What makes good (website) copywriting?
Attention is in short supply today. Whether you want to sell a product, service or simply want peoples’ attention, compelling website copywriting is essential. Here’s how you persuade your audience to continue reading and take action.
Photo by Mark König via Unsplash
Clarity and Conciseness
Clarity and Conciseness are the number one commandment of any copy, websites are no exception. Easy to understand writing, free of jargon, helps your audience to quickly understand what your content is about. This is further underlined by using as few words as possible. Asking yourself about the purpose of each sentence is a powerful way to avoid superfluous words.
Know your audience
Visitors of your site are there for a reason. What is that reason? Tailor your website to the needs, preferences, and pain points of your audience. This also means talking to your audience in a tone and voice that resonates with them, whether it’s professional, casual, friendly , or authoritative. It helps to imagine how you’d talk to that audience face to face or in a presentation.
Compelling headlines
“Unlock the Secret to Effortless Weight Loss”, “Weight loss is not effortless, or is it?” may be the website visitor’s thought in response to this controversial title. If you are struggling with weight, like many of us are, I’d probably have your attention now, and you are likely going to continue reading with a critical eye. While only one variation, a rule of thumb is, you have seconds, if not split seconds, to hook your audience. What follows is a lead paragraph summarising the content and responding to your reader’s intent.
SEO Optimisation
You are not only writing for humans, but also for search engines. Integrating keywords relevant to your business will help Google and Bing rank your website. Naturally, as a copywriter I will ensure that the word “copywriter” and “copywriting” will appear on my website. Further boost your site’s visibility and increase click-through rates from search engine results pages (SERPs) by writing an accurate summary of your site, called a meta description. Depending on the search query, a search engine like Google may generate a snippet, based on the meta description, the site’s content or search query.
CTA - Call to Action
It doesn’t matter if you are selling something or informing people, you want your site’s visitor to take action. The message should be straightforward, visible and underlined by a sense of urgency. The visitor’s thinking should follow this pattern “by clicking here, I am one step closer to solving my problem” and “by doing it now I will receive rewarded”.
Example: Sign up now for a 50% discount!
Using the tools website hosting platforms like Elementor provide, can visually highlight your CTA.
Example of a meta description
Readability
To ensure your copy is easy to read, use short paragraphs and sentences, and avoid complex words. Break up text with subheadings and bullet points to make it more digestible. Also, consider using a readable font that is neither too small, nor too big, and use adequate spacing. Of course, using a visual hierarchy is critical for your reader to spot the most important information at a glance. Consider thinking of it this way, if your reader were not to read your content beginning to end, what do you want them to walk away with.
Trustworthiness
Trustworthiness online has two components: social proof and transparency. Before buying a product or visiting a place, you likely want a real person’s opinion of their experience, not the official sales pitch. To convince your website’s visitor to stay, add testimonials, reviews, case studies or a portfolio.
Example:
John Doe, CEO of XYZ Company, says, 'This product changed my life!
Also, being transparent about products, services and policies, build rapport with your site’s visitors in the short- and long run.
Engagement
Give your audience an opportunity to engage with your content by adding social sharing buttons, quizzes, polls or a comment section where appropriate. But to truly connect with your audience, use a conversational tone, it can be colloquial or professional, or something in between. Just imagine how you would talk to your target audience in a face-to-face conversation
Consistency
“Is your brand addressing the needs of the masses or a particular segment?”, “What’s the average age of my taget audience?”, “Is my brand fun, formal or informative, or a bit of everything?”. These are some of the questions you can use to strike the right tone with the right voice, but remain consistent throughout all your pages. And the same goes for your core message. Let’s say you have a food catering business, the core message could be: We make delicious food, and cater to weddings, parties and any other imaginable social occasion. Get in touch. Even if you have a blog with recipes, the core message, should guide your content. Consistency in voice, tone, and message helps build a strong brand identity.
Putting it all together. Design the content on your website with your visitor (yourself) in mind. What would you be looking for, if you were to visit someone’s website offering what you are?
If you are nervous about SEO, which you may be unfamiliar with, don’t be. Again, you can use keyword tools. But simply typing into google the search terms you’d be looking for, can give you important clues about what people are searching for. And a clue to, what questions you should answer in your content.
If you want to know more or need help creating compelling content for your own website:
