Your website is the first impression of your business. If it doesn’t grab peoples attention straight away, they’re going to click off and find one that does. One way of drawing people in is with pretty web design, however, images alone will not sell your product or services. 

When I first created my website, I got fixated on all the design features. I had to remind myself of what I preach. Having a stunning website has its benefits. It can showcase your personal style, who you are, as well as triggering different emotions and feelings from the reader. However, these feelings will quickly fade if the content on the site doesn’t live up to the hype of its design.

The content of your website, how it is written and displayed are crucial elements of an effective website that actually converts visitors into paying customers. 

Why is it so important? Let’s find out…

1. Getting found and ranked by search engines

Love it or hate it, search engine optimisation (SEO) is what determines if you make it on to the first page of Google or get banished to depths of page 12. There is a lot of information out there about the various SEO strategies you can adopt, but there is one thing they all agree on. Good copy will help you rank higher.

• Well placed copy improves your ranking for relevant keywords. It’s important to pay close attention to main headings, sub-headings, keyword placements and the length of copy.
• Google loves original content. Stealing copy from someone else is not just legally and morally wrong, it will also damage your search ranking.

There is also a backend to SEO. The more technical stuff that people don’t always appreciate because it can’t always been seen, such as:

• URL names
• Meta descriptions
• Title tags
• H1, H2, H3 tags
• SEO plugin settings
• Correct image size
• Alt text
• And more…

These are all aspects of SEO you need to consider in order for your website to get found. If you want to learn more about the technical side of SEO, I wrote a whole blog post on it >here<.

2. Attracting the RIGHT attention

It’s all well and good attracting lots of visitors to your website through SEO, but are they the right visitors? Are they your ideal client? If not, maybe you’re playing it too safe by trying to speak to everyone?

Using the right headlines will help qualify the traffic to your website. Having an in-depth understanding of your niche and focusing your website copy on answering their problems will help attract the right visitors. As for everyone else… don’t worry about them, they were never going to convert anyway. 

3. Keeping people’s attention

Grabbing people’s attention is the easy part, keeping it is a whole different ball game. Did you know 55% of all page views only get a few seconds of attention? 

What does that mean for you?

If your content is bland and not engaging, you can kiss that valuable traffic goodbye.

You can’t just throw 3,000 random words at a page and expect it to engage your website visitors. You need to make sure your writing is good. Really good in fact. Each sentence should drive them on to the next, all the way to your sale message. 

Remember, get to the point and don’t waffle!

4. Easy to navigate

Nothing is going to scare potential customers off more than a website they can’t navigate. Your website should showcase what you do and what you’re selling – but don’t expect visitors to go looking for this information. 

A really effective way to enhance user experience is to ensure your website copy and layout are on point. Keep it short, precise, simple and separated appropriately with key headings and bullet points to make it much more readable for the user.

5. Get people to take action

Never leave a page on your website without a call to action. The chances of that viewer leaving your website are going to be higher if they haven’t be given something further to do.

Do you want people to book a call, sign up to your email list, download a freebie? Good website copy will make them far more likely to take action, bad copy will make sure they don’t! 

GainTap carried out a test where they changed just one word in their call to action (CTA) and it cut their leads by 81%! Crazy right?

6. Make more sales

Persuading your visitors to buy your products or services over your competitors isn’t easy. Your website copy needs to communicate your offer in a compelling way. Make sure people understand exactly what you offer, how you can help them, and want to take you up on it.

I’ve worked with clients who thought the reason their offer wasn’t converting was that the offer sucked. But, the real reason was that the offer was buried in large bodies of text and no one could actually find it.

How to create an effective website that converts

Website copy is one of the most important elements of your website because it contains the message, tone, and call to actions for potential clients. Therefore, you should think hard about who you want to write it. Even if you are a strong writer, there are other things to consider before tackling the important task of writing your website copy.

As tempting as it might be to save a few pennies, writing copy is a specialist skill! By investing in a professional, you are investing in someone who understands the fine art of commercial writing.

If you’re a new business or you’ve tried DIYing your website and it hasn’t worked, I have a Black Friday offer you won’t want to miss. 

• Ideal client strategy
• SEO research 
• x 4 pages of website copy of your choice
• Optimised layout and headings
• Technical SEO

All for just €527!! 😲

Click >here< to find out more about this amazing offer (it will never be this cheap again).