There are an incredible number of expectations in a website text. It should entertain visitors, inform them, encourage them to buy and generally give customers a good feeling. It is particularly important that the information in the text can be filtered out clearly and that the content is not too complicated. The website text should be thought-provoking, but not put the reader down. It should be fun to read, but should not appear childish. It should offer added value, but not overwhelm the reader. It should rank well thanks to SEO, but not be written too obviously according to SEO criteria.
In short - a good website text has to be able to do a lot.
But don't worry, implementing these things perfectly in a website text is not as complicated as it sounds. We've put together these 9 tips for the perfect website text so that your text will convince both you and your readers.
Define and understand the focus target group
Customers are first and foremost people like you and me. They go online with a goal and look for the site that meets their needs and answers their questions.
In order for your visitors to find their answers on your site, you need to understand what they are looking for. If you do this, you are already one step ahead of many entrepreneurs, as this aspect is often neglected in marketing.
So put yourself in your visitors' shoes and ask yourself:
- Which customers do I want to address?
- What do I offer?
- What do my customers want to read?
Because here, too, it is important that you understand your customers. As a private individual, you often surround yourself with people who have similar interests and experiences. With your website, however, you have to try to appeal to as many different personalities as possible and convince them of your website and/or your project.
In addition to the various individual interests of your website visitors, there is the language of the website. This does not mean the national language, but the wording. Depending on the product and customer base, your website text should be humorous, sad, compassionate or serious. Children's and baby products, for example, can be described in a much more familiar and playful way than products for martial artists.
Watch out! There are also many traps lurking in the target group. Services and products for senior citizens and children in particular are often advertised incorrectly, as it is well known that the focus of a product advertisement is always on the advertising target group. In this case, however, this does not consist of the senior citizens and children themselves, but of their relatives. The same applies to gift items.
As you can see, the topic Defining and understanding customers complex and an important first step for your website text. I would therefore like to emphasize once again that you should first of all be clear about your advertising target and focus group, but not lose sight of your product.
Writing despite writer's block
As in many areas, you can only improve what you have written. Before you get bogged down by rules and guidelines, write your website text for an imaginary focus target group and revise it afterwards.
There are few things more frustrating as a copywriter than writer's block. If you sit in front of a blank page or document for a long time and can't produce a word, it is often helpful to put all rules and intentions aside and just write for the time being. This rough draft can then be edited afterwards according to your wishes and all the rules of the art of writing. The important thing is to have something on paper first.
Methods such as brainstorming, e.g. with colleagues, or mind maps can also help to break through writer's block. These encourage creativity and bring new perspectives and arguments into your thought process.
Answer the questions of your visitors
Imagine you are visiting a website on your topic and need a specific answer to your question. How long would you continue reading the text if your question is not answered directly?
Your customers are usually looking for information that they hope to find on your site. For this reason, you should formulate the answers quickly, clearly and concisely. Some writers make the mistake of answering the question too late and describing a lot of additional and background information beforehand. However, this usually leads to visitors leaving your website. Therefore, make sure that you embed the information in a stimulating text.
Therefore, keep an eye on your red thread by:
- answer the question or problem directly and clearly.
- only include further and more detailed information in your text afterwards.
Additional information, anecdotes or stories can be placed at the end as a nice-to-have, which your reader can read if necessary.
Don't underestimate storytelling
But an informative text can also be entertaining. It is therefore not enough to simply write down information. If you wrap your information in an anecdote, a story or a case study, readers will read your texts much more willingly and with more interest. It doesn't have to be a fancy story. An example from everyday life is usually enough.
But be careful! Emphasize your key words and information clearly enough so that readers do not search in vain for their answers (see point 3).
Address your reader directly
Avoid "I" statements. Address your readers directly and formulate your information in "you" messages. This comes across as personal and encourages visitors to stay on your website. Your posts should primarily be about them. So avoid phrases like:
"I want to appeal to readers with my website."
Formulate your statements in a results-oriented and efficient way (see point 6).
Focus on the results, not the offers
If the readers respond to your Website they want to find a solution to their problem. Of course, you offer them this solution with your product. However, it's not so much the product that interests your customers, but the result they achieve with it. Therefore, focus less on your product and more on describing how efficiently and quickly your customers can achieve their goal with it. For example, if you offer baking kits, tell customers how efficiently they can use them to bake a delicious low-carb cake without having to search for ingredients.
A lot of content in few sentences
This point is, admittedly, a little more complicated. The average reader only stays on a website for a few seconds before leaving. To help your customers find what they're looking for quickly, you need snappy headlines with specific content.
Place your results in short, convincing titles. Such titles can be:
"Create a professional website footer with the Divi Builder - 100% suitable for beginners"
"Elementor: The ultimate guide to the WordPress page builder 2023"
"Download free images: The 11 best websites for royalty-free graphics"
Here you present both your product and the solution to the problem in one sentence.
Never stretch the text
Have you ever read a book and had the feeling that the story was already over, even though there were still 100 pages left?
There is almost nothing worse than a text that has been artificially stretched out. Stick to the well-known rule: "A text is as long as it is long". The website text should not exceed its natural length. A text with 500 words should therefore not be stretched to 600, 800 or even 1000 words just to achieve a predetermined length. This is because readers will notice if the text has been stretched out unnaturally.
Not too much SEO
Even though search engine optimization (SEO) is the first step to a good ranking, you shouldn't overdo it with SEO. Keyword spamming and overly obvious placement of keywords disrupt the flow of reading and often appear artificial. Good SEO is effective, but not flashy. Readers should have the opportunity to get important keywords explained directly via your website, but at the same time not be overwhelmed with information overload. Therefore: as much as necessary, as little as possible. If you're having trouble deciding how much is enough SEO, I can recommend our SEO checklist recommend.
Conclusion
Good website text fulfills several functions. It is informative and entertaining, captivates your readers and encourages them to stay on your website.
Even though every text is individual, there are a few guidelines that you can orient yourself.
- Define focus target group
- Write first, change later.
- Answer all your visitors' questions
- Embed information in inspiring storytelling
- Communicate with the reader (≠ Me)
- Results before product
- Inspiring titles and short content
- The following applies to text length and SEO: as much as necessary, as little as possible.
