Why is Copywriting Important for Websites?

Many elements combine to make a quality website, from content and site speed to web design and user experience. But a great website can have all of those elements in spades and still fall down if the words on the website don't resonate with the target audience and help them find solutions to their problem. This is why copywriting is so important for websites.

For this article we've invited Tim Vincent, lead copywriter at Fine Craft Copy to explain the power of great copywriting for websites and the true impact it can have on a business.

What is Copywriting?

Before we get into the nitty-gritty, it’s important to establish the foundations.

Copywriting is the craft of writing text (known as copy) for marketing, advertising or other forms of persuasive communication. Copywriting aims to compel the reader, viewer, or listener to take a specific action, such as making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, or clicking on a link.

And, to quote Don Draper from the hit TV show Mad Men,

The above quote is a vital point to bear in mind in this technological age we live in. Online businesses are often faceless entities selling products and services to people they never meet face to face. Remembering that people are at the heart of both the company and the consumer base is priceless.

As such it’s useful to touch on the cornerstone of a business, mission statements…

The importance of mission statements

For a business, all copywriting should be done with its mission statement firmly in mind. Sometimes called the ‘elevator pitch’, it’s a short sentence or two that explains what the business is, what it does and what the benefit is to the consumer.

This is mine:

I help businesses to grow by writing copy that deeply connects with the target audience and compels them to take the desired action.

Keeping this simple statement in the forefront of my mind whenever I'm writing copy (or content) helps me to hone the words I’m writing for that specific business and its audience.

Now that we’ve briefly covered those points, let’s look at website-specific copy…

Why is Copywriting Important for Websites?

The simple answer to this question is that it compels visitors to take the desired action, which will ultimately help a business to grow.

To effectively grow the business, the copy needs to do certain things. The most important are listed below and it is these five things that are the key reasons that good copywriting is so important for any website:

1. Good copywriting will explain the benefit straight away

First impressions count. In many cases, a company's website is the first point of contact between a brand and a potential new customer. It is therefore vital that the pages engage users, simply and clearly telling them how this brand can help to solve their specific problem.

If a home page, ideally in its header, does not clearly explain how the company can benefit the customer, then it is not doing its job.

Likewise, with the About page. If it does not clearly explain the unique aspects of the brand (its ethics, values, standards and other reasons for being), or explain what sets the brand apart from its competition, then it isn’t serving its purpose.

Every other top-level page should do the same thing. If a visitor to your site can see straight away how its product or service can help them, there is a much stronger chance of them sticking around. And so the business grows.

It's worth pointing out here that, especially if a company has a blog with a search engine optimisation (SEO) strategy, users can first drop onto a website in many different places, not just a top-level page. 

As such, any other pages and blog posts should be also written with the mission statement and the end user in mind, leading with the benefit to the customer every time. 

Ask yourself: 

• Who is this piece of content aimed at? 

• How is this piece of content going to help that persona with this problem? 

• What action do I want the reader to take at the end of that piece of content?

A great content marketing strategy is key to doing this effectively. 

2. Good copywriting should be SEO-savvy

Copywriting that is also tailored for SEO means more organic traffic from search engines.

If the copywriter has taken the time to build an ideal customer persona, and to really understand the needs of that person, then the words the copywriter will use naturally in their copy will match the words that those ideal customers will be typing into Google.

And in its most basic form, that is SEO. It sounds simple, and in many ways it is, but it takes time, empathy and a hefty amount of psychology to actually get inside the customer's mind and to write copy that will appeal to them.

Done well, website copywriting will bring in organic traffic from Google, as long as thorough keyword research has been done beforehand. See the Web Goddess article on keyword research for more on this.

Once web pages and posts are showing up in search results and people are clicking through to the website, then the great web copy there will compel those people to take the desired action.

And so the business grows… 

3. Consistent tone builds trust

Unless it's a specific aim of a business to have different 'voices' when engaging with customers, understanding and implementing a tone guide is an important way of building trust with potential new customers and nurturing it with existing ones.

Trust is important because when people trust a brand they are far more likely to engage with it and to purchase from it.

How does this work? 

If all of the words that are written for a company read like they have come from the same person, that helps the customer to connect more naturally—in a human way— with the brand. 

However, if the Home page reads one way, and the About page feels as though it was written by somebody else entirely, then this creates a jarring experience for the reader.

And users then start to have a niggle of doubt as to if the brand is legitimate and trustworthy…

Steer away from those niggles of doubt!

The tone is not just specific to the website. Having a consistent tone in all written content —from email newsletters and social media to video scripts and advertising—is vital to helping a business build that all-important trust.

A good copywriter will be able to write in a way that matches a brand's voice or can create a tone guide for a client if one doesn't already exist.

4. Great website copy helps to build brand awareness

The three points already mentioned—lead with the benefit, tailored SEO and consistent tone—all combine to have the natural effect of helping to build brand awareness through online presence.

The three ways this works are:

1. If the benefit-laden copy on a website turns that visitor into a customer, then the chances are that good old word-of-mouth marketing will start to take effect, too.

2. If the copy on a website is SEO-focused, then new visitors will be pulled in from organic search. Then the benefits described in the copy will then turn those people into customers, and point 1 is repeated.

3. Finally, if visitors to a website (both current customers and potential new ones) feel as though the brand has a consistent tone, then trust will begin to build. As it does so, point 1 once again gets repeated.

Brand awareness is a fabulous vehicle for organic business growth.

5. Good copywriting should have a clear CTA

All of the above points would be almost moot if they were not pointing towards a definitive call to action (CTA) that will resonate with the target audience.

There is a world of difference between a button that says:

Discover Exclusive Deals Now!

And one that says:

Click Here

‘Click Here’ does not sound exciting and it isn’t clear what will happen when I do click that button.

On the other hand, ‘Discover Exclusive Deals Now!’ not only tells me I’m about to visit a store, it also entices me by telling me I’m about to see something exclusive, invites me with ‘discover’ and compels me with ‘now!’. All of that in just four well-chosen words!

There will be a world of difference between the click-through rates of those two CTAs, too… As click-through rates and conversions increase the business will grow.

To Summarise…

As the digital doorway between a business and its customers, a well-thought-out, specifically tailored, and genuinely useful website is an absolute must.

To truly make a website as powerful a tool as it can be for the growth of a business, great website design and great copywriting are equally important and should go hand-in-hand.

A brand can have extremely well-planned digital marketing strategies that target the types of clients they are looking to attract, but without engaging and effective copywriting across all platforms, users will not act on those words as much as they might. 

The conversion rates will therefore not be as high as they could be (or even non-existent!), meaning businesses will be leaving money on the table.

For more practical ways in which copywriting can help your business, check out Tim’s blog.