No-one wants to read through your website.
I know that’s a shocker coming from someone who wants to write your website.
But people who need your products or services don’t want to read pages of copy before they find what they’re looking for.
And you don’t want them to read your words and think, “Nicely written!”
You want them to take action – click the button, fill in the form, go to the checkout, leave their email address, sign up to your mailing list or pick up the phone.
Yours is unlikely to be the only website a prospective customer visits. So unless they’re a fan of great verbosity and meandering sentences (a heads-up: no-one visits a website for that), you need to focus on getting the message across quickly and helping the reader get to the point where they can make that commitment.
What makes a well-written website?
- Messaging, tone of voice and language that reflects the personality of your business and clearly demonstrates how you help your clients
- Pages that get to the point quickly (especially your home page)
- A clear value proposition: copy that focuses on what the customer wants, not on how brilliant you are
- Intuitive and logical navigation, clear calls to action, useful links
- Product or service pages that demonstrate your expertise, including examples and social proof
- Good SEO practice: clear page titles and meta descriptions, logical keywords, hierarchical headings.
- A great user experience with as few popups as possible before you have time to actually find out what the product or service is.
Words are not enough
Is your website just an expensive shop window with no-one coming through the door – something you tinker with whenever you get a new idea? Are potential clients not really sure how you can help them?
It’s a common problem. When you’re running a business you’re completely – and understandably – immersed in what you do and how you do it. That doesn’t always translate into what your customer needs to know.
A fresh pair of eyes can help crystallise the key messages and distil the essence of what you do into words that stop the reader in their tracks.
I’ve worked on many B2B and B2C websites, either within a consultancy team or direct for clients, often collaborating with a designer or SEO expert.
Before I even think about writing, I talk to you and, ideally, your customers to understand their pain points and exactly how you solve them.
It’s a strategic approach that means the messaging is spot-on and says the right things to the right audience. Before the words hit the page, I know who you’re targeting, what their problems are, why you’re the perfect solution, how much better they’ll feel once they’ve bought your product or service, and what they need to do to get there.
Only then do I start writing the copy.
Other web copy services
Website copy audit
If your current site just isn’t working, I can review the main pages of your website and provide feedback that looks at:
- whether you’re addressing your customer’s pain points
- if the messaging and tone of voice are consistent
- if the copy flows logically and the user experience is smooth and frictionless
- what might be holding you back – like a lack of focus, confusing calls-to-action and broken links.
I’ll provide a report with recommendations for change and let you know how much I’d charge to make those changes.
Landing pages
A landing page is a standalone web page that can be part of your website or an off-site page (part of your email program, for example). It’s where customers land after clicking a link in an email, social media post or online ad and it’s designed to get them to sign up.
The sole objective of a landing page is to get the reader to click the one button on the page: ‘Buy now’, ‘Download the ebook’, ‘Register to attend’. It doesn’t serve to educate or inform the reader about the other services you might offer or tell them why they should choose you (that’s a job for the rest of your website).