Are you a professional web copywriter? Maybe you’re a small business owner looking to make your mark in the world of e-commerce? Either way, if you’re involved with the web copywriting side of any online business, it is essential that each and every word of your website is carefully thought out and executed. Think of your copy as your online version of a sales assistant in a real life store, assisting customers when they need help, showing them how products work and ensuring that every visitor that walks in the door of your store walks out as a paying customer who will return in the near future.

Here are 6 essential tips to ensure that your website copywriting is perfectly optimized:

1. Identify your target audience

You need to know exactly who your website is targeted towards, and even more so, who each individual page is aimed at. Only once you know what type of person will be reading each page will you be able to strategise exactly how to best see to their informational needs and pull on their emotional strings in persuading them to buy something, be it a product or a service.

2. Do your Keyword research

Every page worth its salt is able to attract a certain amount of search engine traffic. Ensure that you figure out exactly what each page is about and ensure that the relevant keywords are inserted into the text in an optimal fashion. You don’t need to be an SEO specialist to get the right keywords, often a well written piece of copywriting for the web that promotes a particular topic will automatically contain the necessary keywords, however, you should also make use of tools such as Google Adwords’ keyword research tool or any other tools out there the identify the most effective keywords.

3. Structure your content

One of the most important tips – ensure that your page is well structured. It needs to be easily “scannable” (reader can easily spot different bits of info throughout the page at a glance) and it needs to be straight to the point and contain the right bits of info in the right places. As a web copywriter, you should make use of headings (note the use of headings to structure this article) to split up your page as it is a great way to make it easily readable to your users. Ensure that the most important content is above the fold and that the first paragraph of text could almost single handedly sell the page.

4. Write naturally

Writing on the web is nothing like answering that university essay question in your English exam. Your web copywriting should be professional but casual. Remember that your copy is like your in-store salesman would be in a real store, and salesmen use conversational language that easily and naturally communicates the product to the potential customer.

5. Be persuasive

Don’t be afraid to be a little “salesy”. As mentioned before, when copywriting for the web, your copy is your only tool in selling your products, so you need to convey a sense of pride and confidence in your product and truly believe that yours is the best product in its category. Be sure to tell your customer exactly what sets you apart from your competition and why they should buy from you and nobody else. This is an important part of web site copywriting!

6. Remember to have Calls to Action

All web copywriting is done for a reason, and that reason is to get the reader to perform some sort of action upon completion of reading the text. If you want the customer to buy a product, ensure that there is a “Buy now” button blatantly obvious on the page. If you want customers to contact you, have clear button that takes them to the contact page and if it’s simply an informative article, make sure that there are ways for the reader to share the article. If a page doesn’t have a call to action on it then either you need to add one, otherwise you need to re-evaluate the importance of actually having that page on your site.

If you adhere to the above general rules of web copywriting, you can be assured that all your content is serving its purpose and not wasting anyone’s time. Remember that you need to grab people’s attention and get them to click your calls to action. These are your primary objectives, do whatever you can to convert casual visitors to customers. Web Copywriting is a skill, if you don’t have the skill then hire someone who does, it will be money well spent.

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