I’m not going to teach you to suck eggs by telling you what website copy is. Content design on the other hand carries a lot of misconceptions. Content design is the practice of designing content (no doi, thanks Alice). This focuses on things like formatting, call to action (CTA) placement, and how the flow of content impacts the user experience and user journey.
All of this should be considered when writing website copy, or any other copy for that matter. So how are they actually different things?
Signs your website copy hasn’t factored in content design
- It isn’t immediately clear what the page is about and who the product/service is for
- There are no buttons or CTAs on the page
- Button or CTA text includes phrases like “click here”
- There are no headings breaking up big chunks of text
- Everything is written in paragraphs
- There is no clear path forward for your audience
- Your navigation menu is enormous with shit tons of nested pages
- The language is complex and full of jargon
What do to next
There are a few steps you can take immediately and some you’ll need to manage in the longer term to fix these issues.
Review your website copy
Go through each page of your website copy and run it against this checklist:
- My H1 is clear and descriptive
- Without scrolling down, it is clear what this page is about, what it sells (if applicable), and who it is for
- All key information (pricing, ingredients, processes, timelines, etc.) is available at a quick scan
- There are clear CTAs pointing people to buy, enquire, or take the next logical step in the buying process
- My navigation menu contains every page that is publicly accessible on the site
- My navigation menu includes 3 layers or fewer (2 is ideal if you can swing it, although I recognise this isn’t possible on many ecommerce sites). For example Services > Website Copywriting
- Everything is written in plain English (or applicable language) without jargon
- I have no more than 75 words between headings (excluding bullet points and other formatted content)
- I have images or diagrams to help break up text and/or visually explain concepts
- None of my videos autoplay
- None of my text is justified (that formatting thing they do in books to make sure each line of text goes the full width with essentially a straight line down each side)
- All of my bullet points are left aligned
This doesn’t cover everything but it’s a very good place to start.
Balance clarity with branding and tone of voice
Clear does not need to mean bland. Your tone of voice can be clear as fuck without sacrificing clarity and readability. Good content design will do a lot of the clarity work for you. One of the great things about content design is that it also improves accessibility for folks with dyslexia, ADHD, or visual impairments who need screen readers.
We want to make our website more readable and more scannable. Plain English doesn’t mean boring as fuck. This website, for example, follows many content design best practices and I don’t think anyone could accuse it of being boring.
There is a fine balance to strike between brand and clarity. The most exciting brand in the world means nothing is no one can tell what you’re actually trying to say.
When to reach out for help
If you’ve identified a selection of problems on your site and you either don’t know how to fix them or simply don’t have time, it’s a good idea to bring in an extra pair of eyes.
Often, you don’t need big sweeping changes, you just need minor adjustments in a bunch of areas. We don’t have to burn it all down and start again (unless, of course, that’s what you want in which case I’m more than happy to help).
This is going to be especially key if your website is getting a bunch of traffic and fuck all conversions. It’s likely because the content and the design are putting up lots of little barriers for your customers. They can always go elsewhere, so your content design needs to be air tight.
I specialise in detangling fucked up websites
Whether it’s sprawled out of control as you keep adding new pages, you have a shit ton of 404s because you never redirected those old links, or you’ve fallen into the trap of “SEO will save us” and now your website is unintelligible, I got you boo.
I’ve been detangling fucked up websites for over a decade. Improving conversion, SEO, usability, and messaging is my jam. Plus, I’ve given you all of this info for free. Imagine what we can do when we work together.
If you need to get your website’s shit together, get in touch and let’s get started.