Writing your own well-considered website copy
There's no better way to get to grips with the details of your business than by writing your own website copy, explaining what you do and what you offer your audience. It's normal to feel scared, anxious, excited or even frustrated about it. It's a big job, and it needs proper dedicated time, away from distractions, which is easier said than done.
When we work with clients on this, we start by explaining the proposed sitemap (also known as the site structure) and what content will sit on each page. This gives clients a clear understanding of the information they'll want to include. Wireframes come next, giving a visual layout that shows the hierarchy of content within each page and often the approximate length of copy required, which helps clients think through the task properly before they start writing.
Learn your CCCs
There are three main pillars to think about when starting to write website content, and conveniently, all three start with the letter C. Getting these right early is worth its weight in gold. If you've worked through one of our brand or website briefing templates already, some of this will feel familiar.
Company (that's you)
Goal of your site: What are you trying to achieve? What do you want potential clients or customers to actually do once they land on your site?
Tone of voice: How do you want to come across? Knowledgeable, warm, trustworthy, friendly, corporate, professional, techy, funny or light-hearted?
Products/services: Keep it succinct and free of jargon. Explain things as if someone has never heard of your business before, because plenty of visitors haven't.
Client (or customer)
Define your ideal client or customer clearly, so you know exactly how to talk to them. Consider:
Demographics
Psychographics
Pain points
Testimonials, reviews, surveys and client interviews are all useful here, use them as social proof and to pick up the language your ideal client actually uses about their own problems.
Top tip: research user personas and build fictional clients or customers who represent the people who'll actually use your website.
Competition
Avoid copying content from other websites, especially competitors. Google can detect duplicate content even when it's been lightly reworded, and it can penalise your domain for it. Be unique and make sure the content is genuinely your own.
Keywords and key phrases
Once the three Cs are covered, it's time to think about your sitemap, the actual pages your website needs. Most basic websites include five main pages:
Home
About
Services / Products / Shop
FAQs / Projects / Portfolio / How it works
Contact
At this stage, start researching keywords for SEO (Search Engine Optimisation). Pick one primary keyword or phrase for each page, along with a handful of secondary keywords, and weave these naturally into the copy on each page. Tools like Keywords Everywhere or Google Ads can help with this research, and if you want the fuller picture on why this matters, we've covered it in more depth in our post on what SEO is and why it matters.
Article: What is SEO and why does it matter?
Putting pen to paper
Use your sitemap as a frame: set up a separate document for each page and note a skeleton outline, including bulleted content ideas.
Key messaging: brainstorm the key messages you want each page to land, based on what you already know about your business and audience.
Page sections: content will usually be broken up into sections, so plan for that from the start, it's easier for visitors to digest.
Design considerations: refer back to your wireframes to think about how each section might lay out. That will shape how you write, for example whether there's space for a strong headline versus a longer block of body copy.
Headlines: use your keyword research to write headlines that are clear and compelling, not just clever.
Body copy: keep it scannable and led by your keyword research where it makes sense, without it ever reading forced.
Call to action: be specific about what you want the visitor to do next, and make it easy to find.
Meta descriptions: these are the sentences shown under the page title in search results, limited to roughly 155 characters. Every page should have one, optimised for SEO.
Image file names and alt tags: used for both accessibility and SEO, these should also carry your keywords where it's genuinely relevant.
Takeaways and tips
Explain everything simply: don't make people think. Keep copy short, scannable and written in plain terms.
Focus on the pain, then provide the solution: lean on your user personas. Lead with emotion or a relatable scenario so visitors feel understood before you offer the fix.
Limit choices: make it easy for visitors to choose. Too many options overwhelms people rather than helping them.
Use "you" over "we": avoid leaning on "we" repeatedly. Talk about your customer using "you" and "your," rather than centring the copy on your own business.
Craft clear headlines: a headline needs to tell visitors who you are, what you do for them and why they should care, straight away.
Use numbers: years of experience, client numbers, percentage improvements or revenue increases all add credibility fast.
