5 Ways To Improve Your Website Copy Right Now
Does your business’s website feel like an art gallery: lots of people look but no one signs up or buys anything? Then you may have a problem with your website copy.
Website copy is the words you see on a website which conveys a marketing message. It’s not just the headline: testimonials, paragraphs, and text boxes are all types of copy.
Wouldn’t it be nice to quickly fix your website’s copy? Read ahead for five ways to do just that.
1) Breakup Long Paragraphs
People scan websites instead of reading them.
When was the last time you read every word on a website? You can spend your entire life reading online content and never finish. To keep their sanity viewers have to tune out the noise, and a giant paragraph falls in that category.
At the same time, hundreds of single-line paragraphs are annoying. They make viewers scroll for too long, losing their interest. A nice mix of both holds their attention while keeping the information bite-sized.
Have one thought per sentence and one idea per paragraph.
2) Sequence Logically
Testimonials should come before the product offer.
Have you ever been on the prowl for a new book to read? Think back to a book recommendation a friend gave you. Did you consider it, even if you didn’t end up reading it?
What if the recommendation came after you wanted a book? That would be pretty worthless, right?
The power of a testimonial could be the difference between buying one product over another. Attention is a hot commodity— we’re drowning in options for everything from maple syrup to bungee jumping lessons.
Putting your testimonials ahead of the products or services paints the rest of the copy in that picture. Viewers should know the benefits before getting smacked with a price.
3) Review Grammar Rules
This one is obvious, but nothing kills your credibility like bad grammar. Sometimes, however, rules must be broken.
To break the rules of style, you need to understand why you’re breaking them. If you’re leaving out a subject or predicate (remember those?) is it to emphasize your personal brand? Or are you doing it because you like slam poetry?
Proper grammar is the playing field. Move within it to win the game, but understand the field changes over time— whether that’s your personal brand or the English language. Every word, comma, and period has a purpose.
I recommend The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. It’s a short but punchy refresher on the grammar you snoozed through in English class.
4) Cut Out Excessive Words
Now, getting around to this point is where the topic will start to get interesting.
Did you read that sentence and cringe? Good— I used fifteen words to say what I could have in four: it gets interesting here.
This is where you wield the grammar that you just refreshed like a machete in the jungle: slash through the passive voice, cut down unnecessary adverbs, and tear apart those clunky prepositions.
And don’t be afraid of contractions. People use them when speaking and it trims down your word count.
5) Highlight Keywords
Remember: people are scanning, not reading, your website copy. Make the important information the most visible.
Using bullet points and numbers keeps the copy manageable. It tells the viewer there’s an end. Breaking up the text with subtitles holds their attention as well.
When you read something, you spend time processing that information. If you break up— or digest— that information for someone, that’s valuable. It saves them time. You’re not “dumbing down” the information but getting the mental heavy lifting out of their way.
This Scratches the Surface
There are hundreds of ways to improve your website’s copy. You could even hire a professional website copywriter if you really want to save some time (hint hint, nudge nudge).