Date: Tuesday, July 3, 2007

How important is good web copy?

It was recently estimated that there are around 110 million websites on the Internet and all of them use some form of web copy to communicate to the reader. Web copy has a number of purposes from helping you to stay in touch with family and friends to selling a product or service, it can tell you more information about a hobby and even encourage social networking. However, while its clear web copy is important, does it really matter if it’s written to a high standard?

What Makes Good Web Copy?

Poor copy is used on many sites because of a lack of resources. Many businesses will simply recycle offline material from corporate brochures to provide content for their website because it’s more cost-effective to do so. However, as research shows people read differently on the web than they would offline, using old offline copy won’t do your business any favours. In order to appeal to the web reader, good web copy should be:

Engaging. Good web copy should grab the attention of a potential customer and make them want to read on. If you lose the attention of a reader, they are just one click away from using a competitor site.

Informative. Gratify your audience by teaching them something new. If they don’t feel they are gaining anything by reading your copy, they won’t bother to continue.

Digestible. Readers on the web will scan your copy rather than reading it, which means vocabulary should be easy to digest and copy should be kept to a manageable length.

The Consequences of Using Bad Copy

Many cost-cutting businesses that choose to recycle or use poor web copy fail to realise the negative impact it can have. As the online face of a business, a website is incredibly important and using poor copy could result in the following:

Fewer customers and lack of existing customer loyalty. Customers are unlikely to return to your site if they can get the same product or service from a competitor with a more user-friendly and informative site.

Poor search engine optimisation. Google displays authorative results more highly, which means that a poorly written site won’t rate as highly as one with good copy.

Appearing unprofessional. Ultimately, an unprofessional site will also make a business appear unprofessional. Potential customers will be less likely to trust you with their money and you may find it difficult to close a sale.

Investing in Good Copy

It’s clear that companies who believe they are cutting costs by recycling old copy are not saving money in the long term. Using good copy has many long-term benefits and should have a positive impact on both the number of visits to your site and the amount of sales. This means that companies should, as Nathan Smith states, “think of quality writing from the standpoint of marketability” and treat good copy an investment rather than an expense.