Timeless Tips for Writing Powerful Website Copy
Improving the copy on your website will increase conversions better than any other optimization change. Updating your written content will help you convert traffic and give you ancillary SEO benefits.
Better copy means people stay on your site longer which increases your time on site metric, and decreases your bounce rate. Dwell time is a data point that search engines use to rank your site and this is a metric of quality.
Creating a good story and compelling narrative is the best way to persuade, inspire and convince. As you know from children, they don’t ask for a bedtime bullet list, they ask for a bedtime story.
Tell a good story and you will have a winning website.
- Follow the 3 P’s: Preview > Proof > Post. Preview your content as it will look on your site, proof the text, then post with no errors.
- Use compelling headings. This makes websites easy to skim and can lure the reader deeper.
- Immediately answer the visitor’s first question, “Am I in the right place?” You only get 12 seconds to make a good impression.
- Use hooks to draw the visitor in. Action words and verbs will create interest.
- Carefully Create a Call to Action. Ask your visitors to perform a specific task such as signing up for a newsletter, completing a contact form, registering for a contest.
- Be personal and easy going. Include visitors in your website’s conversation and make them be a part of your story.
- Use pronouns such as you, you’re, your business. People love to read about themselves and will connect with you if they feel you care about their problems.
- Promote benefits not features. Benefits are about them, but features are from your website. This is repeated again: say you not we.
- Proofread with multiple editors. Always have more than one person review your copy.
- Never assume your visitor knows who you are or what you are offering. Explain in plain, clear, basic english what you sell and how it works and why they need you.
Writing good copy can be the difference of a successful website and a website that does not make money. Channel your inner wordsmith to make your online content sing and I guarantee good things will happen.
4 Responses
I am amazed by the grade of information about writing copy for conversion, our pages all have less than 100 words on them.
Interesting copywriting ideas, I never thought of it like that.
After reading the article, I just feel that I need more information on the topic. Could you share some more SEM resources ?