Ten website copywriting best practices to engage, convince and convert
Apr 24 2022 | 3 min read
Follow these 10 copywriting best practices to write for landing pages that convert website visitors into paying customers.
Written by Joel Blair & Sarah Jampen Almazan | Illustration by Jorge Peña
Nobody enjoys reading websites. You have very little time to get your message across before your website visitors bounce off to one of the other 78 tabs they have open. Follow these 10 best practices to produce web copy that will keep them scrolling, engaged, and convert them into paying customers.
01.
Address one audience per page
Many businesses try to address all their audiences at once in their homepage. This makes them confusing, and ineffective. Remember: your customers, prospective employees, investors, business partners and suppliers are different people with different problems and priorities. Keep your homepage for your customers and use your navigation bar to let the other audiences know where to go.
02.
Outline your story
We are hard-wired to respond to storytelling: it’s how humans learn and have entertained each other since the dawn of time. Using a familiar narrative pattern will therefore make your copy more engaging. Don’t forget: if you are bored writing it, they will be bored reading it. We recommend modelling your brand narrative off of the Hero’s Journey, a story template used since ancient times.
If you’re bored writing it, they will be bored reading it.
– Sarah Jampen Almazan, Head Copywriter at Detraform
In his book Building a Storybrand, Donald Miller proposes a simple 7-step framework for building your customer’s hero’s journey. It’s the one and same we followed to write our own web copy services landing page.
03.
Split your messaging up into short, bite-sized chunks
Your website competes for your visitors' ever-shortening attention span. It’s up against outraged tweets, insta-models, and tiktok dance challenges. Make sure to write short, declarative sentences. Do not make concentrating on your website harder by boring visitors with too much text.
04.
Clarity beats creativity
Use clear, concise, and direct language. Don’t get cute or clever with your website copy until you are 100% sure that your audience will fully understand how you solve their problem, and what steps they need to take next to complete a transaction. You can always bring personality to your Squarespace website design with typography, colour, and illustrated storytelling.
05.
Start each section with a compelling headline
Remember that story we outlined? Your website visitors should be able to get the gist of it just by reading your headlines. You only stand a chance of keeping them engaged and winning them over if your headlines are compelling.
Je n’ai fait celle-ci plus longue que parce que je n’ai pas eu le loisir de la faire plus courte.
– Blaise Pascal
06.
Don’t waste your headlines
We cannot stress this enough: most of your website visitors will ONLY read your headlines. The formulaic “Our mission, our services, our expertise” or “What we do, How we do it” are a waste of real estate! Make sure each of your headlines re-enforces your core messages and gives your visitor a reason to keep reading.
07.
Never “Start With Why”
Let’s address the Ted Talk that's been ruining marketing for every company that isn’t Apple since 2009. Simon Sinek was wrong. Customers don’t care about your why. They want to know whether you can solve their problem and help them succeed.
You have five seconds to let your visitors know they are in the right place. Do not make the mistake of confusing them with egocentric and grandiose statements of purpose. Instead, make sure your website starts with a simple one-liner that outlines their problem, your solution, and their desired result.
Simon Sinek was wrong. Customers don’t care about your why.
– Joel Blair, Creative Director at Detraform
08.
Human behaviour doesn’t change on your website
We often hear clients say, “Our customers are more engaged and want to read longer text.”
Reality check: no they won’t. Human cognitive biases remain the same regardless of how engaged you imagine your site visitors to be.
09.
Use it for your content marketing
We compiled the rules in this article to help you write for website landing pages that convert. If you have more complex detailed information to share, you can leverage it for your content marketing.
Expert profiles and interviews, step-by-step guides, company updates, and opinion pieces make great blog posts and reward you with SEO. Industry knowledge, proprietary processes, research and deep-dives make excellent goodies that you can exchange for a lead’s contact information.
Detraform’s web copywriting service defines your core messages and brand story for a website that grows your business
10.
Words come first
You can’t design the container before you know what it’s supposed to contain. Don’t get caught going in circles on subjective design decisions when you haven’t done the foundational work of outlining your brand narrative and writing your web copy.
Finalize all your copywriting and complete your wireframe before beginning the design phase. You will turn your website visitors into qualified leads by clarifying your message and sharing it in a humanly digestible way.
Pretty websites don’t sell things. Words sell things
Don’t waste your time building a pretty website that doesn’t convert visitors into customers. Detraform crafts compelling brand narratives and web copy that positions your customer as the hero, and your product or service as their guiding force.