Deckchair

Writing Copy for your website

During the process of designing a website I find that very often the job of writing the copy for the site is completely underestimated. I suppose to the client the look and functionality of the website are foremost in their minds. Of course these are vitally important, but getting the copy right is also important and should not be overlooked.

When you actually sit down to write about your own company or services you will probably find that it is quite hard. It is not uncommon for people to struggle with it and then have to extend the deadline of their website or seek professional copywriting services at the last minute.

The main thing to remember is; keep reminding yourself of who you are writing for. Firstly you are writing for your web visitors (or human audience) who you will hopefully convert into customers. Secondly you are writing for the search engines to ensure good positions in the listings.

For your human visitors the main things to bear in mind are:

• Focus on the benefit to the reader – Be sure to tailor the copy to the reader’s interests or the benefits to their business. How can your product or service make a difference to them? Nobody wants to read endless drivel about when your company was founded, what you eat for breakfast etc etc.

• Keep the first paragraph of any body of text simple and to the point – readers can get the information that they want quickly and then make the choice to read on for more detailed information if they want to.

• Don’t confuse your objective with long words or over wordy sentences.

• Check your spelling and grammar – Not very professional to have misspelled words all over the place.

For the Search Engines, bear these points in mind:

• Keep each body of text focused on a researched key phrase – The search engine crawlers scan the text and analyze it to find out what the page is about. It is important that you thoroughly research the key phrases that your visitors use, so that your page will be listed high on the search engine results pages for that term.

• Keyword Density – Getting the balance right is important. You need to make sure that the relevant key words/phrases appear in the copy but you don’t want to over do it either. Google in particular can spot a piece of copy that is overloaded with a key phrase a mile away and you might be penalized for keyword stuffing. (Your human readers won’t like it either).

So, whatever your product or service, be sure to keep both audiences happy when writing the copy for your website. Any other top tips out there?

Toni