What is website copywriting?
Website copywriting is the art of crafting clear, concise content for landing pages, product pages, blog posts and more to communicate what you do and why you do it.
Your goal in writing this content is to connect with customers and prospects while guiding them to act on your call to action.
Well that sounds easy enough, right?
My goodness is it hard. You’re taking the value of what you do and putting it in a three-word H1. And you’re transitioning your 25-page value proposition documentation and turning it into three 20-word modules that span your homepage.
Website copywriting is incredibly time-intensive to write only a few hundred words per page. I found it is far more difficult than drafting a blog, social media post or product brochure.
You have a measly 6-8 seconds to grab the website visitor’s attention before they bounce. So use that time wisely.
What is Website Copywriting and What Does It Have to Do with SEO
The terms website and SEO have become synonymous. You can’t have one without the other. The pain of that reality is that too often companies lead with SEO and copywriting follows. I’m a huge proponent of doing things the other way around where the copywriting takes precedent, and the SEO strategy follows behind.
I don’t care how great your SEO strategy is, if customers come to your site and bounce quickly because the content is flat, you’ll have worthless traffic that does nothing to grow your business.
And Google is starting to agree with me.
Recent algorithm changes have aimed to reward outstanding copywriting. With artificial intelligence, search engines can understand language far better and penalize companies with chunky blocks of text, poor copywriting and thin content even more than before.
So if you’re worried about hiring an SEO strategist before focusing on hiring a high-quality freelance copywriter, you’re doing things backward. And if your SEO strategist thinks that the quality of your website content doesn’t matter, it’s time to do more interviews as you search for a better partner.
Why Does Website Copywriting Matter?
Every word you use should be strategic. You should comb through every webpage on your site and ask yourself if it’s necessary. Is there a better way to say what you need to say? Or can you say it with greater brevity?
Great content will encourage your audience to take the next step with your company. Whether that’s signing up for your email newsletter or purchasing your products, the calls to action matter as much as the content that leads up to them.
Quality content will decide just how long your website visitor stays.
How to Write Great Website Content
Now to the how-to part of the article, which is probably what you care about more than the “why” behind it all.
1. Start with an Understanding of Your Audience
Above all else, you have to know your customers. Take some time to outline who they are, what they’re interested in and what’s forcing them to look for your services.
I like the HubSpot persona template because it’s easy to use and helps you think about your target audience in a very real way.
You can’t write great copy until you know your customer. That’s because great content is dependent on who you’re writing it for.
What resonates with one subset of the country won’t with a totally different subset.
2. Summarize Your Value in Simple Statements
Take what you do and boil it down to 3-5 words or up to 7 if you really need the added words. Those values should be prominent on your homepage and should be some of the statements that you lead with.
3. Outline Your Website’s Structure
And as you create an outline, try to keep it as simple as possible while still communicating the key pieces of information that are crucial.
Understanding what content you need will help you get started with outlining what you say on each page.
4. Write the Content Without Worrying About Perfection
Find a good time to write your content when you won’t be preoccupied. I’m a huge fan of doing work like this first thing in the morning, but I know some people aren’t morning people. You know yourself best so choose your most productive time and just write.
Don’t worry about how long the content is or how perfect. Be clear and candid. Think like the customer and write to their needs.
The less you worry about meeting certain objectives while writing, the more natural it will sound. And whatever you do, don’t worry about SEO keywords. Those come later.
5. Read Your Copy Like a Customer
Review your company personas before reading your copy. Put yourself in the mindset of your customers. And then be critical.
Strike any content that isn’t necessary and simplify the verbiage as best you can.
This is the time to be careful with how you say things. The editing of your content might take 2 or even 3 times as long as it did to write the content.
6. Add in SEO keywords
Now you’re ready to strategically add in SEO keywords based on the copy you’ve written. Don’t go too crazy with adding in keywords though. Pick only the most relevant and strategic options and go from there.
7. Get Another Person to Review Your Copy
Find a trusted business-minded friend who can read your content. Show them your personas first. Ask them to read through your content and offer advice.
Ask questions like:
- Is it clear what I’m saying?
- Do I lead with the customer or the products and services I’m selling?
- Do you understand the value that my product or service offers?
This process is slow and strategic because it’s the foundation of your online identity. What you write here will decide how successful your other digital marketing initiatives are because they likely all lead back to your website.
Want to turn these seven steps into just one? Hire a website copywriter. Schedule your free consultation with Bridge the Gap Communication to learn about our expertise and what we’ll bring to your website content writing experience.
Website Copywriting FAQs
Learn more about drafting content for your most essential marketing tool: your website. Here are some additional questions and answers.
Is a Website Content or Copywriting?
When seeking a writer to aid in your website content, you should be looking for a copywriter and not a content writer. Copywriters generally have additional marketing know-how that content writers lack.
How Is Copywriting Done for Web?
Copywriting for the web generally takes a customer-first approach and uses first and second person more than other forms of content.
Who Writes Website Content?
Copywriters are best equipped to write website content. That’s because they know consumer behavior and marketing tactics in addition to how to craft clear, concise content.