Top ten tips for winning website copy

Imagine the opening of a brand new London hotel. Beautifully designed rooms, the latest in lift technology to speed you up to them, and an ideally-situated city centre location. Now imagine that the staff of this hotel answered your query about breakfast by talking about ‘early morning hunger solutions’ rather than ‘a fry up’.

You’d probably think they’d been replaced by robots, yet this is the kind of writing that lets down many otherwise excellent web sites. A professional design, built by technical experts, but let down by amateur copywriting. And words really matter. Whether it be the links that people click on to find their way around, or the winning description that convinces them to buy your product.

At Cubeworks we can offer you professional copywriting services, but we understand that sometimes it can be best if you write the words yourself. You know your product and your customers. So, to help you write the attention-grabbing copy your website deserves here are Cubeworks’ top ten tips.

1. Write simply and concisely

It can be tempting to fill your copy with colourful adjectives and impressive jargon, but this can be tiring to read off a screen. After you’ve written your first draft grab the red pen and slash it back to the essentials. Your copy will then be easier to read and understand.

2. Write as though it was a friendly conversation

Although your website has the power to reach millions of people your users will probably experience it sat at their computer on their own. So be friendly, welcoming and, if appropriate, personal. When writing imagine you’re in your kitchen, not on a soap box.

3. Make the page scannable by front-loading

Study after study has shown that most users ‘scan’ a new web page first to see if it’s got what they’re looking for. You can help them in this task by starting each paragraph with its conclusion. When writing a paragraph ask yourself, ‘what is the key point of this paragraph’, and then write that at the start of the paragraph.

4. Make the page scannable with sub-headings

Another great way to help users scan a page is to break the text up with descriptive sub-headings. This means users can quickly find the part of the page that interests them - just like on this page.

5. Make the page scannable by using bold text

If the use of sub-headings doesn’t seem appropriate for your copy an alternative is to use bold. Although it isn’t the sort of thing you might do in print, on a screen it can really help users get a quick understanding of what a page is about if you’ve highlighted key words and phrases.

6. Use descriptive link text

As with bold text, links will jump out at the reader because they will be coloured or styled differently to ordinary text. Even more importantly though, links will be used by people and search engines to infer what the page they link to is about. So use good descriptive words and never, ever just ‘click here’.

7. Use bulleted and numbered lists

Long paragraphs containing lots of information can often be broken up into lists. Lists can be useful because they are:

• Concise
• Easier to scan
• Often easier to write

8. Tell users what you want them to do

Users don’t have time to read your finely honed copy – they just want to click on the next button and complete their task. Your copy should include clear instructions that show them their next step. This is called a ‘call to action’ and should be obvious and prominent.

9. Write with search engines in mind

The words on a web page are one of the main ways in which search engines like Google determine what that page is about. So, try to use the kind of language that your potential customers would type into a search engine. Think about individual words but also combinations of words.

10. Write with your users in mind

The phrase to remember here is ‘what’s in it for me?’ This is the unconscious thought that’s running through your customer’s mind as they read your copy. Focus on the benefit they will derive from your product or service and write about that.

Find out more

For other winning ways that Cubeworks can sell your website see our page on internet marketing.