Why your website copy is important

Search engine optimization is important. That much has been known to copywriters and marketers for as long as search engines have been in use. Search engine optimization – or SEO, as it is more commonly called – ensures that your website shows up high on Google searches and receives the kind of traffic that your business needs to thrive in the digital age. However, it isn’t everything. Your website might be able to get some extra hits if you design it solely with SEO in mind, but that won’t make a difference if your copy isn’t worth reading. Thanks to the changes that have been made to search engine algorithms over the years, poor website copy will actually hurt your rankings with Google no matter what kind of SEO strategies you employ.

Now that we’ve covered the basics about why website copy is important, we can be more specific about what good website copy is, how you can achieve it, and how to avoid some basic copywriting mistakes.

Focus on Your Content

Most of having good copy for your website is simply having well-written content. This means paying close attention to grammar and spelling, two things that are often lacking even on the most “professional” sites on the Internet. Few things will scare away potential clients faster than a site that reads like it was written by a middle school student, so brush up on your grammar and spelling, and don’t be afraid to invest in a tool that will check any document you write for mistakes.

Having good content also means being short and to the point. People might spend hours browsing the Internet, but they often spend only a few minutes at the most on one site. They would rather scan pages than read them, and if what they are looking for doesn’t jump out at them almost immediately, they’ll probably just move onto another site in a matter of seconds. This also means paying attention to content hierarchy, the idea that certain content will be more relevant to your visitors than others. If your site has been around long enough that you have analytics to monitor, you can see what pages on your site are the most popular and who is visiting them. Take a look at the material on these pages, and put it either on your homepage or include links to it that are easy to find.

Design Should Come Second?

As important as it is to have a well-designed and visually appealing website, what’s equally if not more important is your content. Think of your website’s design as a setting for your content; it should make it easy to read and digest while enhancing it. It should not eclipse it, however. If your site’s design is too much of a distraction or it makes navigation too difficult, you will need to redesign your site, possibly from the ground up.

SEO is Still Important

Even though we said that good SEO won’t help you if you don’t have good copy, SEO is still relevant. You should still include the right keywords and backlinks to optimize your site for search engine hits, but their goal should be to get your visitors to your content. Make sure that any keywords and phrases you use are incorporated into your content naturally and that your backlinks go to sites that are relevant to what you have to offer.

Keep Things Evergreen

Finally, you should at least be making an attempt to keep your content evergreen. At least some of your content will become dated in time, but most of it should be applicable to the world as it exists now. It won’t do you much good to have a homepage that references snowy winters if someone is looking at it in the middle of July, so write your content in a way that is applicable to harsh winters, warm summers, and every season in between. Your potential clients will take you and your company much more seriously that way.