Why good copywriting is essential for a website
We’ve been to a couple of website design meetings recently when the company briefing our design team has said “we’d like our new site to be really visual, lots of pretty pictures, it doesn’t matter so much about the words, no one really reads them.” This on the face of it is understandable, as some websites are too content-heavy and in recent years, it has become much more common to use visual cues to navigate through a website. However, although high quality photography is essential to a website, what must not be underestimated is the power of well written copy.
Having your content written by a professional web copywriter is a valid long term investment in your website, both in terms of SEO and visitor traffic. Too often websites have too few words per page or the content they do have does not best reflect their line of business and how they can help the customer. “We offer solutions to global organisations” is a typical example of copy that you find on many websites, which has little SEO impact and neither does it tell customers what you actually do.
Too often we see organisations spending heavily on website design and not placing sufficient value on the copy. If the reader can’t easily find the information he or she is looking for, then they will move onto another website. The sheer vastness of the internet and the number of competitors both UK and globally means you have a small chance to grab someone’s attention before they are distracted elsewhere. It is imperative to get your point across in a few sentences and stimulate their interest with engaging, persuasive copy that tells them exactly what you could offer them.
Here are our quick tips on creating good website copy:
Keep it simple
A lot of people who search online like to scan read, so the best type of online copy is usually straight to the point and without jargon.
As many people visit websites when looking to make a purchase, the copy must tell them how to buy and how easy it is to do so.
Optimise for SEO
Website copy should also be optimised for SEO, otherwise the website, no matter how well designed, may not receive the amount of web traffic it should do.
Good copy written by a professional PR/copywriting company can increase conversions when visitors land on a site. It can be tricky to achieve a high ranking position e.g. page one on the search engines. Web companies will tell you it’s less about keywords these days, but the rules about having good metadata and well researched keywords included is still very valid. One thing that you can guarantee is that poorly written content which isn’t SEO friendly will limit the amount of traffic your site generates.
Don’t ‘keyword stuff’
In the past, keyword stuffing was a common practice on websites. However, now it is the case that keywords need to be strategically placed throughout web copy. It is pointless to stuff keywords into the copy if it puts readers off with content which is too salesy or simply doesn’t make sense.
In many cases, a new website sits in draft format for weeks as the company doesn’t have the time or skills to generate good quality content. One case in point, we recently worked with a company which was so keen to have its new website live that they skipped out writing the copy on certain pages. The company had the site designed by an independent designer, with no professional copywriter involved, then came to us afterwards to “sort out the copy”. This is not an approach we would recommend, as we pretty much had to redesign the site as there were too many sub-sections and chunks of copy missing, with some areas still featuring an insert copy space holder, which certainly doesn’t look great.
Good copywriting and good website design need to work together hand in hand. It is bad practice to rush a website to get it live and it can do more harm than good if the copy is not up to scratch. Working with an effective, professional PR copywriting company like Dragonfly PR, with extensive experience in drafting and designing websites, will help ensure you receive a site that is fit for purpose and that generates the web traffic it deserves.
Contact our team now for a no-obligation discussion or quotation on 01709 300130 or email hello@dragonflypr.co.uk.
For more advice on creating a website and what to consider when appointing a web design agency, check out this recent blog post.