So, you commissioned a sparkly new website for your Chichester-based business, but it doesn’t seem to be having the results you’d hoped for. Or perhaps your website has been ticking along for a few years, but you’re just not getting any traction. If you find yourselves in either of these circumstances, my first question to you would be… ‘Did you invest in professional website copywriting’? And if you answer to this was ‘no’, I’d urge you to do so. Read on to discover why.
Professional Website Copywriting – Reasons to Invest:
Many website designers will offer a ‘client-supplied copy’ website package. At Kate Coote, we too will design and build a website and load content that a client supplies. But, we’d prefer not to… Here are three reasons why.
Great copywriting can move you up the Google hit parade:
Over the last twelve months, (yes COVID has been around that long…) consumers have turned to online shopping for everything from groceries to yoga classes. Around 85,000 businesses in the UK have launched online stores and platforms since the start of the pandemic. And that means that the loyal client who has been taking your Chichester-based yoga class for the last five years can shop around and find other online providers. While we all love to think that supporting local should be enough, the reality is that sometimes it isn’t. Whether it’s based on a financial decision or a user experience a savvy shopper will always check out your competition.
A professional website copywriter (and it must be a copywriter with digital experience) will write articles that help your business be the one that people find when they search. They’ll include key phrase search terms relevant to your business, weaving keywords into your copy so that it reads naturally, rather than looking like it’s been written with only search engines in mind.
Well-written copy can improve your website visitor’s experience:
People read copy displayed on a screen differently to how they might read words on printed paper; that means one needs to write differently online too… Professional website copywriting is a skill to be mastered. You need to ensure your sentences are succinct and uncomplicated, and that your paragraphs aren’t too long. You should bullet and chunk copy. Headings (of different weights) are important and should be incorporated throughout your copy. All of this leads to a ‘readability’ score, that is an important part of search engine optimisation. This is because the search engines want to offer a good user experience; they want people to find the results they’re looking for.
User experience is also about taking your website visitor on a journey. From crafting a compelling headline and writing an introduction that prompts the visitor to read on, right through to that final ‘call to action’ that leads them to ‘buy the product’, ‘book a consultation’ or ‘sign up to your newsletter’. In short, you need to get your visitor from A to B interestingly and effectively.
Too close for comfort?
Finally, sometimes we are just too close to our business to have an objective viewpoint. Or, we may be so immersed in an industry that it’s difficult to avoid jargon. Your audience is inundated with words every day, as they scroll through their social channels and emails flood their inbox. So, to stand out, yours need to be succinct and on point. They need to know how your product or service will make their lives better from the get-go. A professional copywriter will help you nail your key messages and value propositions.
Are you ready to stand out online, like a flamingo in a flock of pigeons? Let’s talk about professional website copywriting. Contact me here. I’m based close to Chichester but work with clients throughout the U.K. and internationally.
*Photo by Bryce Koch on Unsplash
