Three of my blog’s key focuses are Financial Literacy/Money, Business/Entrepreneurship and Technology. Important aspects of your business are your branding and technology. You have to be sure that your website and all of the messages you communicate on it are clear. The following contributed post is entitled, Website Words: 3 Tips For Perfect Copy.
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When considering your business’ website, your focus will primarily be on the design and functional elements. You’ll want to ensure that your site looks good and works exactly as you expect – which is undoubtedly important, but there is a final part of the puzzle that can often be overlooked: the text.
The text on your website – which is more conventionally referred to as the “copy” – is just as important as the look and performance of any business website. The text is how you convince customers to buy from your company and how you affirm your brand’s voice, so getting it right is critical. In an effort to help you achieve this goal, below, we’ve assembled five tips that will help you to make sure that your website copy is at its absolute best.
#1 – Be cautious of tone
When writing website copy, there’s a line you have to walk: the text should ideally have an element of personality to it, but it should also remain professional. To achieve the right balance, it’s usually best to try and use the same writing style and word choice you would use if you were writing an email to an acquaintance – someone you know well, but not well enough to consider them a ‘friend’. Viewing your text through this lens should help you to keep things light, but without crossing the line into over-familiarity.
#2 – Consider translation
To work well, website copy has to be understood. As a result, businesses whose target audiences are likely to be bilingual may want to consider opting to translate their website copy to benefit some customers. While translating your entire website’s copy sounds like a dramatic, time-consuming undertaking, professional companies such as Para Plus Translations can help to simplify the entire process and allow you to display perfectly-translated text with ease.
#3 – Watch out for typos
No matter how well written your copy is, if it’s riddled with typos, your customers will notice – and may even judge your company as a result. Unfortunately, finding typos in text you have written yourself is inherently challenging, so you’ll need some form of assistance when seeking to overcome this issue. The best option is to hire the services of a professional proofreader, but a combination of using a service such as Grammarly and then asking a friend to proofread can also work well.
#4 – Too much information is preferable to not enough information
With website copy, convention suggests that you should provide information succinctly. However, while the quality of the words you choose is more important than quantity, the amount of quality copy needed is more up for debate. While some customers may be more than happy with a few sentences about your products or services, others will want to know more before they commit to a purchase; we all have different opinions about how much is enough when it comes to information. To account for this, it’s best to opt for a higher word count; it’s easier for customers who prefer short text to pick out the most pertinent details for themselves – perhaps aided by short summaries – than it is for those who would like more information to convince themselves to settle for less than they would like.
In conclusion
With the tips above, your copy can join your great design and flawless functionality to create a business website that your customers are sure to love.
