How to improve your website copy to exceed conversion goals

Explore our top tips for optimizing the text on your website to resonate with your audience and rank on search engines

Whether you monitor them on your own or receive reports from an agency partner, you’re familiar with your business’s marketing metrics for social media engagement, email open rates, and page views, but at the end of the day, you’re mainly concerned about one metric: conversion rate.

Conversions are different for every business, depending on their unique goals. Yours may be contact form submissions, email signups, resource downloads, initial and/or repeat purchase, or even a visit to a certain website page.

There are many factors that can influence conversion rates, but one that is often overlooked yet extremely powerful is website copy.

One study that analyzed over 330,000 website calls-to-action (CTAs) found that personalized CTAs had a 202% higher conversion rate than generic ones, showing the power of writing relevant, savvy copy that is specifically tailored to your target audience. [1]

Keep reading to learn how to boost your conversion rate with our top tips on optimizing website copy from our digital marketing experts. 

Before we get started: Why is website copy so important?

Many people tend to believe that pictures and design are more important than the copy on a website. However, the content around the pictures and other visual elements play a vital role in the marketing process.

The content around an image describes the actual product or service that is being sold. For example, you could look at a website for a restaurant and see a photo of a delicious looking steak. The steak is the product, but you don’t know why it is special or different from other restaurant’s steaks until you read that it is grilled with mint leaves and basted in an orange juice based marinade. Copy gives context to the visuals that you see.

Be descriptive with the language used. 

Copy adds personality, so different products or services should be described using distinct language, tones, and attitudes.

A website for a stand up comedy show would not explain their trustworthiness to entice the audience to attend a show, just as a law firm’s website would not ask potential clients to come down to the courthouse to see a “spectacular” trial.

Identifying the target audience you are selling to will make writing descriptive web copy for your business much easier.

Address the problems you solve for your clients or customers. 

Effective copy is all about what is actually said. Your website visitors don’t want to hear the same verbiage as your competitors about the awards that you have won or how you are the leading company in your industry.

The best website copy will address your potential customers’ problems and how your product or service works as the solution. Provide details about your business, the people behind your brand, your client intake process, and what they can expect from your team once they become a client or purchase your product. 

Bad marketing copy:

• This is what I do
• This is what it does
• This is why it’s cool

Good marketing copy:

• This is what you are facing
• This is how I can help you solve that
• This is what differentiates me 
• This is why this product or service is right for you
• This is my promise

Build trust through explanation, rather than declarative statements like “We are trustworthy. Hire us.” Stand out from your competitors by emphasizing your business’s unique qualities.

Follow best search engine optimization (SEO) practices.

Website copy should also be tailored to best SEO practices to accurately attract your target audience through search engines and increase website traffic.

When writing website copy, it’s essential to:

• Write for your target audience at the top of mind. Ensure it’s content that they’d be interested in reading considering Google ranks this content higher than that written for search engines first.
• Consider what your customers are searching for to find your business and write website copy that addresses those search queries.
• Naturally integrate your keyword and all of its related keywords onto the page to rank for your desired term. The old practice of choosing a target keyword and stuffing it on a page as much as possible is now a major red flag for Google when indexing site pages.

The practices in the list above are one of many that need to be followed to successfully rank higher on search engines. With so many best practices to follow, Google has an SEO starter guide that can be used for beginners who need support managing website copy. [2]

If you’re serious about your SEO efforts, it’s best to work with an experienced digital marketing agency that has the resources and expertise to craft a strategy that will boost your site on search engines for the keywords that will most likely convert.

Proofread the copy once it’s been finalized.

Always remember to review the website copy you write. Read over the copy until you think it’s perfect, then let a coworker read it over to make sure it fits their expectations as well, and lastly have someone else read it too for a final check.

Making sure that there are no grammatical or spelling errors is an extremely important factor in writing copy. Both poorly-written and well-written copy reflects back on your brand, so ensure that your business is perceived positively.

Unsure you can achieve these goals on your own? 

We’re here to help! At Different Perspective, we’re experts at crafting SEO-optimized, rich text content for our clients that resonates with their target audience and boosts their ranking on search engines. 

In addition to the copywriting involved in our website design and branding services, we also offer website content writing and other copywriting services as a standalone service for interested prospects. 

Ready to start your website project today?
Explore our website design services to learn more.

Sources: 

1: HubSpot | Personalized Calls to Action Perform 202% Better Than Basic CTAs

2: Google Search Central | Search Engine Optimization (SEO) Starter Guide