As some of my clients know, copy can sometimes be one of the main things that holds up the completion of your website. It can be time-consuming to write, and tricky to get perfect!
I spoke to Emily Wheeler from New Forest Writing Co. about why your web copy is so important, and she shares some top tips for getting it just right…
Well, imagine yourself landing on a web page, what do immediately look at? The design, the imagery, and the WORDS! Potential customers use these three things in tandem to make instant judgements about you and your brand. If one single element is weak or lacking, this can be quite damaging to your business reputation.
Similarly, if readers have to wade through too much text, this can be problematic. With our short modern attention spans, you need to make sure that your website visitors understand your business as quickly as possible. Is it for them? How can it help them? Why are you the one they should trust?
Definitely all pages! Remember that visitors might not land on your homepage first, so every page on your website needs to be have quality copy that represents you authentically, and tells the reader what they need to know.
I think a great tip for reviewing your website copy is to read it aloud to yourself! As weird as that might feel at first, it’s such a useful technique. Firstly, you’ll notice if there are any excessively long sentences, or confusing phrases. Secondly, you can check whether your writing sounds like something you would actually say. This is especially important if YOU are a significant part of your business brand (and if you’re not, why not!?)
Consistency of style between your website copy, social media engagement and face-to-face communication is also really important. It allows customers and clients to develop a longer term ‘know, like and trust’ relationship with your business.
We’ve basically got to play the Google game a little bit! To rank higher in search results, you need to have unique and high quality content. If multiple people are visiting your page or blog post for long enough to read the copy, then search engine algorithms will recognise this and boost you higher! If users keep bouncing away after two seconds, they haven’t actually read your content, which indicates that it wasn’t so good. It’s important for Google that it can direct people to valuable content that they actually want to read.
Unique content is preferred by search engines, and ideally you should have at least 300 words of copy on each page. If one page is feeling sparse, maybe you could restructure your website to combine two smaller pages?
Relevant keywords will direct people to your web page, but they should do this without detracting from the quality of the original copy. ‘Key Word Stuffing’ can be annoying and detrimental to user experience, as well as looking unprofessional.
Effective use of keywords can involve:
– Seamlessly including them in the title or heading of your page
i.e. ‘Importance of Copywriting for Small Businesses’
– Adding them to your first paragraph;
i.e. ‘If you are a small business and want to learn more about copywriting for websites and blogs…’
– Use related and synonymous keywords:
i.e ‘copywriter’ , ‘web copy’, ‘business writing’, ‘website copywriting’, ‘writer’,
(this lets search engines know that you are actually talking about this topic)
Yes! A lot of the time we become so absorbed in our own website that we can no longer look at it with fresh eyes. Of course you know that ‘x needs y because of z’, but does your reader? It’s important to find a balance between seeming knowledgeable, making content accessible, and not sounding patronising.
If a friend or family member can give you some honest and constructive feedback, you are likely to gain new insights into the user experience. Ask them specific questions like, ‘What could I improve on this page?’ or ‘Does the product page make sense?’. Most people find this easier to answer than ‘Can you look at my website and tell me if it’s any good!?’
Thanks Emily!
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