You wouldn’t build a house without a solid foundation, right? Well, your website is no different.
Think of the copy on your website like its foundation. If those words aren’t written strategically for your target audience, even the most beautiful website is destined to fail.
So, let’s talk about why hiring a website copywriter before you dive into your website’s design is not just a smart move; it’s often critical to its success.
What is a website copywriter?
A website copywriter is a person who writes the words, or copy, that goes on your website. (Not to be confused with the term copyright, which is actually something completely different).
This might sound like a simple job, that you might even be tempted to do yourself (or think that it’s your web designer’s responsibility), but there’s actually a real art and skill behind writing compelling website copy.
Fun fact: Nearly every website client I have that tries to write their own website copy, always tells me it was harder than they thought it was going to be! Not to mention, it almost always takes them a lot longer than they thought it would.)
A copywriter not only communicates your brand’s messaging, but also persuades visitors to take desired actions on your website, such as making a purchase or filling out your contact form.
An experienced website copywriter also understands how to optimize your web copy for search engines (SEO) and speak to your target audience’s desires and motivations. The ultimate goal of a copywriter should be to combine your brand’s personality with strategic messaging that moves your visitors to action.
Benefits of Hiring a Copywriter for Your Website
If you are in the beginning stages of planning a new website, you might be weighing the pros and cons of investing in a copywriter.
To some people a copywriter, can seem like an unnecessary expense. I see a lot of clients approach hiring a copywriter similarly.
They think something like…
“Hey… I’m a pretty good writer, not great, but pretty good. I think I can figure this out and write it myself to save a ton of money.“
If we all though this about the investments we make into our business, we’d get nowhere pretty fast. The truth is, you can teach yourself how to do almost anything in your business. But at what cost?
Think…time, resources and the opportunities we lose along the way because we are so busy trying to teach ourselves how to do something outside of our area of expertise.
The other problem is that writing copy for your website is NOT the same as other writing you may have done in your life / career.
It’s not like writing a blog, book, course, or a research paper. Even great writers can have a hard time writing website copy.
Why? Because there are specific frameworks and writing elements that copywriters use, and without understanding the why and process behind it, it can make DIY-ing your website copy very difficult.
If you consider yourself a part of the DIY copywriters camp, I’d challenge you to compare the upfront price of a copywriter vs the long-term cost of not hiring a copywriter. (Hint, the long-term benefits almost always outweigh the short-term cost.)
Let’s dive in a little deeper to some of the points mentioned above to understand how a copywriter can really help your business.
A copywriter can help with clear brand messaging
One of the primary reason to hire a copywriter for your website is that they can help position your business differently from other similar businesses through clear and effective brand messaging.
- Alternative: Without a clear message, your design falls flat and your brand becomes, generic and unmemorable
- Solution: A copywriter ensures your content aligns with your brand message, communicates your core messages effectively and creates a memorable, engaging experience.
This is important because brand messaging and positioning influences everything from how much your visitors might be willing to pay for your services to the degree to which your website visitors feel connected with you… hopefully that’s enough to make them want to fill out your contact form.
One thing that I’ve seen be a real challenge for many of my past clients is to put into words what makes them different from their competitors and describing their unique viewpoint.
When you are so close to the daily operations of your business, this is incredibly difficult. A copywriter offers a fresh, third-party perspective that provides so much value to your business.
One of my favorite copywriting strategies involves incorporating past client testimonials and language into your website’s content. This ensures you are using words that your ideal client will resonate with, creates a deeper connection with your brand and also adds credibility to your brand. (A win-win all-around.)
Related Post: How to Focus Your Marketing Messages to Reach Your Audience
A copywriter can help boost your search engine rankings
If this is your first website you might not be all that concerned with SEO. You might just be eager to get your website launched, but taking the time optimize your website for SEO is an investment that will pay off for years to come.
- Alternative: Ignoring SEO can bury your website in search results and leave money on the table for your business.
- Solution: A copywriter adds SEO-friendly elements to your content, improving visibility and driving more organic, AKA free traffic.
When you launch your website, you might mistakenly think that visitors are going to be magically showing up at your virtual door, but this is far from the truth.
When you skip optimizing your website for search engines, guess where all your potential visitors are going? To your competitors!
SEO levels the playing field for online service-providers and retailers alike. The more you can optimize your website’s copy so that more people searching for your services can find you, the better.
Take a minute and type one of your competitor’s url’s into this search traffic checker. You’ll see how much organic traffic your competitor is currently getting. That means when a potential client / customer types your services into Google, they’re getting a piece of the pie that could be on your plate.
Related Post: SEO Mistakes: 5 Reasons Your Website Isn’t Showing Up In Google Search
A website copywriter can help make sure more of that traffic is ending up on your online doorstep through optimizations on your website pages like titles, meta descriptions, alt text and more.
Of course you can take it upon yourself to learn SEO too, but again, this is going to take an investment of your time and resources. (Hopefully you are starting to see the benefits of a website copywriter stacking up here…)
Avoid redesign headaches by hiring a copywriter first
It’s common to want to jump headfirst into designing your website and start experimenting with different fonts and color palettes. But if you put off writing your website copy and try to design your website first instead, you’re going to end up feeling frustrated and defeated. Here’s why…
Your website copy should influence your design, not the other way around. It doesn’t make sense to perfect your website’s layout when the copy that goes into it might be drastically different in length and style. Here’s the issue a lot of DIYers run into…
- Issue: Designing first, then realizing their website content doesn’t fit – a classic headache. Then you have to spend twice the amount of time reworking your layout to get it all to fit.
- Alternative: On the flipside, if you involve a copywriter from the start, you can save yourself time, money, and the headache of redesigns.
Here’s one thing we know for sure: whether your DIYing your web copy or hiring a copywriter, your website copy should always come first.
That’s why for our custom websites, we love to partner with our favorite copywriter, Kathy Young to help our clients write their website copy. K Design Co. manages the entire process so you don’t have to play middleman between contractors, but you still get amazing copy and design that work together.
This has made the website development process go so much smoother and quicker. (Not to mention helps our clients see a return on their investment through more leads, signups and engagement on their website.)
OK… but what if I seriously, don’t have money to hire a website copywriter?
If you don’t have money to hire a copywriter, we get it and we don’t want to leave you hanging. That’s why we sought out a solution that would help our clients who have smaller budgets. Now with our website template customization services or our website templates, we include a complementary DIY copywriting course, called Copy Catalyst, (by the lovely and talented, you guessed it, Kathy Young).
This is the next best thing to hiring a website copywriter and is a great alternative if you are genuinely budget-strapped and can’t afford to invest in professionally-written website copy.
Kathy’s course teaches you the nuts and bolts of what goes into good copywriting and what key copy elements you need on the major pages of your website ie. homepage, about page, etc.
We are so excited to offer this to our clients & customers because we know it helps them create better, more effective websites. So whether you decide to invest in a copywriter or want to go the DIY route, we have an option for your business that still ends with you getting great, strategically-written website copy.
Looking for a website partner to help handle the design, development and copy for your website seamlessly? Reach out today and let’s chat about your project.
I help female entrepreneurs and business owners create brands that command the spotlight. I love working with women to help them create beautiful, one-of-a-kind brands that give them the confidence to take their business to the next level and get them seriously noticed. I’ve worked with coaches, authors, influencers… you name it, and I bet I can help you too.
