Website copywriting refers to writing branded copy for websites – landing pages, product pages, blogs etc. It is the narrative used to sell the brand’s vision, story, features, and offerings.Web copy is the text used on the home page, about us page, product pages, and other primary pages of a brand’s website. A visitor should be able to learn and engage with a brand through a website’s copy. The text should not only be informative but should be a valuable reading resource about the brand.Persuasive web copy can drive engagement and lead visitors to take actions on the website.
Why is Website Copywriting Important?
Compelling website copy helps a business communicate with their existing and future customers. It enables you to talk to your target audience in a tone that resonates with them and which helps them decide to spend time and money on your business.
A well-written piece of copy has the power to make the reader feel something special; a feeling that helps you create a relationship with them. It is a key element towards building a customer-brand relationship as it reflects the brand’s personality and values.
Website copy helps in:
- Selling products (online)
- Lead generation for the business
- Creating brand or product awareness
- Building your brand community
- Engaging old and new consumers
Understanding Tone of Voice
The Tone of Voice refers to how your brand’s personality is portrayed through words, both written and spoken. Your brand’s Tone of Voice is not defined by what you are saying but how you are saying it and the effect it has on the reader.The Tone of Voice is how you want to express yourself. The various types of descriptors which you can use to define your TOV are friendly, informative, creative, formal, authoritative, etc. Here’s a list of descriptors you can mix and match to create a suitable and persuasive branded Tone of Voice:
5 Benefits Of A Distinctive Tone Of Voice
1. Sound more human
2. Stand out from the competition
3. Make an impact before face-to-face communication
4. Build your authority and credibility
5. Avoid cluttered and inconsistent brand personalities
6 Steps To Write Persuasive Website Copy
Step 1. Define Your Audience
Start by defining your ideal audience and find out how to make the web copy personal and relevant to your ideal reader. By doing so, you can write conversational copy while being consistent with your information and calls to action.
Creating a reader or audience persona and researching their demographics would help you create an accurate tone of voice and vocabulary. This will make your copy more consistent and persuasive.
Step 2. Define Your Content – Features + Benefits
The next step is to finalise your content and page flow. As a business owner, being excited to talk about your new business plans, improvements, or products is understandable.
But online consumers are only interested in what benefits them. Ask yourself, what difference are you offering to make in their life? Why they should be interested in reading through your complete copy. Your copy needs to grab your audience’s attention from the first words. It needs to make sense and matter to them right from the start.
Researching before writing web copy helps translate your offering’s benefits to the visitors. It also enables you to list down your product’s features in a simple format which helps gain relevance in the reader’s eyes.
Step 3. Create A Unique Selling Point
Always create a unique selling point and a value proposition from the very start fo your website copy. Use the first line or two as a conversation starter which entices your audience to read and learn more about your brand’s offerings.
Web users are extremely time-sensitive. They perform quick searches and make fast decisions on whether a website is relevant to them, if it will help solve their query, or if it is a type of business they would want to interact with in the future. Thus, using headlines based on your value proposition helps keep your copy to the point and authoritative.
Step 4. Start Writing Copy
Start your writing process by structuring your content and create a page flow.
List out your main topics, heading, sub-heading and visuals. Take a conversational approach towards your content flow, and make it read less like a bulky web page of words and details no user wants to read.
Keep your web copy about the user and focus on the benefits and features of your product or service. Your website copy should be comprehensive yet persuasive to hep website visitors decide on buying or interacting with the brand.
Good web copy helps get more sign-ups on newsletter lists, free consultation requests, add to cart actions etc. You copy needs to take your potential buyer to the next step of becoming a buyer. Also, remember to describe the next steps one needs to enjoy all the benefits of your business.
Web copy should be a mix of creative, informative, and functional.
Step 5. Optimise For SEO
Are you wondering how to make your web copy functional?
Optimising your website content for SEO is the best way to receive extra organic traffic. Using words that your end-user might be using on search engines in your copy will help build your website’s SEO-friendliness. Writing web copy in human language helps to increase the page’s crawlability and readability,
It’s good practice to develop a network with experts and publishers in and related to your industry to cross-reference each other’s content as link building helps with search engine optimisation.
Step 6. Proofread & Copyedit Copy
One of the main and final steps for writing a good website copy is proofreading and editing. This does not only involve grammar and spelling checks but focuses on making your copy more engaging and persuasive for the reader.
Make your checklist to ensure the quality and effectiveness of your copy –
- Ensure there is no typo through the copy – errors reduce credibility and authority.
- Increase your page’s readability – crisp and simple copy is easy to read and highly scannable.
- Read your copy out aloud and imagine your potential customer right inf front of you – does it make sense?
- Edit the flow – A good content flow is essential in writing persuasive website copy.
Avoid making your web copy sound like a collection of product features and SEO keywords.
Your web copy is your first interaction with a potential customer, make every word count.
Tips For Writing Persuasive Website Copy
1. Write Compelling Headlines
Your headlines drive your copy’s narrative. Make them work to your advantage by keeping them short, descriptive and relevant. Try 6-12 words per headline to create an impactful headline for your web copy as it is perfect for mobile device screens.
Your web copy’s headline is what makes your breaks your content so be careful of grammar mistakes, tone and structure. Using the ‘How’ and ‘Why’ technique is also an effective strategy to get more views or readership on content pieces.
They might be a few words, but they have a lot of power in your brand’s success.
2. Be Punchy
Audiences want quick snippets of information. Keep your web copy to be punchy for the reader to gain better reactions. Use short and crisp sentences and use active verbs to intensify the power of your writing.
Active voice: Your web copy should seem like that the subject, your consumer or someone else is performing the action.
Source: https://romanceaustralia.com/simply-writing-turn-your-passive-writing-into-an-active-voice/
3. Make It A Conversation
Maintain your tone of voice to establish a personality for your business. This personality should be someone a consumer can have a conversation. Keep it an open-ended chat for a user to be able to ask your questions, relate to you, and feel like you as a brand understand their pain points.
4. Do Your Research
Comprehensive research will help you write compelling website copy. Try to find out as much as you can about your target demographic to write copy which persuades your audience to interact with your brand.
Adding facts and numbers to your web copy is a good step towards gaining authority. But, always remember only to use credible sources and reference these figures. Avoid legal loopholes by being 100% confident in every word you write on your website and avoid plagiarism accusations by sincerely giving credit to the source article or author.
5. Use Your Keywords (Don’t Overstuff)
Keywords help optimise your web pages for search engines. Using relevant keywords on well-written web copy helps increase search engine rankings as they allow users to search for relevant content. You can choose to use online tools such as Google’s AdWords Keywords planner to find the most suitable for keywords for your business and web pages.
Remember to maintain an organic flow in your web copy irrespective of the number of keywords you decide to use. Users are attracted and persuaded through easily readable and organic copy as it sounds more human and relatable.
6. Build Links Within Your Website
Inserting internal links in your copy helps increase the time spent on your website. This will not only help your SEO strategy and boost your search engine rankings but would also help your visitors to navigate around your pages better.
7. Respect The Knowledge Gap
Trying to impress readers with industry-specific jargons and unfamiliar vocabulary, alienates them. Users are coming to your website to gain knowledge about your business and its offerings. Paying attention to user-friendly and accessible content helps build your credibility and communication with your target consumer.
Your consumer doesn’t know everything about you. Neither do you know everything about your consumer. So don’t presume anything while writing your web copy. Be creative but direct in your writing. Not respecting the knowledge gap can harm your business.
Be simple, be creative but don’t overdo it.
8. Give The Readers A Break
Rethink your content flow to include enough visual elements to give your readers a break between chunks of copy. The overload of digital information has caused the global attention span to narrow down to 8 seconds. This radicle shift has made business expand their capabilities in visual content, just to keep the user’s interest going. You can stop your reader from zoning out from your website or closing the tab by including visuals in your web copy.
You can add visuals to any type of web copy. Here are some formats to choose from:
- Photographs
- Artwork
- Charts and Graphs
- Slidedecks
- Video
- Infographics
- Quotes
Yes, even quotes from experts in the respective fields can add visual appeal and spike interest in readers due to their authority and credibility.
Remember children’s books, with wonderful illustrations along with beautiful stories? Make your website copy more magical by achieving a balance between words and images to make your content stand out and touch your reader’s heart.
Mobile-Friendly Website Copy
More than 3.5 billion searches happen through Google every single day. More than half of these searches are through mobile devices. Making your website copy mobile-friendly will help your audiences connect and read better with your web pages. Responsive design enables improved readability on devices such as mobile phones and tablets.
- Adjust the font size for mobile devices.
- Use short descriptions and add ‘read more’.
- Create chunks of content using white space and colours.
- Use long anchor text sentences.
- Add ‘tap here’ or ‘click here’ buttons.
- Front-load your content pieces by getting to the point fast.
- Maintain easy-to-click call to action.
- Compress images to quicken loading time.
- Leverage the power of scrolling lists.
Website Copy Formatting Secrets
Online writing is different from novel writing. Website visitors usually scan copy first rather than reading every word. Users then pick out content which reads relevant and then get to the information they are interested in reading.
We have curated a list of website copy formatting and structuring tips, which will help your copy be understandable to the reader.
- Use bullet points to emphasise on facts or lists
- Use different font sizes for headings and subheadings
- Write in shorter sentences and paragraphs with a maximum of 4 sentences
- Shorten your sentences by eliminating unneeded words and phrases
- Simplify your language for a wider audience
- Try swapping passive voice with active voice
- Delete repeated points
- Use second-person voice
- Use images and illustrations to make your point
- Eliminate stopping points such as difficult words or unclear messaging
- Ask another person to read your final draft
The most persuasive type of copywriting is honest copywriting. Accurate facts and words sell more than false or overpromising statements. To write good copy, you should always focus on making your copy user-friendly and scannable for a broad audience. Be honest, and your content will earn authority, readership, and SEO rankings.
And the magic will slowly brew.
About us
HESK Digital is a Sydney based digital marketing agency specialised in business growth. Take your business to the next level with our customised digital marketing solutions and innovative methodology. We are specialised in SEO, Pay Per Click and Social Media Advertising, Analytics and Copywriting. Our experts have over three decades of digital marketing experience in converting traffic into real sales through customised strategies.
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