Top Tips for Effective Website Copywriting
Whether you are a traditional, bricks and mortar business or a brand predominantly based online, your website can be your own personal portal to an extended range of potential customers and an even healthier bottom line. Whilst, during the web design and development process, much emphasis is put on creating a platform that is functional, fun and devilishly attractive, the content adorning each page of your website is often an afterthought.
Well written web copy is still the best method for generating traffic and keeping those customers on your website, for longer. The content on your website will also be a great help to those all-powerful search engines, with the copy providing vital clues on a page’s value to a browser and influencing your website’s ranking ability. We are proud purveyors of best practice content marketing, and web copywriting is a vital part of that formula, but what secrets do our copywriters use to make the content on the web pages of our clients’ websites so effective?
Don’t beat around the bush
There’s nothing worse than long, drawn out conversations that struggle to or never arrive at a point, and the same sentiment applies to your web copy. Think of your web content as a conversation between your company and your customer, you want to impress with your products and services right? You want to demonstrate that your brand is worthy of their custom and, more importantly, better than your competitors?
Before you begin writing your web copy, establish the aim of each page. Use this aim to get the important information up there first, preferably within the opening paragraph. The inverted pyramid structure is used by the best news journalists and is a useful method when writing web copy also.
Put your audience first
Your web copy offers a prime opportunity to share the information you want to share with potential customers, but giving your audience what they need is important. As with blog writing, put the wants and needs of your audience first, stepping in the shoes of potential customers to write web copy that is to the point, engaging and valuable.
Many make the mistake of writing primarily for the search engines to ensure optimisation for various keywords and phrases. Keyword rich text however is a big no-no, and a tactic that is easily recognised and disregarded by the highly sophisticated search engines of today. Write for your audience, incorporating keywords and phrases organically.
Keep quality high on the agenda
Poor spelling, grammar and punctuation is unlikely to instil much confidence in those encountering your brand for the first time. For customers earlier on in the buying process, basics like this can define their next steps, which will be a step towards your checkout or your competitor’s.
As well as eliminating errors in spelling, grammar and punctuation, writing in simple and concise English is vital. Cut the jargon associated with your industry sector, even if it is second nature to you and your team. Keep copy easy to understand and scannable – subheadings, bullet points and numbered lists are excellent options and add variety to boring page layouts. Keeping quality high however isn’t about dumbing things down, you should still use your content to demonstrate your expertise, just make sure your audience can understand it.
Need help writing effective copy for your website? Whether you are starting from scratch or want to hit refresh on your content, we can help. Give us a nudge and get your web copywriting overhaul started.
