Five Top Tips For Writing Effective Web Copy

In the digital landscape, many people think about what their website looks like and how well it’s performing. Now, though these are both important areas to consider, it’s equally as important to think about your on-page website copy.

Basic copy has the potential to draw in your audience, keep them engaged, and it allows them to respond in a way that you want them to react potentially. So for these reasons alone, this is why your copy is important.

So how do you go about writing effective and engaging website copy? Well, here are five examples.

First of all, make it personal. Remember that you’re writing for your audience. So always use “you” as opposed to “us” and “them” as this will make it more relevant to them, and they’ll be able to take what they want from the text. Always put yourself in their shoes and remember who you’re writing for. So first of all, make it personal.

Second of all, get straight to the point. Remember that you’ve only got a certain amount of time to grab their attention, your audience’s attention. So keep it short, snappy, and concise as opposed to using long, drawn out paragraphs. This will only cause your audience to lose interest. It’s best just to keep it concise, 250 to 500 words across all your pages is the recommended word count allowance.

Your homepage is arguably going to be slightly more. Services and products pages are going to be slightly less. Keep within these boundaries 250 to 500. This will have a greater effect on the search engines and also your audience. But remember that you’re writing for your audience first, before the search engines. Your audience are your primary focus in this example. So get straight to the point.

Third on the list, use strong calls to action. Now it’s advised you use at least one or two strong calls to actions within each page. I like to write the body of the text, then have a concluding paragraph at the end which says things like, “Contact us today to find out more information.” Other calls to action include “Buy Now” or “Click here now for further information.” Things like that, that are going to tell your audience what you want them to do.

Calls to action can be placed in the banner, the header, but obviously within your website copy, you want to have at least one within the actual text so that the reader can absorb this. You can tell them what you want them to do specifically. It’s a primary point of effective web copy. Think about your calls to action. Think about what you want your audience to do and remember to include them within each piece.

Fourth on the list, avoid jargon and industry specific terms. Now if you’re based in an industry, such as insurance or finance, where there are a lot of industry terms, you might understand what all of these mean, but that doesn’t mean to say that your audience will. So therefore, keep it simple. Keep it concise. If you do have to use these phrases, then the first time you use it within the copy, explain what it means clearly so that your audience and your viewers can understand it before you then go on to use it within the text. If you need to, otherwise don’t use it at all.

Worst case scenario if you are going to be really heavy on text and really heavily jargon based, worst case scenario is your audience will come to your site, they’ll view your pages, they’ll realize that they can’t understand the information, they’ll click off your pages, and they’ll go to your competitors, which is something you don’t want. So always make it easy to understand.

Finally, point number five, present a problem and a solution. This is a really good way that you can structure your web copy, one example of many. Present a problem and state why you as a company can resolve this issue and how you can help. List the benefits. Then, after that, include a strong call to action.

Like I say, this could be one way that you wish to phrase it. But it’s very effective as it allows your viewers to read the copy and then think about why it’s important for them to invest their time and their money in your products and services. Point number five, present a problem and a solution can also work here.

There are the five points that I wanted to run through today. Thanks for watching. For more information, please visit Koozai.com, or visit any of the social profiles after this video.