What Is Website Copy?
The digital realm is run by various types of content: videos, pictures, audio, and most importantly, copy. Copy is the most common type of content to be seen on the Internet. It is the written text that informs users, conveys complex information, and helps direct search engines.
Website copy is effective when it can accomplish these goals: entertain, persuade, educate and convert. It will be able to help you attract more visitors to your website via search engine ranking. In addition, it will motivate visitors to take action, such as make a purchase, subscribe, become a member, or schedule an appointment. These are all fundamental to the success of your business.
How to write compelling website copy
Lucky for you, this blog will teach you how to create effective website copy. Soon your website will reach a wider audience, provide users with useful information, and persuade visitors to convert.
1. Emphasize your target audience’s pain points.
As much as you want your customers to know more about your business, don’t fall into the rookie mistake of being too full of yourself. You should not be making your visitors spend too much time reading about your accomplishments, distinctions, how many cups of coffee you had, or whether you’re a cat/dog person. This is not the main reason why people visit your website.
Remember, you only have that few seconds before people start losing interest. So make sure your website copy hits home by addressing your target audience’s pain points. For example, how can your products or services solve the problem that they are facing? If you’re selling nutritional supplements, highlight the health benefits that come with it or emphasize how customers can expect instant results. Ultimately, your goal is to persuade visitors to push that purchase button.
2. Refine your brand voice so that it resonates with your ideal customers.
The tone and style of your website copy define the voice of your brand. Do you wish to establish a fun, witty, professional, or scholarly voice? It is crucial to maintain editorial consistency with your writing to build your brand identity. However, to take this up a notch, you should focus on the “voice of the customer” (VOC).
The VOC is a common marketing technique that aims to engage customers in their own language. Website copy that reflects the voice of your customers allows them to build a deeper connection, which further motivates them to support your brand. This is your chance to express your brand’s unique persona and develop strong relationships with your customers.
Identifying the VOC means conducting extensive research and collecting critical data that is exclusive to your ideal customers. For example, are there any popular slangs or terminologies that they use? Is there a shared interest or dislike amongst your customers? Once you can write in the VOC, you won’t have to worry about visitors bouncing off your site.
3. Enforce brand values that align with your target audience.
Consumers are becoming more conscious of the companies they support. In our Gen Z vs Millennials blog, we learned that 90% of Gen Z believes companies must help social and environmental issues. In addition, 75% of them will do the extra research to check if a company is honest with its stand on issues.
A mission statement is a great way to enforce your brand values. It helps prospective clients and partners to learn about your business. It also serves as a straightforward summary of your business. A strong one will help you earn faith and trust from your prospective customers. And guess what? Your website is the best place to promote your mission statement and company values!
To find out the attributes that consumers associate your brand with, you can always conduct market research. How do prospective customers actually see your company? What more would they like to see? These all essential to bridging existing gaps that you might not have been aware of and build a more respectable reputation.
4. Take advantage of Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
SEO is a marketing practice that involves optimizing a website to rank well on search engine results. Since there is so much content on the Internet, search engines are responsible for analyzing and storing all the information in a database. When someone runs a search related to your business, Google may display your website on the results page. Thus, earning you website traffic.
One of the most significant factors that influence SEO is the quality of your website copy. This includes the type of keywords you use and the credibility of your content. For example, if you’re offering plumbing services, your website copy should highlight keywords that prospective customers would search for: “Best plumbing service near me” or “Professional plumber in [city name].” Local SEO would work in your favour here because it provides users with a more targeted location to search for your business.
To further boost your website’s authority, you should include statistics, quotes, and original content. The worst thing you could do is put plagiarized content in your website copy. Search engines are highly advanced these days and can easily detect copied work. This puts you at risk of ranking lower on search engine results pages.
Statistics are useful information that magnifies your credibility. It’s one thing to claim that you’re the best plumber in town, but it’s an entirely different thing to say that over 99% of your customers are satisfied with your services. You can even quote customer reviews to strengthen your claims. Not only does this help your SEO ranking, but you’re also more likely to earn prospective customer’s trust.
5. Conduct A/B testings to determine the best copy.
Unfortunately, the hustle does not end here. Just because you’ve created a website copy for your audience, it does not mean that it’s the best version yet. You need to conduct regular A/B testings to determine which copy is most effective. In other words, is your website copy designed to reach its fullest potential and drive the maximum number of sales through the door?
It will be impossible to test out the impact of every single word of your website copy. You just need to focus on your highest-value pages, a.k.a. the pages that bring killer conversion rates. These might be your website homepage, product or services overview page, or even your FAQ page.
You can use Google Analytics to determine the best-performing web pages and analyze the results of your A/B testings. All you need to do is create two versions of the page you wish to test, each with its own unique elements. Split your total number of traffic into two equal groups. Send one group to the original page and send the other half to the variant (the page with the new copy). Depending on how active your website is, provide sufficient time to collect enough data to analyze.
To determine the most effective website copy, your test copy should prompt users to do something like signing up for membership, follow your socials, or make a purchase. This would be the most reliable metric to measure the practicality of your copy. Some more website copy elements you should consider testing include:
Questions versus statements in headlines
Headline length
Short-form versus long-form copy
Language and word choice
Points of view (i.e. first-person versus third-person)
Creating effective website copy is a process.
Remember, your website is the face of your business to many online consumers. All the content that you add to your website copy, be it the “Get To Know Us” page or brief product descriptions, should enforce your brand voice. Your end goal is to seamlessly direct people towards your intended action. This means knowing your target audience fully, including their preferred writing tone and style.
Maintaining website copy is a continuous process. You need to always search for the best techniques to improve your SEO, build strong relationships with your target audience, and keep your website up to date by posting new content on a regular basis.
FAQs
What is a website copy?
A website copy is the written text that visitors read when browsing through your website. It informs visitors what they need to know about your brand. This can be found all over your website. It is highly essential to master your website copy as it is the text that helps you sell your business. How you present your website copy can quickly determine whether prospective customers want to support your brand or not.
Is it really important to have effective website copy?
Effective website copy is the masterpiece of a copywriter. The goal is to promote your business, draw your audience’s interest, and persuade them to make a purchase. If you don’t provide compelling and engaging content, you miss out on the opportunity to win over prospective customers.
However, a masterful website copy will be in vain if your website design is flawed. For example, if you have a slow-loading page or unreadable fonts, visitors are bound to leave your website. As such, you should focus on improving all aspects of your website.
How can I tell if my website copy is working effectively?
It is essential to check your progress from time to time. This allows you to measure whether your website copy is accomplishing its objectives, such as generating leads and sales.
The best way to track your website’s performance is through Google Analytics. This helps you view how many people are visiting your pages and how long they spend on each page.
Additionally, you can analyze your competitor’s websites. What SEO techniques are they incorporating? What are their call-to-action phrases? And most importantly, how can you make your website copy stand out compared to them? Another way is by speaking to your customers directly. This can be in the form of a short survey that customers are invited to fill out after making a purchase. Often, your customers can give you answers that numbers cannot. For example, you get to find out if a specific headline or keyword caught your customer’s attention. Did they dislike anything about your website copy?
The trick to creating effective website copy is to always be on the lookout for new improvements. Certain elements related to your business, target audience, and marketplace are bound to evolve. So always treat your website as a work in progress.
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