You can have the most beautifully designed website in the world, but if your copy isn’t up to par, you won’t get the conversions you deserve. Every single line of copy on your website needs to have a purpose. Whether it’s encouraging visitors to click a link or teaching them something new, copy should be purposeful and powerful.
After all, the copy on your website represents your business and it’s your carefully selected voice that tells your story. Therefore, great care and attention should go into your website copy. With such pressure surrounding your website copy, your keyboard can suddenly appear very intimidating. Not to fear, we’ve put together this comprehensive guide to teach you how to craft brilliant website copy that converts.
Understand your buyer personas
Before you can start writing your amazing website copy, you need to understand who you’re actually talking to. Developing buyer personas is the first step to understanding your audience and developing a memorable tone of voice. Buyer personas are representations of your ideal customers, based on real data from your existing customers. Consider the following when creating buyer personas:
- Demographics — age, location, income, gender identity etc.
- Background — job, career path, family and lifestyle.
- Challenges — what issues do they face that you can solve?
- Identifiers — how do they communicate? What social media platforms do they use?
- Goals — what are their goals and how can you help them achieve them?
Once you’ve crafted a detailed buyer persona, it’ll be much easier for you to address them directly with your copy. Not only will it be easier to write for your audience, but they’ll respond more positively to your copy as it speaks directly to them.
Outline the website goals and objectives
Wait, you still can’t write a word just yet! The next step before writing your copy is to clarify your website goals and objectives. Most of the time, your main goal is to increase sales, whether it’s selling a product or service. However, it’s worth identifying how you plan to do this and what some key objectives are. For example, do you want to increase conversions by X amount each month? Or did you want to increase brand awareness?
Understanding your key goals and objectives will drive exactly what you want the copy to say.
Define the purpose of each page with searcher intent in mind
You now need to consider the purpose of each and every page to help guide what the copy needs to say and what you want the reader to do. Consider search intent, for example. If a reader clicks on your blog page, they likely want to learn something and discover useful information. Let’s take a look at some examples of key pages and their purpose:
- Homepage – you want to tell the audience what you’re all about, it should be clear exactly what you do and what you’re offering on your homepage.
- About us – tell the audience who you are. Connect with them on a personal level by telling your story.
- Contact us – provide a clear, actionable way for the reader to get in touch.
- Blog – a hub of useful information for your readers, positioning yourself as an authority in your industry.
- Product/service page – tell your audience what your product or service can do for them – how is it the solution to their problem?
Writing out the purpose of each and every page will strategically direct the copy and ensure that you make every word count.
Use brand voice to distinguish your content
How do you write engaging content on a website? With a strong brand tone of voice, that’s how. What brands need to stand out is a clear identity that sets them apart from competitors. You want people to read your copy and instantly know that it’s your brand. A crucial part of cultivating a strong brand identity is to consistently use the same voice across all of your content.
So, whether you’re formal or informal, humorous or concise, defining that tone of voice is so important. You’ll be much more authoritative, unique, trusted and influential.
Research keywords for SEO
Carrying out keyword research will not only boost your website’s SEO, but also tell you what your audience is searching for. Incorporating keywords naturally into your website copy will help you rank higher on Google and improve your authority. It’ll also help guide content ideas as you’ll discover what your audience is searching for, so you can create useful content surrounding those keywords.
Include quotes, testimonials and statistics to improve authority
Being seen as an authority within your industry is vital to building customer trust and loyalty. This is why quotes, testimonials and statistics are your best friends when it comes to writing strong website copy. For example, if you were to make a point, back this up with an expert quote or statistics from a study. This demonstrates that what you’re saying is supported by data, hence building your credibility further.
But always relying on third-party data isn’t the best practice. So, where you can, approaching an expert for a quote/comment can be hugely beneficial as an original addition to your content.
If you have any great customer testimonials, make sure you shout about them! What better way to demonstrate your authority than glowing testimonials from real customers? Make sure these are peppered throughout your website. From the homepage to contact us, featuring some testimonials will boost customer trust.
A/B test copy on high-value pages
You can’t predict exactly how your customers will react to different types of copy. Thankfully, you don’t have to gamble on this, you can test what works best! This doesn’t mean that you carry out A/B testing on every single page, as we’d only recommend that you do this on your high-value page, like a product or service page. Here are some web copy elements that you might want to consider testing:
- Headline length
- Short-form vs long-form copy
- Language/word choice
- CTAs (call to action)
You can discover which your high-value pages are by using an analytics tool. The next would be to create two versions of the page, each with different copy. You can then send half of your traffic to one version and the other half to the second version. After a sufficient period of time, you’ll be able to see which version performed better. You can then take these learnings and apply them to other pages.
Proofread
You did it! You’ve planned, tested and written compelling website copy that you’re proud to put your name on. But before you sit back, relax and watch the conversions roll in, you need to proofread. There’s nothing that can damage your authority and reputation quite like a silly spelling error. It’s something small, but it can immediately turn prospective customers away.
So, pass the copy on to a few people in your business to proofread, or there are free tools like Grammarly that are great at spotting mistakes for you. Reading copy aloud is also an easy way to spot any clumsy wording that doesn’t sound quite right.
Your website is the face of your business and sparkling copy is what really sells the product or service. Taking the time to follow the steps above will make sure that your copy stands out of the crowd and helps to boost conversions. Need some help or advice? Our content writing services are here to make your copy shine.
