Improve Your Website Copy

Quality sales copy is detrimental to your success, whether you are the owner of a bakery, a car dealership, or a dental practice. Having helped several businesses rank in various industries and locations - including our website - we understand the importance of good copy more than anyone. In this article, we will give you a checklist, and if you ensure your website follows at least 30 of these points, you are guaranteed to see an increase in conversions on your website. As a web design & SEO agency, if you have any questions regarding any of the following points, feel free to reach out, and we will help in any way we can.

36 Copywriting Tips To Improve Your Website Copy

1. Get To The Point

In today's world, people have the attention span of an elderly goldfish suffering from dementia. So you must get to the point immediately. If your article or page answers a question, answer the question right away, and use the rest of the article to go into depth. Google even rewards websites that serve the most relevant content toward the top of the page.

2. Avoid Brick Walls Of Text

Users don't like reading novels, so make sure that you get to the point for one. For two, in situations where you have to serve them a lot of text, make sure it's broken up into easily digested sections of text.

3. Sound Confident

Speak matter-of-factly when describing yourself or your services/products. Never say that your product or service is "pretty good." Your product or service is fantastic. It's great. Amazing even, but never "pretty good."

4. Be Honest With Yourself

Be proud of your writing. If you can't see yourself enjoying your copy, then chances are no one else will. So be honest with yourself and ensure that your copy is written in a way your users will enjoy.

5. Avoid Repeating Yourself

One of the fastest ways to bore your audience and ensure they go to a competing website is to repeat yourself. You generally only want to repeat yourself if it serves some point.

6. Use Infographics

Infographics are a huge sign of authority, and the Google algorithm will greatly reward you for investing your time and effort into creating customized ones to illustrate your point!

7. Add Photos

Photos are a great way to illustrate your creativity and add depth and personality to your content. Photos not only help Google see your website as an authority (meaning you'll rank higher), but they also make your content more engaging to users.

8. Add Videos

The phrase "Content is king" has been proven true in web design time and time again. And the king of all content is video. Video not only tells Google you are an absolute authority, but it also guarantees that your users will spend more time on your website. If you want to increase conversions, engagement, and credibility, videos are the best way to do it.

9. Speak In Benefits, Not Features

If your product is technical, you'll have a section dedicated to the specs. However, for the bulk of your content, you should be writing about what they'll stand to gain because of your product/service, not the features of said product/service.

10. Never Speak Ill Of Your Competition

Only mention the competition in a positive light. In fact, studies show that copy that positively mentions the competition converts more often because they are seen as a more trustworthy and reliable source of information.

11. Cite Your Sources

You don't always have to cite the sources you mention in your article, but if it's a point that is "make or break" to your argument, you will increase your credibility if you link it.

12. Show Your Face

Studies show that users love personality. If you are the company owner, one of the best things you can do for your copy is to include photos of yourself everywhere. On the homepage, contact us page, etc. Customers are put at ease when they see the face(s) of the people they will be hiring. Your smiling face is by far the best thing to have on your website. 

13. Introduction Video

An introductory video on your homepage is one of the best things any website owner can do to increase their conversions. Your homepage will be your most viewed page on your website, and when people see you passionately talking about your "why" and the benefits they'll receive when working with you - perfection. 

Honestly, you can do no wrong with adding an intro video to your website, your customers and your wallet will thank you.

14. Solve Their Problem

The best thing you can do for your copy is to set out to tackle the problem your product/service solves. You understand the pain point of your customers, and your sales copy is your chance to show your customers you understand that. In doing so, your visitors will see you know what they are going through and how to help them through it.

Another tip is to look to successful websites to see quality website copy examples. The best way to ensure the website you're looking at is successful or not is it's ranking. If you are looking researching a topic, and they're ranked first, chances are they're somewhat successful, because Google's algorithm has advanced to such an extent that poor quality websites are almost never going to rank for anything. Meaning all of the research in website copywriting has already been done, and all you need to do is to take notes. What you're looking for are three main things - the hook, personality, and original content. Any piece of content with all three of these is going to be great at catching and keeping the attention of an audience.

15. Write Compelling Headings

No one is going to read your content if you aren't able to attract their attention. Try to think of how you can intrigue your potential-clients and write your content from there.

16. Be Consistent

No one is rewarded for doing something once. Whether losing weight, gaining wealth, or respect, anything worth having takes daily progress, sacrifice, and hard work. You'll need to write a lot if you want more success with your copy.

17. Keep The Goal In Mind

Don't wander in your copy. Have a goal for each piece of text, and stick to it. You want to lead the user in terms of their thoughts to the point of sale, and you can't do this if you're wandering.

18. Be Organized

In addition to not wandering, you want to take some time to plan the architecture of your copy. There should be a natural and logical flow regarding the dialogue you're presenting to your user. Make sure that you can easily take them from the top to the bottom of the page in a way that pushes them naturally into a sale. Certain pieces of text too soon will scare them away, whereas if placed correctly, those same pieces of text will help you make a sale. Make sure to think carefully about the order of your content.

19. White Space Is Your Friend

Too much going on anywhere is chaotic and will turn your user off. Always avoid making any content that looks crowded unless it's to make a point.

20. Always Proofread

Never get into the habit of just publishing. You always want to go back through your content and proofread it, and ideally, even have others proofread it. It takes extra time, but your content will improve if you take this step.

21. Keep Consistent Styling

If you use a specific color to make a point, ensure that you use the same color the next time that point is brought up. If a particular style is used for headings or bold text, always make sure it's consistent the whole way through. 

22. Ensure You Use Internal Linking

You always want to link internally to at least two other pages. Not only does it help Google understand what content on your website is essential to you, but if you have pages relevant to the topic, you'll help drive traffic to them and get them ranking higher.

23. Do Proper Keyword Research

Only write something after first doing adequate keyword research. This simple tip can save you so much hassle and make you so much extra money. Understanding which keyword makes the most sense for you to use will greatly improve your efficiency. You don't want to write for a keyword you even rank for, or that gets no traffic because the only thing you'll be doing at that point is wasting your time writing something no one will read. Proper keyword research matters even more when creating pillar or landing pages. In fact, keyword research is the first step in ensuring search engine compliance. Without being compliant to search engines, you will never be found in any search engines, period. However, if you don't understand how to do proper keyword research and copywriting for websites is important for you, it might be worth either hiring an SEO agency, or learning about SEO yourself. You might be asking if SEO is difficult to learn, and we have an article that will not only answer that question for you, but we'll walk you through how to get started so you too can learn to do proper keyword research for your own

24. Satisfy Search Intent

Make sure that your content satisfies the search intent of the keywords you have chosen to target. If your content doesn't match search intent, your users will never be satisfied with your content and will end their search on your competition page. Google will take notice of this and start to hurt your rankings.

25. Make Sure You're Getting Found

It doesn't matter how great your copy is if no one can find your website, so ensure that you are using best practices in terms of SEO. You'll want to ensure that your website has your current name, address, phone number, and other relevant business information.

26. Don't Forget To Add Include A CTA

Call-to-actions are vital to your ability to convert. You'll want many different forms of CTAs, at various levels of the page. If you only have them at the top or bottom, if someone midway through the article decides to buy, they have to scroll to the top or bottom, whereas if you have them peppered throughout the content, it's much easier for them. Doing this ensures that not only will they be unlikely to miss them, but you'll also make it easy for them.

27. Make Things As Easy As Possible

You would greatly benefit from reading up on the best practices of usability so you'll know how to structure your pages, CTAs, and content in a way that is both easy and enjoyable to use.

28. Include Social Share Buttons

You'll want it to be easy for your users to share your content with others, so including social share buttons is an absolute must.

29. Always Deliver More Than Expected

Delivering a little bonus content is never going to go poorly for you. In fact, if you give your users more than they anticipated, they will be more likely to binge your content as they recognize the value and effort you have provided.

30. Take Your Time Crafting Quality Page Titles

Your page title is the first thing your user will see before clicking through to your website. Ensure you understand the search intent, include the required keywords, and leave your user wanting to know more. All these things will help you create compelling copy that will get more people on your website.

31. Create Compelling Meta-Descriptions

Like your page titles, meta-descriptions are one of the only three things your users can see before visiting your page. Your goal is to expand a little more into your title and leave them wanting to know more. Ideally, you'll want to use this space to create an emotional response in your user, so more people are likely to visit your website.

32. Try To Answer Additional Questions Your Users Might Ask

Once you have satisfied the reason someone would've come to your page, you can expand and cover some relevant topics that your users might also like to know. Google can tell when a website does this, and it helps boost your authority to get you in front of more people.

33. Use Google To Help You Structure Your Article

When you find the ideal keywords you'll target, Google the phrase/keywords you will go after. You may have noticed the "people also ask" or "related searches" sections. You can generally include some of those as headings in your content as well, and it helps to make your content more relevant, interesting, and informative.

34. Start A YouTube Channel

Start a YouTube channel for your business and make a video for each blog post, homepage, sales page, etc. 

Get in front of them and explain away any doubts they might have about your sales pages, introduce yourself on your homepage, reiterate your article in your blog posts, etc.

35. Use Tools Like Grammarly

If grammar isn't your strong suit, you can benefit from using tools like Grammarly to ensure that your content is grammatically correct. Google will punish content with horrible grammar, so you can stand to benefit from the small investment these tools require.

36. Outsource Your Content

And if all else fails, you can hire someone to write your content. You may not have enough time, or you don't have the patience to learn the skill yourself. Outsourcing is always a viable option.

Why Is Website Copy So Important

Website copy is by far the most important part of any website. Using your copy, your users will determine everything about your website. Is the website trustworthy? Is their services/products worth the investment, etc? 

The difference between a successful website and a struggling website is two-fold. Are you being found? And, are you converting? If you have good copy, you'll enjoy a higher conversion rate, more sales, more revenue, and so on. Half of the battle is just showing up in front of your target demographic, but after that, without quality copy, you'll never make any sales. However, without having optimized content, you'll never have any traffic in the first place! If you are writing your own copy, it would be worth it to read our article showing you the most common mistakes in SEO. Once you know what they are, you'll know how to avoid them - and better yet - what to do instead.

How Can I Improve My Marketing Copy?

The best way to improve your marketing copy, first and foremost, is to go through the checklist above, and ensure your copy aligns with every single point listed. Honestly, the only way you wouldn't be getting conversions after you've made sure your content aligns with all 36 points given above is if your article isn't satisfying search intent. If you're not really sure why your copy isn't converting, you can schedule a free consultation with us, and we'll walk you through how you can improve your copy.

How Can I Improve My Copywriting

The best way to improve your copywriting is to focus more on what your potential customer will stand to gain from your product/service than the specifications of your product or service. Regardless of what you're offering, the last thing you want to write about is information regarding your product/service. Instead, focus on helping your customer visualize their life if they pulled the trigger and purchased your product/service.

To do this, you'll need to understand the most common issues and problems your customers face. When you understand this, you can improve your website copy by helping them see how your product/service will solve those problems for them. Writing copy focusing on solving problems for people will always be more effective than copy focused on the technical details of your products/services because of how the human mind works. If you help your customers see why you are clearly the better choice than your competition, then they will even be willing to have a product/service that comes with less features, if the benefit will be better in the end.

Suppose you focus on showing off the technical data associated with your products. In that case, you will bore your audience. Even worse than boring your audience, you'll pigeonhole yourself in an apples-to-apples comparison with your competitors. However, suppose you learn to get into the head of your customers, and you instead position your copy to attack and solve their problems. In that case, they'll see you as head-and-shoulders above the competition just because you'll show them that you understand their needs. In turn, because you understand their problems and goals, you'll gain their trust and will be more likely to win their business.

So all of that to say, the best way to improve your website copy by far is to help them understand how your product/service will help them overcome their current problems. This will work much more if your product will also help make them more money in addition to solving a problem, so always remember this when copywriting. The easier you can make a customer's life, the higher your conversion rates will be.

Conclusion

Hopefully you found this article helpful! If you think we missed anything, need to ask us a question, or you want to work together, feel free to reach out. Otherwise, head over to our blog page to keep reading our content. We have articles that will help you improve your rankings, get more organic traffic and even some walking you through the basics of SEO!