The reason your website copy sucks (and how to fix it!)

Your website copy sucks!

It's so bad, even your mum won’t read it!

And it makes all your potential customers click that little 'x' in the corner of the tab!

 But don't worry, there are so many businesses around the world who are making the same customer-losing mistakes when it comes to wording and delivery. Like literally, millions of them!

 So let’s swallow our pride, and reflect!

Is your website copy as sharp and compelling as it could (or should) be?

Do the words on your pages convert visitors into customers, or turn them away?

If your website copy isn’t packing a powerful punch, you could be committing one of these 5 serious copywriting crimes!

1. WE, WE, WE! (instead of: YOU, YOU, YOU)

Talking about what you do as a company, how much experience you have, what your goals are, how AMAZING you are - is making your visitor’s eyes glaze over! It's not grabbing their attention, and it's not persuading them to whip out their debit cards!  

Your visitors are selfish!

They're only interested in themselves. How can you solve their problems? What can you do for them?

Paint a picture of how much better their lives will be with your products or services!

The word 'you' is a copywriting power word! So use it a lot, and use it often!

Of course, you still want to describe the features of your products and services, but instead of blandly stating these features - describe how they're beneficial to your customers directly!

Even your 'About Us' page should be customer-focused!

2. PARAGRAPHS THAT ARE TOO DARN LARGE TO SWALLOW

Let's be honest, people scrolling through the internet want their answers fast. They're gonna skim right through your copy until they find what they're looking for.

Or, they'll just give up completely because your paragraphs are too darn large to navigate!

 So, cut down your paragraphs into bite-sized chunks! And make it easy for your visitors to skim through by adding sub-headings and highlighting key points in bold.

3. HEADLINES THAT MAKE US YAWN

Your headline needs to act as your hook. This is such an important element to any sort of copy, as it's what draws people in in the first place.

Use proven headline formulas. It's really easy to do - just Google search for "winning headline formulas" and follow those. You'll find heaps!

For your homepage, you want to use something that's really clear and easy to follow. Something that tells people how you can benefit their lives in just a few words. (Because your visitors are impatient! Remember?)

4. TALKING TO THE CROWD, FROM THE CROWD

The best copywriting is always personal.

You want your copy to sound like someone is right there next to you uttering those very words!

But it's more than that - you also want copy that sounds like it was written for one individual person, not a whole nation.

Something I was taught in radio school, that works in any kind of customer targeting, is picturing exactly who you're talking to.

We would have a literal picture of a person in our studio. We'd know their name, their occupation, their age. It makes it so much easier to talk to one person when you know who that one person is!

Who is your generic customer? Picture him/her and write out your website copy like you're having a face-to-face convo.

Depending on who your person is (and the personality of your brand) will decide how formally or casually you should talk. But you should always speak to them in a personal way.

And never write about your company in the third person! This is the true-crime here!

5. INDUSTRY-SPECIFIC JARGON THAT NO ONE UNDERSTANDS

If you work in a pretty technical field (like maybe IT or law), it can be pretty easy to forget that the language you use every day at work, is really confusing to the average Joe!  

If your website is going to be read by someone who doesn't know your industry inside and out, then leave those technical words out!

Even workers in your own field are probably sick of reading technical jargon.  

It just doesn't make for a very interesting read.

You're safer just to leave out any industry-specific jargon. In fact, just don't include any jargon at all.  

So!

Are you beginning to see how you can make your website copy more juicy and effective?

If you're committing any of these crimes - you should probably do something about it!