When it comes to priorities on your website, conversion is up there with the best. Often, conversion-driven website practices focus on design. And yes, there are incredibly important design elements like conversion colours, navigation removal on landing pages, and prominent buttons for your key conversion pages.
However, did you know that a lot of this can be directed by your website copy? This is why website copy needs to come before design in any website project.
How conversion actually works on B2B websites
It’s important to remember that someone can land on your website through literally any page. It could be a blog post (most likely), your homepage (second most likely), or any one of your other pages.
Chances are, if they’re in the market for the solution you’re offering they will look at the following pages before converting:
- Wherever they land
- Home (if that’s not where they landed because it’s the best place for a quick summary)
- Service page(s) that is relevant to them (to scope out the specifics)
- Case studies/testimonials (to see what you’ve done before)
- About (to see if you align, are in the right location, etc.)
- And finally your contact/booking page
It’s also worth remembering that very few people will convert on their first visit to your website. They’ll likely talk it through with other people. Possibly forget about you and come back in a few months. They will have other priorities.
So when the time comes, we need to make sure it’s as easy as possible for them to get all the information they need to tip over into conversion.
This is where website copywriting and design come in. Here’s the part that website copy plays in all of this.
5 ways website copy impacts the conversion rate of your website
- Informing the user journey
- Button and call to action text
- Button and call to action placement
- Connecting ideas and topics together
- Content formatting and clarity
So let’s dive into it.
1. Informing the user journey
In simple terms, the user journey is how you want people to move through your website. Of course, your first thought may be “they see a service page and they contact us to book/enquire”. And sure, that’s the dream scenario. However, folks tend to meander a bit more than that. Especially if what you’re offering is a big investment piece.
Remember that list from earlier? My job as a copywriter is to make sure people go where they need to and lead them to the next step in the conversion process from wherever they stand.
- On a service page? Direct people to case studies or portfolios.
- On a blog post? Direct people towards relevant service pages.
- On the home page? Create snapshots of what the company does and make it easy for folks to find.
- On the case studies/portfolio page? Encourage people to get in touch
The user journey will look different to every business depending on their business priorities and how conversion works for them specifically. But it is something that directly informs the flow of the copy as well as buttons and CTAs.
2. Button and call to action text
You can’t have buttons and calls to action (CTAs) without copy. These are both examples of micro copy, where we need to fit in a lot of clear information in a very short space of time.
You see, in the year of our lord 2025 we do not write “click here” in our anchor text or in our buttons. Button text needs to balance brand/tone of voice and clarity in 2-4 words. Shit like this is why the general rule of copywriting is: the shorter the copy, the longer is takes to write.
Button text aimed at conversion pages (contact, landing pages, etc.) needs to be consistent throughout. As does the design.
CTA text changes regularly throughout the website. It’s common to find CTAs that point to the same page repeated throughout a website. Which can look jarring when your website copy is presented to you in one big document as part of the project, but will all make sense when it’s in the layout of your website.
Both of these types of text prompt a specific action. They direct people through to the next part of the user journey and it’s important to use different types of CTAs where they are needed. A website copywriter knows where to put these.
3. Button and CTA placement
This takes us on nicely to placement. At the bare minimum, each page that is not for conversion itself should have what’s known as a “main CTA” at the bottom. This is, in most case, your conversion piece. Leading people to book a table, enquire about a venue, or contact your text about your services.
However, there are plenty of reasons to use mid-page CTAs as well. For related services, to take people to portfolios, to encourage them to read a case study about this specific type of work.
Button placement is also important. Anything “above the fold” (i.e. what appears on the screen before someone scrolls down at all) is the most important content on your website. This is what convinces people to stay or go. Scroll down, click through, or fuck off to find someone else.
So, best practice is to put at least one button just underneath the main page title and possible subheading. In what is commonly known as “the hero”. Sometimes you’ll see two, and when you do they’re usually in different colours. Or perhaps one is filled with colour and one if an outline.
This is because one of these buttons is the priority. The one that takes you to the next stage in the process. And other is secondary information. It’s up to the copywriter to decide which is which.
4. Connecting ideas and topics together
In order for someone to convert, they need to trust you. And trust is built with consistency. This is why I spend so much time focusing on messaging with my clients before we dive into the copy itself. It’s essential to have your messaging aligned with both your values and your target audience.
A recent project I did with an assistive technology company for neurodivergent students focused almost entirely on fixing the messaging. They fell into the oh-so-common trap of trying to please everyone. And ended up targeting no one.
Through that messaging development, we were able to tie all of the pieces together to present one cohesive message: that all students deserve the chance to thrive in education. And that the buyers of their products (educational institutions and DSA officials) are the ones who can make that happen.
Connecting all of their products to the core message, as well as their About page, Pricing page, and even the way we reorganised their blog topics, allows for one cohesive message. Increasing trust and in turn, increasing conversion.
5. Content design and formatting
I may just be a lowly copywriter, but content design is integral to what I do. Ensuring all of the website copy is scannable for information because, sorry buddy, no one is going to read everything.
Even now, chances are you’re only reading this specific bit of content because you’re more interested in content design than some of the other topics here.
The way people scan through website copy is even more cut throat than the way they scan through blogs. So don’t make people work for the information they need. Show the features, benefits, pricing, and processes clearly and succinctly.
Personally, I love a bullet point list. Or a more visual diagram/text combination to break things down. If you bury the lead, the leads won’t come.
Conversion-optimised websites are a must as the internet gets more crowded
It doesn’t matter how good you are at what you do. Or how great your products are. If people can’t find their way around your site and know instantly how to reach you, there is no fucking point. So take some time to assess how easy your website is to use. Get a friend to look through it and ask them to describe what you do, who you do it for, and how easy it is to make sense of it.
If things are looking a bit messy, take a look at my website copywriting packages or get in touch to see how we can fix it together.
