Website copy can be tricky, and I see a lot of people making the same common mistakes. Finding the right balance between telling people what you do, and overwhelming them with too much information is tough. 

You don’t want your copy to be too vague to the point where the reader doesn’t have a clue who you are and how you can help them. But at the same time, you don’t want to cover every single little detail of what you do, because that will just confuse the reader and weaken your message.

Don’t worry though, I’ve gotcha on this one! Not only am I going to tell you the most common mistakes I come across, but I’m also going to give a few tips on how to fix them.

1. No clear call to action (CTA)

Someone lands on your website (woohoo). They have a little read through your home page. Now what?

Oh, wait. You didn’t tell them. 

Don’t expect the reader to know what action you want them to take next. Because if you do, they are just going to bounce! EVERY page should have a CTA, and you need to make sure it’s REALLY clear what you want them to do next. 

Let people know what they’re getting when they click-through. Don’t be vague. If you want them to purchase something say “buy now”, if you want them to contact you say “get in touch”. Make it obvious, create a flow and lead them naturally to where you want them to go next. 

2. Not being clear what you do from the outset

As soon a someone lands on your website, they need to know they’ve come to the right place. If you make them search for the information, they’re going to move on to the next Google search result. 

How often do you visit a website, read their ‘about page’ and still have no clue what the person/ company actually does? 

From the second someone lands on your page, it should be blatantly OBVIOUS what you do! Write a key statement that sums up what you do, who you help and what problem you solve. Don’t be vague, and don’t overdo it on the buzzwords such as “authentic” and “high-value” – those words have been overused by marketers and don’t actually mean anything anymore.

3. Too much waffle 

You don’t need to write every single little thing you do. As the saying goes, sometimes “less is more”. 

I’m sorry to break it to you, but peoples attention span isn’t that long and they will often skim read content. So the wordier it is, the less likely you are to convert that person into a new client/ customer.

You don’t need to limit your services but, don’t be all things to all people. By picking a few key points it will be much easier for any potential clients to understand what you do, and how you can help them.

Here are a few tips on making your website copy more user friendly:

• Break up your paragraphs
• Add headings and bullet points
• Highlight or bold any keywords/phrases

4. Using ‘I’ instead of ‘you’

Think about it. When you visit a webpage, do you want to hear how amazingggggg someone is? Or do you just want to know how they can help YOU?

Yes, people want to see some creditability, but that is what the ‘about page’ is for. The thing people want more than anything is to feel like they are the priority when they visit your website. 

Instead of telling them about how great you are, tell them how great they will be when they purchase your service or product. How is it going to benefit them? How is it going to solve their problems? ALWAYS make it about the customer!

5. Stuffing your website copy full of keywords

You’ve spent time carefully crafting your website copy, and then gone and stuffed it full of keywords – all to try and rank higher on search engines.

No one want’s to read…

“I am a content creator and I create the best content for businesses looking for content creation services. If you are looking for the best content creator, I can create content for your business.”

And Google doesn’t want to read this either! The days of raking highly just because you added a tonne of keywords into your copy are long gone, and Google will actually penalise you for doing it!

Of, course we want the search engines to find our page, but people want to know there’s an actual human being on the other side of the computer. If you were to speak to a potential client on the phone, how would you talk to them? Because that’s how you should write your website copy.

On-site SEO is far more than just webpage copy. It’s also in the headings, meta-descriptions, URL and ALT tags. If you want to know more I’ve written a whole post on it > here.

6. Writing copy yourself

As tempting as it may be to try and save some money, writing copy is a specialist skill! When you invest in a professional, you are investing in someone who understands the art of commercial writing. 

Believe it or not, hiring someone generally works out more cost-effective than ‘having a go’ yourself. How? Because, if your website copy is ON POINT – you’ll convert more people into sales! Plus you’ll have more to time focus on other areas of your business.

If your budget is too tight to be able to hire someone for every project, why not consider hiring one to cover the basics, such as your core website pages and marketing literature.

Stand out from the crowd

Always remember who you are writing to. Give advice. Be helpful and engaging. Try having a conversation. All of those things will give you the edge over the big faceless brands, and your customers will reward you for it. 

If you want to help creating some killer copy for your website, you can get in touch with me here, I’d be happy to help.