Your website is constantly being judged.
It’s being judged in different ways by different people from visitors, browsers, shoppers, customers, not to mention Google and other search engines and even your competitors.
The one common goal they all look for, whether they know it or not, is high quality, helpful, engaging and valuable website copy.
With users spending an average of 5.59 seconds looking at a website’s written copy, the fact that good copy is often neglected or treated as an afterthought can be your biggest mistake.
Let’s back track here, good isn’t quite GOOD enough, and here’s why you need to be writing GREAT copy for website.
Ask yourself, would you prefer to trust an elaborate site with low quality copy, or a simple site packed with engaging and informative copy that answers your questions and ticks your boxes?
We’re not saying ditch great website design, we love a beautifully designed website, but without engaging high quality website copy, the design can be wasted. Great copy and great design are a winning formula when it comes to user experience and the success of your website.
Your website is the ‘worlds’ shop window to your business and should also be your top salesperson. Even the best salesperson can’t sell with just an image, it needs to be backed up with words and in the case of your website, authentic and genuine copy.
This example from Gousto demonstrate this, with a sleek and simple design backed up with copy answering potential customer’s questions. Add to this mix, a reason why you should try Gousto plus a great offer to get you started, and they’ve ticked a lot boxes.
Write great website copy
Investing in great copy for your site has virtually endless benefits and quite literally affects every aspect of your online business. It can even inspire customers to visit your bricks and mortar store if you have one, in addition to increased ecommerce sales.
Taking your copy to the next level can:
If you have a beautifully designed website or not, with poor content, users won’t stay. Creating great copy for your website will portray your business in a positive light and let you stand out from your competitors.
How exactly do you write great copy? It’s certainly not all about quantity, but more about quality and understanding your customers and knowing what they want.
The recipe for good web copy should include:
This ensures all your communications are on-brand, it’s 'how' it sounds when you say it. You should also use your customers language, give it personality, appropriate for your customers to connect and engage with them.
Harrys demonstrate they understand their customers’ problems when it comes to shaving and speak through their copy with a clear, straightforward tone of voice, which is consistent throughout their website.
Show that you understand your customers problems
It’s essential when creating content to always keep the user in mind, throughout the entire customer journey. This starts with what keywords visitors will be searching for, to answering their questions and solving a problem. Getting the balance of using sufficient detail to educate users, while not boring them is fundamental.
A customer can interact with your brand 20 times before they actually purchase anything. That can be through social media, website copy, marketing, reviews etc and each one leaves an impression.
Good copy should provide value to visitors, for example, people read blog posts to get information, help or answers. Using blog posts to address the pain areas or questions that your audience want to know is a great use of copy.
This example from Candymail shows how a blog post was written on the subject of a question that many customers were asking. Not only does the blog answer the question, but it also resulted in the No. 1 spot on Google for the search term “How hot are Flamin’ Hot Cheetos?”
What questions are your customers asking online?
While the above example, demonstrates how good copy works for users and search engines, take a look at how Air BNB appears in a Google search. Their copy has all bases covered, from local holidays, UK places to stay and how to become a host.
Researching keywords for your content is essential before you begin crafting website copy. Making your copy work for you is paramount for both search engines to drive traffic to your website and users when they arrive on it.
Find out more about how to write SEO friendly articles.