Let’s face it: poor copy makes it difficult for even the most beautifully-designed websites to perform well. Developing strong copywriting that will impress your audiences and highlight the value of your services takes creativity, deep knowledge of your reader’s preferences, and time. But, we all know one truth: it’s absolutely worth it!
Our team previously discussed the importance of creating meaningful site copy to reflect your brand’s message. In this follow-up piece, we’ll take that concept one step further by bringing into play the key digital component: search engine optimization (SEO).
While on the topic of SEO, it’s important to note Google’s “helpful content update” that took place in August. According to Google, “the helpful content update aims to better reward content where visitors feel they’ve had a satisfying experience, while content that doesn’t meet a visitor’s expectations won’t perform as well.” This upgrade essentially forms a part of a larger initiative to make sure users see more unique material created by people, for people, in search results.
Why Your Web Copy Matters
Engaging copywriting is important not only for consumers but for search engines as well.
Many websites focus most of their energy on aesthetic attributes while ignoring the importance of quality copy.
Because initial impressions are often remembered most, it is crucial for your site copy to convey professionalism and authority. Readers frequently end their sessions and bounce to another site if they have trouble receiving or locating the information they’re looking for. Kerri Frederick, Big Drop’s Senior SEO Specialist, said the following:
In the ever-evolving and fiercely competitive digital world, it’s not enough to have run-of-the-mill content on your web pages. It takes a combination of answering your target audience’s questions in a simplified and easy-to-understand manner in your content and putting SEO best practices in places such as including the right keywords and internal links to guide visitors to complete conversions. Giving your content the attention it needs will not only help put you overtop your competitors but will put you ahead in the search results, and provide your visitors with a positive user experience.”
Here are 6 Steps to Writing Better Website Copy
1. Outlining Site Goals
It is important to establish your website’s goals and objectives. Sometimes you have to dig a little to find out what your brand’s real objectives are, but it’s worth noting that surface-level objectives lead to surface-level responses. Setting up specific goals and objectives in advance will directly assist your copywriting and design techniques. To accomplish your client’s objectives, it’s essential to figure out what you need to say before designing where it’s said. Once your copy is determined, you must create designs that allow the copy to flow naturally from one page to the next to maximize the effect of the user journey.
2. Defining the Purpose of Pages
The next step is specifying the purpose of each page. This stage essentially involves creating a sitemap and giving each page a set of goals along the way. For instance, service and product pages seek to persuade the customer that the offerings are the best options for solving their problems. Blog pages, on the other hand, might inform visitors about the company’s unique insights and how their approach can help them. James Weiss, Big Drop’s Senior Director, stated the following:
If you enjoy, and have immeasurable success, aiming in the digital dark, then this post isn’t for you. However, if you place value on being strategic, keep reading! Before writing a single letter of site copy, it is worthwhile to determine what users’ searches are and weave those results into your copy in a way that supports your brand message and advances the user’s awareness of your value proposition. And, because intention regularly breeds creativity, crafting supporting designs can be completed that much more efficiently since there is already an established goal to be reached – now it just needs to look good. I recognize that that is an oversimplification, but putting your best foot forward rarely leads one astray!”
3. Researching Keywords
In order to write effective website copy, the third stage is to conduct keyword research for SEO. As intimidating as it may sound, incorporating SEO into your creative process is relatively simple. In actuality, it consists of two fundamental pieces. The first step is to research pertinent keywords that members of your target market are already using, and the second step is to write website copy using those keywords.
With SEO, you have a unique chance to boost the value of your offering and gain a competitive edge. A website is more likely to appear higher in the search results if it is optimized for a certain keyword or phrase. And, because users prioritize the first few Search Engine Results Page (SERP) results, a website that is SEO-optimized will likely receive much more organic traffic from search engines than a rival website that wasn’t built with SEO in mind.
4. Creating Outlines for Each Page
Once you’ve determined the goals of each page and found some high-quality keywords to use, it’s time to create outlines of copy for each page.
The goals you specified for each page should be kept in mind when creating these outlines. A website should ideally contain one distinct call-to-action (CTA) on each page. By doing this, users won’t be confused about what to do next.
The primary goal of the website will typically be aligned with the CTAs used. Having said that, not every page needs to have the same CTA. A few pages ought to direct the user to another website where they can get further details or information to back up their purchasing decisions.
5. Writing Bold Headlines
With outlines completed, it’s time to actually begin writing the website copy. You should already have a solid notion of what to write on each page if you took the time to follow step four. This will make the writing process considerably easier.
The truth is that most people are too lazy to read all of the copy on a website, no matter how well it is written or valuable it may be, oftentimes skimming pages to get the salient points. We recommend that you write all of the headlines for a page before moving on to the body text. This accomplishes a few things for you:
- It guarantees that the copy can be skimmed
- It aids in visualizing how the content flows
- It can indicate if a piece of content is out of place, completely unnecessary, or if the copy requires more content to meet its objectives
Once the headlines are in place, you can begin figuring out each section. When creating body copy, write more than you need at first and refine it afterward. Another helpful technique is to utilize conversational language, except when absolutely required, avoiding long words and technical jargon. Remember: the easier it is to read, the better the user experience. Also, remember to use your SEO keywords as naturally as possible in both your headlines and body.
6. Revising and Proofreading
Revisions are an essential element of any creative process, including design and copywriting. Before you send your hard work out, make sure you conduct your own proofreading and editing.
Along with spelling and punctuation, review your writing for consistency and clarity. Is your voice constant throughout the entire website? Is your wording understandable, or do some sentences need to be rephrased? Do the pages’ contents flow into one another? Once the revisions and proofreading are complete, you are finally ready to dig into designing your site!
Looking for assistance with SEO-optimized copywriting?
You’re in luck! Our team at Big Drop is here to help.