8 Tips for Writing Better Web Copy
Your company’s text that appears on your website, otherwise known as Web copy, is critical to your success. This is what visitors read to learn more about your organization, product or service. Your Web copy also significantly impacts your position in search engines. Great Web copy can propel a company toward long-term success. Poorly written Web copy can make a company’s website a failure. The following are eight need-to-know tips for writing better Web copy:
- Use a style appropriate for all of your customer demographics. Unless your customers are from a very narrow demographic, ensure your Web copy is written with a more general feel and aimed at an average reading level. You don’t want to alienate a visitor because your Web copy is either too complicated to read or written in a tone that would only appeal to a select few.
- Research your keywords. Including important keywords that potential visitors are searching for is a big part of ensuring you rank well in search engines. Some keywords are searched more often than others, of course, so find the best keywords for your site and include them naturally in your Web copy.
- Keep it clear and concise. Your website’s visitors are busy. They don’t want to waste time while your Web copy beats around the bush. Be clear and concise in your writing, and if there’s an action you’d like your visitors to take, clearly state that in your copy.
- Make your Web copy lively. If you want to write better Web copy, write so that your content is absolutely gripping. Boring Web copy will likely have the visitor moving on to your competitors’ websites.
- Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. To write better Web copy, adopt the perspective of your customers. Think about what they would want to know from your website and how they’ll perceive your product and service offerings.
- Stay away from clichéd adjectives. Try not to use clichéd buzzwords that every other website is using. If a reader has seen a term a thousand times, he or she is likely to completely ignore it.
- Make sure your Web copy is valuable. Don’t waste your visitors’ time with information that is not of value. Instead, center your Web copy on informative and useful information that your visitors will appreciate.
- Focus on challenges and the solutions you offer. Focus your Web copy on the primary challenges your readers are likely to have, and then tell them how you can help them solve these challenges. Give solutions, not empty sales copy.
Randall Davidson is the lead project manager at proofreading sevices company ProofreadingServices.Us. Many of his customers use ProofreadingServices.Us as a website proofreader, in order to ensure that their websites are free from embarrassing errors.