Those immortal words were famously uttered by Travis Bickle (Robert De Niro) in the 1976 classic, “Taxi Driver”.
This post isn’t about that particular iconic film though. Rather, I want to talk about your website copywriting and how it should be written to gain the greatest effect.
Who do you want to read your website?
This is a topic that I have touched on in the past but it is so important, I’m going to talk about it again.
You might think it an odd question – “who do you want to read your website?” – but it isn’t really.
Look at it another way – what do you want your website to do?
Hopefully you answered “sell” or perhaps “generate enquiries”. But you will only do that if your website copy talks to your reader. Think back to the last networking event you went to. No doubt someone came up and introduced themselves to you and launched into their elevator pitch. What would you find most interesting? Someone who says:
“I’m John, I sell websites. My websites have state of the art features and they look great. They are really eye catching and I work with clients all over the country. I can create ecommerce sites, flash sites and just about anything else you can think of. My company is called Websitearama, this is my card, look me up.”
Lost the will to live yet? I’m guessing that you have now made your excuses and left John to find another victim to bore.
But what if John had said this?
“Hi, I’m John and I can help your website attract targeted traffic that will generate a constant stream of sales. With our software you’ll never lose a sale because it will automatically follow up every lead. You will no longer be walking away from business because you don’t have time to keep in touch with all your prospects – your website software will do it for you.”
In the first scenario John bangs on about his company. At no point does he even attempt to say how he can help his clients. His websites have state of the art features – so what? The are really eye-catching – so what?
But the second attempt starts to address his audience. His website attracts targeted traffic – so what? – so it generates a constant stream of leads. It follows up every lead automatically – so what? – so you’ll never lose another sale.
This time John has qualified the benefits of his product by illustrating what that will mean to his clients.
So what’s all that got to do with websites?
When someone lands on your website they are there for a reason – they want to buy what you are selling.
To make yourself stand out from all the other websites, you have to make sure you give them what they want. If they land on your site only to read all about your company (an Ego website) they’ll get bored and move on.
But if your website copy addresses them directly and tells them what you will do for them, you’ll get their attention.
You
That is a word that should be littered throughout your web copy. By using “you” and “your” you are directly addressing your reader. You are involving them in your website and showing them precisely why they’ll benefit from your product/service.
Stating what your benefits are and what they’ll do for your reader will prevent them from saying those dreaded words:
“What’s in it for me?”
If they have to say that you’ve failed to get your message across clearly.
So next time you are writing your web copy make sure you banish “we” and replace it with “you”. By writing directly to your reader you’ll begin to write benefits driven copy that will sell. It may take a bit of practice but stick with it as it will pay off.
By the way, this is also true for your other sales materials.
Your website can be killed or made by its content. Your website copywriting will determine:
how your website is ranked by the search engines
whether people will read your site
how long people remain on your site
whether your traffic is converted into sales
So it’s fair to say it’s pretty important.
As a freelance copywriter, I am frequently asked for tips on website copywriting so I decided to put a short video together to outline the basics that will make your website copywriting work.
Words can be a powerful force when used correctly.
In a novel they have to conjour up an image in your head so you can visualise the characters and scenes they are playing out. In the world of marketing they have to be direct, simple and to the point.
This is something I frequently have to remind my clients – not all, but a few.
A while ago, I was writing for one client and nothing I produced seemed good enough. It was frustrating because I knew what I had written worked. No matter how many times I explained my reasons for using certain layouts and words, it wasn’t good enough.
The reason…
“I thought you were supposed to make me sound more intelligent.”
Eeek! And there was me thinking the whole purpose behind copywriting was to generate sales.
So what does a freelance copywriter do?
Working as a freelance copywriter, it is my job to create great copy which will be interesting and sell – but without being ‘in your face’ super sales hype.
I write all sorts of copy from SEO website copywriting through to reviews and just about everything else in between.
Let’s take website copywriting as an example. If you could ask someone what their reaction was when they landed on your website, which scenario would you prefer?
Scenario 1
Reader – “Gosh, what a superbly written site. You are obviously incredibly intelligent and well edcated.”
You – “Why thank you, and what did you think of our product?”
Reader – “Product? Oh, were you selling something too?”
Scenario 2
Reader – “Amazing, that’s just what I’ve been looking for. It’ll solve all my problems.”
You – “Great. What did you think of the writing on the website?”
Reader – “Writing? Oh, I don’t know. I was too interested in your product and how it would help me.”
I think I know which one I would perfer.
Invisible writing
It sounds rather strange that your writing should be invisible to your reader, but that’s how it should come across. The words you use have one purpose only – to convince your reader the product you are selling is the one for them.
Becoming blinkered by your own writing ego is the fastest way to churn out redundant copy. If someone is reading your website or brochures, they are doing so for one reason only – they want to know if your product is a fit for their needs. If they can’t find that our quickly, they’ll move on to the next company’s product.
Clear, conscise and simple – that’s it. No frills, no sparkles and no sequins.
If you are a website copywriter or have a website and have dabbled in producing your own content, you’ll probably have used the HTML H1 – H6 tags in some way, shape or form.
But do you fully understand their SEO capabilities?
We all know that a solid block of text on your website isn’t going to attract anyone. Your reader will see it and head for the hills. It’s just like when you were a little kid getting excited about the mystery present under the Christmas tree with your name on it. Eagerly you’d run your fingers around the paper trying to guess what was inside. When your finger found a seam that wasn’t covered in sticky tape, you’d rip the paper away. As your excitement grew it suddenly faded as the book fell in your lap. Even worse, it fell open to show page after page after page of text – no pictures!
OK, I got a bit carried away but you get the idea. Solid text is about as welcome as an angry skunk in a phone box. If you want people to read your website, it has to have loads of white space and be divided into bite size chunks. And the best way to do that is by using headings and sub headings.
Where do I stick my H1 tag?
Tempting…
OK, being serious for a second, your H1 tag – if you’re unsure – is normally used in the main header of a web page because it creates the largest font size. But not only that but it takes precedence over other text types when the search engine spiders come crawling by.
Because of this the H1 tag should:
Appear only once on your web page
Be at the top of your page content
Contain your most important keyword
Help your reader understand what your page is about.
What about the other tags?
The H2 – H6 tags are given slightly less priority over H1 but are still important. You often see the H2 and H3 tags being used for sub headings in web pages. These therefore should contain your longer tail keywords.
Of course the added bonus in getting used to using these tags means you’ll break up your text into smaller sections. This will increase the amount of white space on your page and consequently make it easier to read.
Your headings will act as sign posts so your reader can easily scan your page to find the information they are looking for.
How do I add these tags?
You’ll probably be using a WYSIWYG editor to enter your text which looks a bit like this one:
To choose your heading click on the button highlighted and you’ll see a choice of font types appear. Just type in your text, highlight it and then click on the text type you want.
Position is everything
You see, when you are preparing your copy for your website there is a lot more to think about other than what words you’re going to use.
You also have to consider what SEO features you want your site to have and exploit the positioning of your keywords to the max.
If you are using a freelance copywriter they should be able to advise you on this, but if you’re going it alone, hopefully this post will give you a better understanding of where to place your keywords and why.
The H tags are only a small part of on screen SEO but I hope that this blog post will help you review your current website and make a few changes to squeeze a few more drops out of your SEO.
You might think that a heading such as ‘Tips for writing for web readers’ is a bit odd – after all, who else would you be writing for?
Well with everyone concerned about search engine optimisation (and quite rightly so), some companies fall into the trap of writing for the search engine spiders rather than their readers.
Looking back through this blog you’ll find a few posts relating to this exact topic but I find it’s always useful to get someone else’s opinion on something.
Keyword stuffing is a prime example of people getting their website copywriting wrong. The only thing this achieves is filling your web pages with a load of nonsense that people won’t want to read and Google will pick up as stuffing and walk on by.
One of the key factors when writing your web copy is to write naturally to your reader. I came across a post on dailyblogtips by Debbie Dragon who expands this point further by giving 6 Tips for Writing for Web Readers.
Check it out and see where you can improve your web copy.
