The Importance of Good Website Copy

Tuesday, July 28th, 2009 | local info

A professionally presented business website is a powerful and important promotional tool. It’s the first thing prospective clients will look at before they decide to contact you. If the copy on your website is not well written, it may be losing you business. It is not sufficient just to have eye-catching graphics and imagery, you need the words to make it complete. Is the spelling correct? Are punctuation marks accurate? Does the copy make sense? These are questions that website designers should be asking themselves before they publish a new website.

One of the greatest flaws with website copy is inconsistency. A lack of consistency could put off a large proportion of potential clients from hiring the services of a company that has not proofread their website.

Poor spelling on a website is another costly but easily avoidable mistake. The majority of visitors will leave the site very quickly if they discover too many spelling errors. This again will give them the impression that the site owners don’t really care. I am also certain that copy that has been ‘padded out’ with insignificant trivia is also unattractive for visitors. Lucid, concise and informative content is the way to go.

Anything containing textual content should always be proofread. It’s vital that not only are mistakes in spelling, punctuation and grammar found and corrected, but that the text flows smoothly for the reader. The copy on a website should not be treated as the ‘poor relation’ of the website design project. You can have the most cutting-edge, eye-catching graphics available but you will still need well-written copy to compliment them.

There are many web design businesses around that will readily inform visitors how they can supply them with a state-of-the-art website but then insert poor copy, which totally negates any good work they have achieved. This will reduce the initial impact of the site, and more often than not will have an adverse effect on business. However, there are also website design companies that employ skilled writers so shop around. It pays to have the copy checked professionally, whether the web design company has written it themselves or had it supplied by the client. It may cost a lot less than you realise to have a website proofread and it could cost you considerably more if you don’t!

Remember, if visitors to your website cannot find the information they are looking for because of poorly written copy then they will quickly leave your site. The only ones to benefit will be your competitors.

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