Website Copywriting Tip – Be Who You Are

Writing your own website copy can be a complete nightmare. Trying to distance yourself from your business to write about it objectively is incredibly difficult.

For a start you have to forget about blowing your own trumpet – readers don’t like that. Instead you have to consider what it is that you do for your customers. How do they directly benefit from your product/service?

Then you have to make sure you don’t include any jargon. You have to write simply – now that can be a challenge. So many people fall into the trap of thinking…

“I’m writing for the public therefore I must use incredibly complex sentences and unfathomable words to show my incredible intellect”

Well if you do, no one will read your website.

Don’t be something you’re not

Even if you manage to master all of that, you must be careful about how you portrait yourself.

Most local companies aim to achieve great rankings using local/geographical keywords. Why? Because you can get good results quickly and, if people are searching for local companies, they will probably use a town or county name within their search.

But businesses often have a desire to appear bigger than they actually are dropping local geographical terms within their copy in favour of the faceless national corporation facade. The problem with that is you’ll do nothing for your local rankings and end up being disheartened as you try to compete with the big boys for generic keywords that return millions of results.

It’s not all about size

A certain amount of illusion can be created by using “we” instead of “I” or words associated with large companies – “fleet”, “team”, etc.

But be warned – there is a reason why people search the internet for small local businesses.

To them, small businesses mean a high quality, personal service. They expect to pay a reasonable amount for goods and services safe in the knowledge they aren’t being ripped off by overly expensive items. If you try to show yourself as a large business it can convey negative connotations – expensive, inferior service, customers not being treated as individuals.

So think carefully before you start to write your copy.

Write to your reader, write simply, and tell them what’s in it for them.

Be proud to be a small local company – I know I am.

Sally Ormond – Freelance Copywriter