5 Simple Ways to Improve Your Web Copy

It’s the Web, right? So it’s supposed to be sticky. Fortunately, there are simple ways to ensure visitors “stick around” your website.

Even avoiding pricey add-ons such as corporate videos, your web copy alone — if done right — can make your website more attractive to users. Here’s how:

1. Inject Some Personality, but Watch the Humor

Speak directly to your visitors in a personal, authentic voice. Most web users don’t want to be entertained; instead, they’re looking for specific information. Your web copy should direct them with a few choice, friendly words.

Humor can be part of this approach but needs to be used with caution. After all, considering the global reach of the Web, humor can miss the mark or even offend people in different markets, regions or cultures.

And face it, not everyone is a sit-down comic. Humor can easily become forced or overdone. Consider the following example from an ad agency’s contact page:

We’d really like to hear from you.
Well, unless you’re planning to send us spam about Viagra or “Rolex watches for $5.”

Cute the first time, maybe, but such copy can start to sound stale after a while, especially when all a visitor really wants is the agency’s phone number.

The main takeaway? Present your business as you would like to be perceived. Instill personality, but remember that your sense of humor may not be to everyone’s taste.

2. Make Your Content Useful

From FAQs to lists of links, from posted reports to product spec sheets, all types of content can be useful to your visitors. As always, consider their needs before your own.

Ask yourself: what would your customers (1) need to know; (2) possibly want to know; and (3) be surprised to know? Provide content that makes sense in light of your answers.

Avoid generic content already available on reference sites such as Wikipedia. Instead, provide specialized content that demonstrates industry or sector expertise.

At the same time, make sure this information is written at the appropriate level. Readers shouldn’t need to consult a jargon dictionary (PDF) just to understand your web copy. Using simple and effective language is the best way to communicate online.

3. Make the Essentials Easy to Find

Like most users, you’ve likely had this experience. You find a website that looks legit. It’s brimming with interesting content but you’re after just one small piece of key information.

Perhaps you’re looking for the name of the company president, the date the company was established or a toll-free number to call. Whatever it is, you spend far too long looking for it — or perhaps never find it at all.

Part of establishing credibility on the Web is providing content that describes, succinctly and professionally, the nature of your company and your services (who? what? where?). Buck the trend on this one and you risk appearing like a fly-by-night.

4. Don’t Hesitate to Repeat Words

You learned as a writer that repetition was a bad thing. To avoid it, you made lists of words, memorized synonyms, even subscribed to the Visual Thesaurus. But now you’re writing for the Web — a whole different animal.

Online, repetition is quite okay. In fact, it’s almost mandatory. Repeating words and phrases makes copy more clear. It’s one of the principles of plain language.

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Tags: behavior, rick sloboda, web cms, web content, web optimization, web publishing

It’s the Web, right? So it’s supposed to be sticky. Fortunately, there are simple ways to ensure visitors “stick around” your website.