When creating a website the most important thing to consider isn’t the colours, the images or the layout. The most important factor to consider is the text that goes onto the pages. The words you choose and the way you use them will make a huge difference to how people view your site; if this is done well you will turn curious visitors into paying customers.

Even with text so important, website copywriting is often left until the last minute, and even those who appreciate how vital it is will often be unaware how to write effectively for the web.

Here are 7 tips to keep in mind in order to make the most of your website copy. Whether you are writing a website sales page, a product listing, a news article or blog post, we hope these tips come in useful.

When writing for web…

1. Keep your sales pitch in mind

There isn’t much loyalty on the web and with people easily distracted and happy to seek out your competitors, you need to write content that makes its mark. Whatever your USPs (unique selling points), make sure they are on show and in the headings and subheadings.

When writing a web page, always think of a couple of messages you’d like to get across – the core messages that help your business stand out – and focus the structure of the page around them. Always include a Call to Action explaining how people should enquire.

2. Make sure people can skim-read

When using the web, people tend to make split-second decisions and will quickly hop around from one page to the next. Online consumer behaviour shows that large chunks of text will go unread due to short attention spans and a lack of time. Chop your message into bite-sized chunks; this ensures that when people quickly skim over a page, they still pick up the main messages you want to deliver. You can do this successfully by breaking large paragraphs into smaller sections of text complete with subheadings and bullet points.

3. Have clear keyword focus

Every single web page should focus on at least one key-phrase which is commonly used by customers searching for the products and services you offer. All parts of the page, including the title, headings and meta data, should support these key-phrases.

It is important to remember that the search engines rank webpages, not websites. Keyword focus should be different on each page of your site so you don’t find yourself with web pages which compete against one another.

Trying to fit too many keywords on a page is another common fault. You can only really fit a couple of closely related key phrases on a page, so pick those that matter the most and save the rest for other pages.

4. Don’t overcomplicate the issue

Don’t write web copy that confuses people. This sounds like common sense, but so many websites are far too clever for their own good. In some industries jargon is acceptable, but complicated words that require a dictionary aren’t. The internet has given people from all walks of life access to your website, so make sure they understand what they read, regardless of their level of education.

Many website copywriters think of website visitors as secondary school students. This is the level to write to. Here is a useful tool which will help you determine the readability of your text. 

5. Create unique content

Website content needs to be completely different to anything else you’ve written as, when browsing online, people’s reading patterns change drastically. Simply using the same text you have used for offline media such as brochures and articles will not achieve the desired results.

Google and the other search engines really dislike duplicate content. If your website uses text that is found elsewhere on the web, the search engines will not consider your site as important; consequently you won’t rank as highly as you might.

6. Keep search engines and searchers in mind

There are cut off points where search engines will stop reading. A page title, including characters and spaces, should be under 65 characters. A meta description should be under 155 characters. 

Page titles and meta descriptions appear along with your URL in the search results. Along with making sure they are keyword-rich, these should really sell your site’s offering and differentiate your products and services as much as possible from those offered by the competition.

7. Highlight the benefits, not the features

An age-old copywriting tip, but one that is so often forgotten; always communicate the benefits, not the features. Otherwise known as ‘selling the sizzle, not the bacon’, it’s based on the idea that people don’t make buying decisions on the product or service itself, but rather the outcome that it brings.

Consider why people would use your offering. Does it save them time? Does it make their life easier or their money go further? Does it make them happier or healthier? Whatever it does, make sure this is put across clearly instead of, or more prominently than, the features and components that make up the offering.

Writing AdWords copy has become a modern day art form, one that many SEM’s have refined over years to take advantage of the 4 line structure. I’m sure we have all slaved over that phrase or line which is just 1 character too long! Well, Google have recently made things more challenging – thanks very much - by adding variable line lengths to the equation.

In the past we have written ads which fit within the following structure:

Title: 25 characters max
Line 2: 35 characters max
Line 3: 35 characters max
Display URL: 35 characters max

This strict format has often seen punctuation omitted in favour of that last character and to date we have been able to get away with it because we know exactly how our ad will appear in Google. Variable line lengths change this by expanding or contracting the line length in relation to the size of a user’s browser.

The result is that an ad you may have spent ages over will now appear in a completely different way to different users thereby losing some of its advertising appeal in the process.

So what does this mean for future copy?

Good copywriters won’t be fazed by this change. A good copywriter will create dynamic copy which reads well regardless, but the correct use of punctuation will now become critical to ensure your advertising message gets through the way you intended. Reviewing existing ads and altering them accordingly would also be advisable.

The growth of Liberty Marketing over the past few months has been so dramatic that we have brought in another new member of staff. The latest recruit is Nathan Jeans, whose primary responsibilities will be SEO copywriting, article creation and press release distribution.

With a business and marketing degree and a postgraduate diploma in newspaper journalism to his name, Nathan promises to have an interesting mixture of skills that will really benefit Liberty and its clients. Having worked most recently as a freelance writer, Nathan has produced articles for The Guardian and The National Geographic, as well as countless articles for numerous sport magazines, where football, cricket and darts were particularly well received. When not working, Nathan particularly enjoys partaking in the afore mentioned sports, with the exception of cricket, where apparently his technique lets him down!

Managing director, Gareth Morgan commented, “We are delighted to have Nathan onboard. I have worked with dozens of external copywriters over the past few years, but it’s great to actually have someone in-house who can get to know the ins and outs of the company and our clients, and produce copy that represents the ethos and professionalism we have here at Liberty. I have had a good look at his past work and am very impressed by its creative and personable nature. I really do see a lot of good things ahead for the future.”

Many of these tips may seem obvious but it is surprising how many new clients we take on haven’t considered any of them. Have a quick run through these to see a few of the basic ways of turning curious website visitors into customers.

1. Highlight relevance

A visitor will disappear within seconds if they don’t see evidence that they’ve discovered what they are looking for. Make it obvious that you can help them. Add titles and sub-titles that describe and sell your business (remember to also include keywords) and make sure you include images that show your products or illustrate your services. Could you also add a brief bullet-point list of why you are the only supplier they should consider?

2. Build trust

The internet is filled with tricksters, so people are weary of dealing with new names. Remove any anxiety by showing what a reputable business you run. Place testimonials around the site to highlight that you have done a good job for people in the past and use your “About Us” page to give a little background info on your business and to re-affirm your main messages. If you can paint the picture that dealing with your business is completely hassle-free then visitors will not feel a strong need to check out your competitors.

3. Tell them what to do next

Surprisingly, something vitally important but often lacking from the copy on a web page is a Call to Action, i.e. an instruction of how to proceed. People are used to these and without them your conversion rates will always be low. Remind visitors at the end of your sales message that you want them to “Call now” or “”Enquire here” and in doing so, they will. If you can add some urgency, like “Free trial to the first 10 people to call this number” then it’s even more influential.

4. Answer questions before they are asked

Visitors have lots of questions buzzing around their head and if your site doesn’t answer them then they’ll bounce off to find one that does. “Can this product solve my problem?”, “How long does delivery take?”, “What happens if something goes wrong?”, etc.  Pre-empt these questions by building them into your website copy and by creating an FAQ section that sales pages point to. This is also a good way of showing off the experience you have within your market.

5. Be interesting as well as persuasive

Simply throwing sentences together for the sake of having something on your website isn’t going to win you any new customers. Each web page needs to tell an informative, compelling story that convinces prospective customers to deal with your business. All things considered, the text on your website is the most influential component and you need to make sure that your website is a highly effective salesman.

If you are not experienced in writing copy that can attract visitors as well as sell to them then invest in some professional SEO copywriting.