Great website copy does more than fill space—it guides visitors, builds trust, and drives conversions. But even well-intentioned copy can undermine your website’s effectiveness if it contains certain mistakes.
Here are some common copy writing missteps that could be hurting your website’s performance and recommendations on how to fix them.
Focusing on Yourself, Not Your Customer
“Us” versus “You”
The Mistake: Many businesses fill their website with “we” and “our” statements, focusing on their own accomplishments and features
The Fix: Shift the focus to your customer. Highlight the benefits they’ll receive. Use “you” and “your” to address them directly. Answer the question, “What’s in it for me?”.
For example, instead of “We offer cutting-edge technology,” try “You’ll experience faster, more efficient results.”
The Boring About Page
The Mistake: An about page often provides detailed information about the website owner and how the company began. Too often, none of this information is presented in a way that’s relevant to the visitor.
The Fix: Figure out what your target audience cares about and decide how your story can convey those values. Trim out any excess. You’ll have time to develop a relationship with your visitor once they’re sold on your products or services. For now, just share the facts about your brand that are relevant to your audience.
Jargon and Industry Speak
The Mistake: Using technical terms and jargon that your audience may not understand.
The Fix: Speak the language of your target audience. Take some time to think of the terminology that your audience is likely to use in their daily lives. Make that terminology the wording you rely on to write your text.
Things to watch out for:
- Industry buzzwords may mean something to you as the owner, but might be confusing to your audience.
- Idioms, such as “beat around the bush”, can unintentionally limit your audience to native English speakers.
- “Big words” and complex vocabulary might force your audience to do research in order to understand your text.
Industry terminology, folksy idioms, or sophisticated vocabulary might actually resonate with your target audience, in which case, it’s perfectly fine to use them. Just make sure that the phrasing you choose was selected to best reach your audience.
Ignoring SEO Best Practices
The Mistake: Not following SEO best practices. This can result in too much SEO, too little SEO or SEO that’s poorly applied.
- Keyword stuffing: Adding so many keywords to your text that it becomes awkward or confusing to read.
- Waiting until after you’ve written your copy to consider SEO. This can result in the need for a complete rewrite of your pages.
- Using headings and subheadings that don’t contain keywords.
The Fix:
- Understand your audience and find keywords they’re likely to use.
- Create an SEO plan for each page before you write the content for each page.
- Only incorporate keywords if you can do so without sacrificing readability.
- Use descriptive headings and subheadings that contain keywords.
- Optimize meta descriptions and title tags.
Good SEO will help you rank higher in search results and help your visitors find what they’re looking for on your site without making your text choppy or difficult to read.
Weak or Non-Existent Calls to Action (CTAs)
Missing CTA
The Mistake: Failing to direct visitors to the next action you’d like them to take.
The Fix: Make sure you include a CTA on each page in an easy to find location. Look for opportunities to include a CTA within the text of some of your pages. Placing a CTA in the header and footer of your website will ensure your CTA is visible no matter what page your visitor is on.
Vague CTA
The Mistake: Calls to action that are vague or unclear such as “Find Out Now”, “Learn More” and “Click Here”.
The Fix: Make your call to action succinct but descriptive enough to be self explanatory such as “Schedule a Free Consultation” or “Get A Quote”.
Inconsistent Brand Voice
The Mistake: The tone, or personality, of your text noticeably changes throughout your site. For example, switching from a professional tone to a sarcastic tone could make visitors uneasy about your company culture.
The Fix: If you haven’t given much thought to the tone of your writing, it’s a good idea to work through the steps of developing your tone before you get started on your website copy. There are some good free resources online including this article: How to Define Your Brand’s Tone of Voice from Semrush.
Poor Readability
The Mistake: Large blocks of text, small font sizes, and poor formatting.
The Fix:
- Use short paragraphs, bullet points, and subheadings to break up text.
- Use a legible font and font size.
- Ensure there is enough spacing between text and images.
- Make sure your text contrasts with the background by at least 4.5:1.
Remember, visitors scan website copy. Create content that’s easy to scan.
Failure to Build Trust
Lack of Social Proof
The Mistake: Not showcasing testimonials, reviews, or case studies.
The Fix: Build trust by including social proof on your website.
- Display customer testimonials, ratings, and reviews.
- Highlight case studies that demonstrate your expertise and success.
Failure to Set Expectations
The Mistake: Your website copy doesn’t tell customers what to expect about the purchasing process.
The Fix: Your website should include text that explains to visitors what they can expect each time they take a specific step. If you’re asking them to make a purchase, call for a consultation or sign up for a newsletter, explain what the process is as well as the outcome.
Mimicry
The Mistake: Mimicking the copy writing on a competitors website.
The Fix: Focus on what’s different about your company. How do you address problems that your competitors don’t? Is there a specific type of experience you have that your competitors lack and which gives you additional insight?
Remember, you may see a lot of your competitors using similar phrasing but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s effective copy writing. After all, mimicry is common because it’s easy and doesn’t take a lot of thinking, not because it works.
How to Write Good Website Copy
Good copy writing requires thoughtfulness, strategy and a good understanding of your unique audience. We recommend working with a professional to help guide you through the process.
If you’re interested in writing copy for a new website or updating the copy on your existing website, we’d be happy to help. Contact us for a free consultation.