Consider that visitors may not be able to read all of the content.
Your website visitors won’t be able to read every word. Although it can be difficult to accept, even though you spend hours analyzing every word and crafting each sentence perfectly, the truth is there. Writing for skimmers can make you more efficient.
Use the inverted pyramid method to ensure your audience is aware of the most important information on your site.
This system organizes ideas according to their importance. Prioritize the most important details, then read on to context and supplementary information.
This style of writing will allow visitors to get enough information to comprehend what you do, even if they don’t read every word.
2. Keep it simple and clear.
Website copy should be concise and easy to read. Web pages are much more concise than blog posts and reports, which can provide varying amounts of space for you to elaborate on an idea.
You can pack a punch by prioritizing clarity and being efficient with your words..
You don’t need to worry about losing the attention of a reader if you make your message clear and concise. The visitor will be able to follow the story and reach a conclusion.
Keep your sentences short and use simple grammatical structures. It is much easier to follow than long, winding sentences.
Do: Transactional emails usually have a high open rate.
Don’t: Transactional emails have a higher open rate than other types of emails and lower unsubscribe rates.
Once you feel you have clarity in your writing, you can add personality and nuance.
The idea is not to reverse the process: writing copy that’s too complicated at first and then trying to make it understandable.
3. You can edit your life in a way that is completely unorthodox.
You can be your toughest critic, and you should try several approaches before you settle on the final website copy.
A first draft is a good idea to get all your ideas down on paper. Next, review the first draft and ask yourself if you really need every word or section. Don’t be afraid if there isn’t a compelling reason to keep it. You can always add to it later.
Be suspicious of clever phrases and 10-cent words that you love the most. These phrases and 10-cent words may be interesting to you but not to your audience. Your audience is the reason you are writing content.
It’s a good rule of thumb to cut anything that isn’t absolutely necessary or added for style.
Although it’s not the sexiest advice I can give, your audience will be grateful for your time and attention.
4. Be consistent across formats.
Your website is not the only place where you need to communicate a compelling message to your audience. Consider all the interactions a customer has regarding your brand. Email, blog posts, and social media content should feel the same.
This is easy if one person writes all of the content for your brand. But that’s not always true.
A style guideline is a way to bring everyone on the same page. This style guideline explains in detail how you sound, what you don’t sound like, and what your preferences are for punctuation. It also outlines how to format everything. Shopify is a great resource for inspiration.
Anyone who writes content for your website, social media channels, emails, or other websites can use a style guide. All of your content will be consistent. This will make it sound consistent to your audience when you are really skilled at it.
5. All things can be edited.
Although it can seem like every website update is a permanent record, the great thing about this is that you can edit it.
You can picture the days when you sent something to the press and hoped you didn’t make a mistake because you just spent your entire budget on it.
It should be simple to make changes or update copy as long as WordPress is your content management system.
This means that you are free to experiment and make adjustments without fear. You can always make it work again if it doesn’t work.
6. Ask for a second pair of eyes…and a tertiary.
Even though everything can be edited, embarrassing typos can be avoided if you have enough editing help.
This is not a time for pride or timidity. If you have the resources, create a review process with one or more of your colleagues who can check for errors and provide feedback.
It’s easy to lose sight of the words when you have been working closely on a project for a long time. When working on important pages for your brand, it’s worth creating a system that allows you to ask difficult questions and check for logic errors or silly mistakes.
7. Be skeptical of your assumptions.
It’s possible to be convinced your audience will love something but then roll it out without much fanfare or change in results. It’s always a good idea for you to test your assumptions.
It’s okay to be wrong about something. It’s just a way to test a new idea.
You can increase your chances of finding the right idea for your business.
- Conducting A/B testing
- Asking customers for feedback on new ideas is a great way to get it.
- Ask customers who deal with customers (sales, service) the most common questions so that you can answer them better.
Also, you can test your ideas via other channels by using A/B testing with your color scheme and copy for your email buttons to determine what your audience prefers. You can then bring these “proven” ideas onto your website pages to verify if they produce the same results.
8. Conduct competitive research
Do a Google search before you start writing new content for your website. This is not an invitation to copy their ideas. This is plagiarism, and it won’t help you stand out from the crowd. It is, however, a great source of context and inspiration.
You can identify their voice and tone. Pay attention to how they talk about products. You can make a list of the things you like and dislike about your brand.
Maybe you discover that humor is something you enjoy and that it’s the right choice for your brand. You might also notice repetitive terminology on your website pages and start to create a word bank with phrases you want to avoid.
You’ll find that you can create a list of themes that work for you and those that don’t. Because you have already done much of the research and thought, it can help you to get a good idea for the next time you write.
9. Be honest
The internet can have a side effect that makes it difficult to distinguish the good from the ugly.
Companies can publish any information about themselves. Terms like “best-in-class,” “industry-leading,” “innovative,” and “revolutionary are all common.
Your job is to make your company great. It can backfire if you use superlatives to make your company stand out from the rest.
Many readers are used to seeing these terms all the time and have grown numb. It doesn’t matter if everyone claims they are the best. It can seem exaggerated and overhyped.
This is the advice: Avoid jargon and buzzwords, and instead focus on tangible things you can do.
Don’t: The best-in-class platform for payroll processing
Do: Get your payroll processed in minutes
It doesn’t matter if you sound fancy or have the most innovative product on the market. It’s easier to communicate what you do and how it helps customers than if you are trying to solve a problem. This will help you earn the trust of your customers and make you seem valuable.
10. You need to find the right balance between copy and visuals.
It doesn’t matter who wins in this chicken-egg scenario. Your visual content should be supported by your written content.
There are many examples that prove this to be false. There are pages on websites where the copy appears to be written to sell the idea presented in the images. It doesn’t really add much value.
You might also find pages that appear to have been rearranged to fit existing content. This is a sign that the image doesn’t accurately reflect what the copy actually says.
Both are not great experiences. Instead, the pages should feel like a natural partnership. People will be able to understand the meaning of the words and images at a glance. Together, they should tell a greater story than any one of them.
11. Avoid going too far with the themes.
Metaphors and themes are great literary tools that add a fresh perspective to writing. Although it’s tempting for them to be used to refresh stale website copy, they should be used with caution.
It’s easy for a “fun theme” or metaphor to become too cheesy. This is not a good look unless your product benefits from lighthearted humor (Shinesty and Squatty Potty),
This aside, your audience may not be able to grasp the theme or metaphor as well as you would like. An HR software company with images of planes on its website or content that states you can “take off” using them could confuse international readers.
Stay inspired is the most important rule.
You need to make your audience feel excited about your business when writing website copy.
Your audience will be able to tell the difference between a bored writer and one that is excited. When a copywriter is passionate about an idea, there’s a vibrancy. This is how technical subjects come alive.
Writers can also kill ideas and dull content if they lose their sense of purpose.
You should take a break if you feel overwhelmed by all the feedback or just get tired of being bored. These rules should be reaffirmed. Remember why you want to change, what you want to convey, and how you want to sound. You’ll be on your way to great website copy if you make sure this message is clear in every word.
We also have some writing tips for email and other formats.
- How to write great email copy: A guide
- Inspiration for your 2020 email campaigns
- Data-backed Strategies for More Effective Email Marketing Copywriting
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