Website copywriting is not rocket science. Anyone with some knowledge can learn to write copy for their site.
You will need some practice and a few other things to get it done.
(We’ll get to those things before the end of this post.)
By the end of this lesson on website copywriting, you’ll know how to:
- Organize your site
- Keep people interested in reading your material
- Bring in more traffic and leads
- Use SEO good enough that you won’t ever have to pay for ads
OK, before you get bored, let’s get started.
The Very Basics of Website Copywriting
Choosing Your URL
If you are starting, then you are going to need a web address. (Otherwise known as a URL, Dot Com, website address, etc.)
You will need to have a very simple one. Simple is always better in this game.
Don’t worry too much about the name of it either, because I’ve seen people worry over choosing one for months and never get started.
Branding is far more important than using a keyword in the URL, too. For example, “Digg.com” is far more memorable, fun, and brandable than, “newsaggregator.com.”
Another good example is Google. (Who even heard of the word or name until they got big?) Google got big by being very simple. So, simple branding is the best medicine.
Website Design
I know I seem to be covering some stuff that appears to be outside the realm of website copywriting, but keep with me. When you’re writing for the web, you want your readers to stay with you.
One of the things that’ll keep people with you is if you have a clean and simple looking site. You don’t want any distractions because that sucks up bandwidth and your reader’s attention.
You want your pages as clean and concise as possible so readers won’t have to wait for your pages to load up. The faster your pages show up on a reader’s computer, the better. Great content is better than eye-catching design.
If you’re new to the web, start learning all you can about how to use WordPress blogs. You can learn by getting a free account with WP and practicing on it. Then, after you’ve learned how to use it, go to a hosting company like HostGator and get a paid WP hosting plan. They start at about $4.00 a month.
Since you’ll be doing copywriting for the web, you better learn how to use WP because it is the queen of the Internet. Everyone and their mother uses these blogs because they are super easy to add content and maintain.
The other reason why I like WP is that you can load entire site designs into it fast. All you need to do to change the look of your site is to click a few buttons and upload a new design and you can get it done.
However, this takes a little time to learn, so if you want to hire someone to do that for you, it can be done very cheaply.
So if you’re going to write for the web, learn how to use WordPress.
Writing Your Pages for Maximum Attraction
The most important thing you need to do is to write high-quality content because people won’t care how pretty your pages are.
There are several reasons why you’ll want to do this:
- Readers will take you seriously
- You will build an excellent reputation online
- People will share your content helping your pages to rank higher on the search engines
- Customer and client attraction will be greater
- Search engines, like Google, promote quality content
Your Main Website Pages
Once again, you’ll want your webpages to load super fast. So, for all of your main pages, like your home, about, contact, services, etc. you’ll want to keep them as professional and concise as possible.
About 500 words and under will do the trick. People don’t usually stay on the main pages very long. So, you’ll want to make sure that your main pages can be read quickly.
For each main page, do keyword research. I recommend that you use Neil Patel’s Ubersuggest for keyword research. You can also use SEOBook’s free keyword tools and Google’s free keyword planner.
Once you have your keywords figured out, use them. You’ll want to put them into the titles of your pages, subheadlines, and spread out in your content.
Get a Yoast Plugin
I suggest that you install the free Yoast plugin into your blog. Yoast will tell you how many times you need to use your keywords on each page.
The thing I like about it is that it reminds you where to use your keywords. For example, I usually forget to put keywords into my subheads. So, the Yoast plugin reminds me to use them there.
I love using this plugin, and it has helped me to target and use keywords more effectively.
If you don’t have the Yoast plugin, count up your words, and shoot for 5% to 10% keywords on your pages.
Once you’ve finished writing your pages, go back through and check them. Print out each page, take a ruler and go down each line of text. Read your pages out loud so you can hear any phrases that sound weird or awkward.
You want people to look up to you as a professional in your field. If you have all kinds of mistakes, people will notice them and wonder if you’re half-baked.
You don’t want that.
Your Website Copywriting Style
I made a lot of stupid mistakes when I started writing. One thing I did was I studied direct response copywriting. It’s OK to use direct response copy for a Sunday morning infomercial on crockpots, but blog posts are different.
If you want to learn how to write for webpages, then study magazine articles.
My favorite articles are from Reader’s Digest. This company has been around forever and has survived the Internet tsunami. It is still selling right off the shelves because they know what they are doing.
So, you want to learn from the best.
You can study the articles from other successful companies too. Magazine article from Men’s Health, Success, and similar magazines are good as well.
You can study articles from other successful companies too. Magazine article from Men’s Health, Success, and similar magazines are good as well.
The main idea is that you don’t want to write personal stuff unless it’s a vain hobby. If you desire to write successful website copy and blog posts, look at what the pros are doing.
Study how their layout looks and how they use subheads. What kind of language are they using? Are they using slang or terms that are specific to an industry?
When you find articles that impress you, then keep copies of them. A collection of these is what you’d call a “swipe file.” Once you have a bunch of them, you can start dissecting them. Many copywriters will rewrite pieces that are proven winners by hand.
I know one very successful copywriter who wrote ads out that he collected 20 times each. He did that for as many advertisements as he could find. I also know another who would retype them up, print them, and then take all kinds of notes on how they were written.
Linking Practices
One of the most important things you can do to get your webpages to rank for SEO is to link to other sites.
These are called outbound links.
You don’t want to link to just anybody, but you’ll need links to important high-quality, authority sites in your niche. It is also a good idea to use your keywords to link to the other sites.
The other type of linking you need to be aware of when you are website copywriting is internal linking. You want to make sure that you have relevant links from one page or post to another page or post on your website.
Why?
Let’s say that you have a visitor to your website. They land on one of your blog posts and find that they are not interested in your page, so they leave.
Search engines like Google keep track of how your website is performing. When someone lands on your site and leaves quickly, that’s called a bounce. The number of times this happens on your site is called the bounce rate.
A high bounce rate is not a good thing.
So, what you want to do is have links at the top of your page or blog post that link to other pages. When a reader comes to your page, she may not be interested in what is on that page. But, she may see your link and click to another page on your site.
Doing this reduces your bounce rate, which is a good thing for ranking with the search engines.
Tracking Your Page’s Success
If you don’t have a Google account now, you really ought to get one. No website copywriter worth his or her salt can work without tracking results.
The name of the website copywriting game is “accountability.”
You must continuously track your results if you want to be a successful online writer.
Once you get a google account, you want to start using Google Analytics with your site.
There are three main things you’ll want to track with your site.
- How many people are coming to your site
- What kind of content they are looking for on your site
- How many and what kind of sites are linking to yours
When people come to your site, you want to know what keywords they are using to find you.
If you have a website about snakes and keep seeing that people are typing in “black mamba,” you may want to write some posts about this type of snake. Your research may also find that your readers are more interested in deadly snakes.
You will also want to know what kinds of sites are interested in your content and keep track of how popular they are and what content they are writing. If the sites that are linking to yours are popular, you can adjust your content to what they have on their sites as well.
Keep Track of Trends
It’s a good idea to keep an eye on trends in your niche.
If Joe Blow is coming out with a hot new course related to your business, you should write about it before it is released.
As of this writing, Christmas is just around the corner. Everyone and his mother are rolling out promotions. You should be able to find all kinds of entrepreneurs in your niche who are getting ready for the holidays.
So, you can use online tools like Ubersuggest to find out who in your niche has the hottest webpages and blog posts.
Post As Much As You Can
If you wrote a 500-word blog post a day, you’d have 365 of them in a year. However, the Internet is getting bigger every day. People are looking for high-quality, detailed information.
I’ve seen great blog writers like Neil Patel and Jon Morrow churn out 2000 to 5000-word posts, establishing themselves as clear authorities in their niches.
The main thing you need to keep in mind is you need to write every day. If you are a person who hates writing, you should find something else to do.
Having a successful blog or website requires time and a lot of effort. I know of entrepreneurs who had to write steadily for years before making any money at it.
But, if you are hell-bent on becoming an online entrepreneur, I’d say stick with it and do not give up.
“The brick walls are there for a reason. They are not there to keep us out. The brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. Because the brick walls are there to stop the people who don’t want it badly enough. They’re there to stop the other people.”
― Randy Pausch, The Last Lecture
Conclusion
I’ll bet you thought I would hand you a silver bullet that would take care of all your website copywriting problems, didn’t you?
As you can see, writing for the web is not an easy task, but it is doable.
If I could leave you with one more piece of advice, it would be to make sure that you keep learning all you can about your craft.
Follow other successful online writers and learn as much as you can from them. Online courses are easy to find in almost every subject area. You should read as much as you can and learn how to better your craft every day.
If you follow the advice I’ve laid out here, your website copy will be far more successful and stand out from the rest of the online crowd in your area of expertise.