When you’re getting your website designed, you will be asked for ‘content’.  Very few web designers write copy – most expect you to provide it for them and won’t be able to complete your website until you’ve done that.

If you’re lucky and work with a web designer that offers an in-house copywriter, you’ll normally be offered that service as part of the proposal.

• Most people can’t create a professional design – so they need help.
• Most people can’t program to make a website operate effectively – so they need help.
• Most people can write – so they don’t need help; or do they?

Poor grammar, spelling and punctuation reflect on your image.  People make judgments based on what they see on your site.

So if you know you write good English does that mean you will be able to create compelling commercial copy?  To write effective copy you need to know:

• How to present the right information for the reader on the right pages in the places they are looking.
• What your target audience wants to know in order to explore your site further.
• How to create headlines that get people’s attention.
• How to keep people reading and what draws their eye on.
• What to do to get people to take action.
• How to incorporate your key words and phrases without creating clunky copy.

There are a whole long list of don’ts too – the things that turn off your reader fast.  Most of us are too close to our own businesses to write objectively; we simply know too much.

If your website content isn’t professional your website may not ‘work’ – in other words, whilst the design and functionality may be perfectly good, the content may not hold your visitor long enough to take action.

Investing in a copywriter is worthwhile – especially if you’re paying several hundred pounds for a website, the cost of professionally written copy will make your website pay back every penny!