Good copy produces great results. It leads to high conversion rates, an attractive return on investment, and a growing amount of referrals. But most of all, it gets your message across and rouses your audience to take action.

In this article, we will cover 7 key elements of website copy that will ultimately turn your prospects into paying customers.

1. Be Straightforward

When you land on a webpage, you should know within ten seconds two things: what the website does and what you should do next. Your website should include a call to action to tell your audience how they can benefit from your business. You’ll also need a unique selling proposition — a clear statement that calls out the value of your products or services.

Be careful not to bury your value proposition in a maze of meaningless buzzwords, slogans and clichés. Concise and to-the-point is best for an effective selling proposition.

2. Nix the Jargon

It’s natural for business owners to want to sound fancy, special, and smart when writing for their websites. However, try to avoid writing website copy riddled with abstract language and technical jargon. Take this line of copy from a florist’s website for example:

Pinkly pulchritudinous and amazingly delightful, infinitely charming and sensationally fascinating.

It’s safe to say the word “pulchritudinous” leaves many consumers confused when all they want to do is purchase pink roses. Instead of using jargon, opt for familiar words that your consumers actually use in their search queries. Google’s Keyword Planner Tool is an effective way to help you do this.

3. Keep the Length to a Minimum

In copywriting — website copy especially — short and sweet wins the race.

If you’re like most business owners, you love to talk about your company, services, and every nitty gritty detail of your brand. You may think you need 20 testimonials and a list of 100 facts and figures that don’t actually provide much value to your consumers. But if your copy is overly complex or jargon-heavy, you may risk losing potential customers.

Instead of including anything even remotely related to your industry, you should write with the belief that every single line of copy serves a purpose. Focus solely on information that provides direct value to your audience.

4. Use Headers and Sub-Headers

Reflect on what attracts you to a website in terms of copy. Usually, it includes enticing headlines, gripping sub-headlines, and digestible pieces of content that you can easily read through.

Most people scan websites and only actually read about a quarter of the copy. An effective use of headers and sub-headers breaks up your content and calls out relevant information. Good titles are powerful and concise, and they brief your audience on what they can expect to read below.

5. Write in Active Voice

Passive voice implies that readers don’t need to actively pay attention to your copy. Simply put, passive voice makes for passive readers.

Using active voice helps create reader-friendly sentences. It is also more direct, concise, and persuasive when it comes to marketing copy. Instead of saying “products can be ordered online,” reword your copy to say, “you can order products online.” Including the personal pronoun “you” also personalizes your copy.

6. Write for Your Audience, Not Your Ego

Every business owner loves to (humbly) brag about their company once in a while, but there are ways to do so gracefully. No one likes reading self-absorbed web copy — it turns away potential customers and kills conversations.

So how do you avoid this common mistake? Use your target audience’s pain points, goals, and challenges to write benefit-driven copy. Rather than touting how great your business is through a long list of features, specifying benefits will give your company a competitive edge.

7. Include Real-Life Evidence

When you’re trying to prove the value of your business, why not let satisfied customers do the talking? Through quotes, case studies, and other types of testimonial evidence, you can show how your loyal consumers have benefitted from your products and services. Testimonial statements enhance your company’s credibility, expertise, and likeability.

Testimonial evidence is not just limited to your consumers. You can also include social proof from experts in your industry or small businesses you may partner with.

The Bottom Line

Creating outstanding website content requires a lot of hard work. When you’re optimizing your website to reach a new audience, put yourself in your ideal prospect’s shoes. Avoid keyword-stuffing your copy, make your content easy to navigate, and focus on the human connection you are creating with your audience

7 Elements of Effective Website Copy