12 Easy Copywriting Tips To Help You Write Great Copy Like A Pro

Website Copywriting Tips For Non-Marketers

Writing content for your website is one of the most important marketing skills that you need to rank and boost conversions. Copy is everywhere- from product/service pages to PPC landing pages, you need to write content that gets found, meets the needs of your customers, and drives your business goals.

Content is the backbone of your online marketing strategy. Whether you repair shoes or sell watches, people are looking online for your products and services to address their needs.

Your customers turn to Google and search engines to answer questions and address problems. If you want to improve your online presence you will need to produce great content that gets found and converts your customers.

You need to walk a fine line between optimizing content for search engines and writing compelling copy that engages with your readers on a personal level.

This means that you need the right words to engage with potential customers along the buyer’s journey. No matter what you sell or your industry, you rely on good copywriting to reach the right people and get them to convert on your site.

Need Better Content? Here Are 12 Tips That You Can Use Right Now

It can seem overwhelming to create blog posts and other content on your website. Not only do you have a million other things to think about with your business or marketing department, but you also know that missing the mark with content marketing can hurt your bottom line.

Copywriting is more than simply writing words on a page. Good copywriting is when you strategically create, optimize, and publish content that builds brand awareness and guides customers to convert and buy from you.

Copywriting is needed in different types of content. From email marketing and paid advertising to landing pages and blog posts, great copywriting is needed across your marketing campaigns. The Internet empowers people to research in different ways, so you need to have amazing content along the entire Buyer’s Journey to ensure you engage with potential customers throughout the process.

Let’s dive into some useful copywriting tips that you can use to rank higher in Google, drive conversions, and grow your business today!

1. Identify Audience Needs

Your target audience has specific questions and seeks a remedy for their pain points. Whether you sell running shoes or paper plates, people look for your products and services to improve their lives.

Potential customers turn to Google, social media, and other online content to find the answers they need and buy products or services online to address their pain points.

The only way to craft content that sticks is to think about your target audience by asking specific questions like:

• What problems and pain points do potential customers have?
• Why are people looking for your product or service?
• What have potential customers used in the past?
• How can you position your service and product benefits?

Take time to think through the above questions and write down your answers. These answers will reduce the amount of time and hassle needed to produce great content for your target audience.

Good copywriting requires clean thinking and simple language that connects with your readers and moves them to engage with your company. Once you understand the core needs of your customers you can start to discover the types of content your business needs based on the intent of potential customers.

2. Keyword Research

Google wants to deliver relevant content based on search queries that your customers use to find answers and solutions to their pain points.

Keywords are how customers interact with Google, so you need to build great content around your customers’ terms to get found online.

You can follow a 4-step process to find the right terms to use in your blog posts and landing pages:

• Identify User Intent: Relevant content is based on the intent of searchers. Understand what people are looking for, how they are searching, and why they are looking for your solutions. Relevant keywords throughout your content signal to Google are that you are an expert, which improves your online visibility.
• Keyword Volume: Some search queries are used more than other search queries, and keyword volume gives you a general idea about a specific term’s popularity. Great content takes a lot of time and energy to create, so you need to focus on keywords that meet a minimum threshold.
• Keyword Competition: Keyword competition is a metric that tells you the estimated difficulty to rank for that keyword. Keywords with high difficulty scores will require a lot more work, time, and resources to rank for than keywords with a lower difficulty. Try to focus on keywords with a relatively low ratio between keyword difficulty and high keyword volume.
• Keyword Value: Your customers use different keywords to find information online. Some keywords signal that a searcher is closer to the purchase decision and these types of keywords are more valuable than keywords used earlier in the Customer Journey.

Incorporating keywords into your content is an essential copywriting skill to develop great content for your website.

3. Understand User Intent

Keywords are crucial to copywriting for both Google and your human readers. On one hand, Google wants to deliver the best content possible so they closely match content with keyword intent. On the other hand, people use specific types of words when searching for answers and solutions online.

Since keywords are at the intersection between what Google uses to show content and what your customers use to search on Google, you need to produce content for different user intent. The three broad types of user intent are:

• Informational: Online searchers use broad queries to look for general information on a topic. The best way to target these searches is to develop educational content to help readers define their questions and clarify their problems.
• Navigational: Once people pass the Informational Stage, they begin to compare different products/services to address their needs. It’s best to focus on your brand name, comparison charts, and reviews to capture the attention of readers at this stage.
• Transactional: At this stage, searchers understand their problem and have a shortlist of potential solutions. You can create persuasive content like FAQ pages, testimonials, and case studies to solidify your relationship to solidify the sale.

If you want to get found and drive leads you will need to consider the intent of your customers. Not only will this refine your message, but user intent is also essential to make keywords contextually relevant to your business and readers.

4. Target Long-Form Content

Word count and content length is a hotly contested argument among copywriters. While there is no ideal length for blog posts, landing pages, or other web pages, you can bet your Google ranking that long-form content is the way to go.

While Google has stated it doesn’t explicitly use word count as a ranking factor, this doesn’t mean that you should abandon long-form content as a whole. Regardless of the direct impact content length has on search results, you can be sure that long-form content offers specific SEO benefits compared to its shorter counterpart.

Here are some copywriting tips to help you choose the right word count for your needs:

• Set Minimum Word Count: Recent studies show that most blog posts on the first page of Google average 1,890 words. Try to aim for at least 1,000 words for blog posts and service pages. 1,000 words are the sweet spot because it provides you with enough room to insert keywords naturally while also painting a whole picture for your audience.
• Consider The Channel: Your word count will vary based on where you are publishing the content. A 1,000-word blog post makes sense, but a 1,000-word Facebook post may not be a great idea.
• Attention Span: Your customers are busy, so you should choose a word count that makes sense for your target audience and the channel you are going to publish on. Long-form content is great because it can help you rank, but if you need to adjust your strategy based on where you are publishing and who you are publishing the content for.
• Your Competition: Take a look at search results for a given keyword. What type of content is Google showing in SERPs, and what is the average word count of competitor articles? There may be an opportunity for you to secure higher rankings by diving into more detail for different topics on a related subject.

Long-form content provides a giant canvas that you can use to write content. You will need to write a minimal length of copy since a compelling copy that sounds natural to your readers and contains keywords for search engines.

5. Brainstorm A Great Headline

One of the hardest parts of copywriting is how to choose the right headline. Your headline is the first thing people see in Google, and a good headline can make a big difference in your Click-Through-Rate and engagement across your site.

You can have the best copywriting skills in the world and write good copy for your customers, but none of it matters if no one clicks on your articles.

Here are some tips to help you write great headlines for your articles:

• Use Odd Numbers: Odd numbers like 7 and 9 stand out to the usual “Top 10” listicles. You can stand out from your competition by adding numbers in your headlines, and if you use an odd number, you will see improved performance.
• Use Special Characters: Similar to numbers, you can use special characters in your headlines. Characters like brackets, hyphens, and parentheses will catch online searchers’ eyes and lead to more clicks.
• Include Questions: Questions generate curiosity and deliver SEO value. You can build headlines around short questions to let people know that you know what they are looking for and help them read your article.
• Use Keywords: In a previous step, you identified the keywords you want to use in your content. Integrate one or two of those keywords into your blog post headlines to get found in Google.
• Use Power Words: Your headlines need to capture your readers’ attention, and you can use power words to boost Click-Through-Rates.

Excellent copywriting is rooted in reaching the right people with the right message. The only way to get potential customers to engage with your content is to have them read blog posts and other content.

You can improve your content marketing strategy and overall content performance by choosing an excellent headline for each blog post!

6. Competitive Research

There are only 10 organic spots on the first page of Google and you need to appear at the top of a customer’s Facebook feed. This means that online marketing is a “zero-sum” game, where you go toe to toe with your competitors.

Competitive research is the best way to understand what types of content already exist on a specific topic. Here are a few tips to help you understand your competition to build better content:

• Content Gap: Analyze your competitors’ content to find gaps between what they offer and what your customers are looking for. Content gaps are significant for content marketing, and the only way to discover opportunities is to understand where your competition is missing out so you can fill the void.
• Refine Your Strategy: It takes a lot of time and resources to make excellent content. You can use competitor analysis to familiarize yourself with topics or themes that you usually don’t think about when it comes to your industry.
• Find Your Strengths/Weaknesses: Doing a deep dive into your competitor’s content strategy can do a lot more than help you write good copy. You can start to see how your competitors use different types of content with social media, local SEO, and even paid ads. These connections can help you bolster your content marketing strategy.

The ultimate goal of competitive research when writing copy is to identify areas where you can provide better content as quickly and efficiently as possible.

Some marketers and small business owners skip going through their competitor’s content before writing content. This is a big mistake because analyzing competitor content can help inform, direct, and enhance your copywriting process.

7. Create Content With A Purpose

Websites don’t rank- web pages and blog posts rank in Google. Your potential customers are presented with a page or blog post based on their search query.

Since Google ranks pages and posts, you should begin the writing process by thinking about each page’s purpose and a set of keywords that you want to use in that content.

• Homepage: Your homepage is the most powerful page on your site because it sits at the top of the directory, and it is the most trafficked page. You should structure your web content on the homepage with the intent to get people off of your homepage and onto other pages on your site.
• Testimonial pages: Show off the great products and services you offer with examples of past clients who love you! Regardless of your industry, it would be best to use testimonials and testimonial pages to prove your value and build a relationship with your audience.
• Case studies: Be sure to write detailed accounts of how you worked with past clients. Each case study should have lots of details to show the problems customers have and how you help fulfill the need.
• Blog Posts: Blog posts are the educational content that is used to capture more traffic on search engines. Be sure to make blog posts focusing on education and not hard sales if you want to improve your online visibility and build a relationship with customers.

Try not to overlap keywords or purpose across multiple pages because that can confuse Google and hurt your SEO rankings.

Each page on your site has a purpose, and you can use different content to keep customers moving down the customer journey and boost sales!

8. Format For SEO & People

Formatting is one of the secret weapons for many copywriters because how your format content has a significant impact on how people engage with the words on a page.

You can have the best content in the world, but your customers (and search engines) will scroll past the content if it is piled into big blocks of text. Here are some ways you can formate content on your site to boost reader engagement and rank higher in Google:

• Break Into Sections: No one likes to read large blocks of text, so you should break your content into smaller sections. These sections are usually 250-400 words long and use header tags like H2, H3, etc. These sections can be used to emphasize keywords, makes content scannable and easy to read.
• Write Short Sentences: Write short sentences to ensure your readers don’t get lost in long sentences. Longer sentences make content harder to read, so use short sentences to maintain your reader’s attention.
• Use Short Paragraphs: Limit your paragraphs to only 2-3 sentences each. Browsers put white space between paragraphs, and this white space helps guide the eyes of readers and makes your content look more appealing compared to a large block of text.
• Use Bullet Points: Bullet points make it easy to quickly scan different content like services, prices, benefits, and locations. Use bullet points throughout your content (especially in the first lines of a blog post) to summarize important information.
• Add Images: Try to space out images throughout your blog posts to catch readers’ eye as they scroll through your content.
• Bold Words: Bold fond and quote blocks keep your readers engaged for more extended periods. Bold words help direct readers to essential concepts and ideas but make sure you don’t go overboard with bolded text.

Good copywriting requires clear thinking and the ability to logically break down complex ideas into smaller parts that are easy to understand and consume. How you format content on a page has a significant impact on how your readers interact with your content and how you rank in search engines.

9. Use An Active Voice

An active voice in marketing helps your readers picture themselves taking action and engaging with your products or services. Instead of passively reading content, you can use an active voice in your copywriting to get potential customers invested with your content.

The right words engage with your readers and this copywriting tip focuses less on algorithms and more on your human customers. A few ways to optimize website pages to drive engagement and sales with an active voice include:

• Keep Content Concise: An active voice keeps your writing concise because you will avoid using fluff words. Copywriting with an active voice also keeps your readers engaged throughout the content.
• Improve CTAs: Use verbs in CTAs to help readers quickly understand the actions they need to take. You can also use an active voice and verbs on CTAs to emphasize your products or services’ benefits.
• Avoid Passive Voice: Limit the use of “ing” in your content because this type of copy will confuse your reader. Rearrange your sentences to make your content easier to read and understand.
• Avoid Jargon: You need to make your web pages educational, approachable, and helpful for your customers. Unless needed, you should limit the use of jargon.
• Use Power Words: You can gain readers’ attention by placing power words in your headers and strategic placement in the body of your website content.
• Avoid Adverbs: Avoid using adverbs and other fluff in your copywriting to keep content concise and clear.

Whenever possible, aim to use an active voice with action verbs to make your writing more robust and more approachable.

A few simple changes to your content can significantly impact how your readers engage with you and convert throughout the buyer’s journey.

10. Use Analytics

You put a lot of time and resources into great copywriting, so you need to know what content performs best to understand your customers’ needs. Plus, you can use Google Analytics and Google Search Console to know your site’s types of content work.

Both of these free website analytics tools provide valuable metrics that you can use to write excellent copy like:

• Readability Score: Do you know if your content is easy to read? In general, content that is easier to read will perform better. Try to keep your copy at a Flesch-Kincaid score of around 60-70.
• Bounce Rate: Bounce Rate tells you how customers may read your content but don’t interact with the content in any way.
• Time On Page: It’s crucial to monitor how long readers stay on different types of content to understand what is most important to your readers. Look for content with a high time on page and low bounce rate because of these metrics signal that your readers love your content.
• Traffic: You need to pay attention to website traffic and how many potential customers go to each page and blog post. Learn what content generates the most traffic and lean into that content to improve online visibility.

11. 4 P’s Copywriting Formula

4P’s copywriting formula provides a proven framework that you can use to bring your content to the next level.

This conversion-focused formula is focused on your customers’ needs and guides them through the process to identify, promise, and solve those problems. Here is a quick overview of the 4 P’s copywriting formula:

• Promise: Make quick promises to your readers in the first line of your content. Ensure your promise speaks to your target market’s desires and needs to capture their attention right off the bat.
• Paint A Picture: Paint a picture of how their life will look once you’ve delivered the promise and improve the lives of your readers.
• Proof: Backup the promises that you made to your readers with social proof and testimonials. It’s a great strategy to layer in proof in your messaging after the promise and painting a story to fold in your customers’ desire before you deliver a CTA.
• Push: The last part of the 4 P’s copywriting formula is to push your readers towards conversion with a strong CTA.

You can use this copywriting tip in sales copy and PPC landing pages. You can also use the template to build product web pages by structuring each page to deliver a great experience.

12. Build A Content Map

Your customers go through different stages to research, consider, and buy from you. Great content not only gets found in search engines and speaks to your readers because great content also has to be played at specific points throughout the Customer Journey.

A content map helps you consider your customers’ needs at each stage of their journey and how to use content to address the needs of your customers throughout the lifecycle. The three stages of the Customer Journey are:

• Awareness Stage: Potential customers realize they have a problem and need to fix it. Create informational content that aims to help customers put a name to their problems.
• Consideration Stage: Customers start to research solutions to their problems. Use educational and engaging content to connect the problems identified in the previous step with potential solutions.
• Decision: At this stage, potential customers are ready to buy. Use content like PPC ads, case studies, and sales copy to prove your company’s value to close the sale.

A content map is vital for your business because it helps visualize how content is used at each step of your content marketing efforts. Map your content to ensure you are making the best content possible to drive traffic and sales!

Improve Your Content Today!

Copywriting for the web is challenging because you need to balance optimizing content to get found in search engines to drive traffic and optimize content for your target audience to ready the content.

Since your human readers will become customers and give you money, you should start by writing a good copy of your customers’ needs.

Use these copywriting tips to optimize content for Google and make your content pop for your target audience! Check out our copywriting services if you want a professional to take care of the heavy lifting for you today!

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