Author: Bob McClain, Web Copywriting Expert

There are a heck of a lot more than just 10 website copywriting tips I could give you but there has to be a start to everything. So in this post, I’m going to give you what I believe are the 10 most important web site copy writing tips to keep foremost in your mind as you sit down to your keyboard. (Yes, I’m old enough to remember a time when it would have been sitting down at your typewriter but let’s just keep that to ourselves. Call it “experienced”.)

Tip #1 – Get some copywriting books and read them.

There are some great books on copywriting and website copywriting. I have a stack of them on my desk and I have read them all. I have tabs for the chapters, I have created “cheat sheets” of the best tips and tools I’ve found in them, and I shamelessly turn to them for ideas and inspiration.

Here are a few I recommend:

• Web Copy That Sells – Maria Veloso
• The Copywriter’s Handbook – Bob Bly (The copywriter, not the poet)
• How To Persuade People Who Don’t Want To Be Persuaded – Joel Bauer (This isn’t a copywriting book but the ideas in here will blow your mind)
• The AdWeek Copywriting Handbook – Joseph Sugarman (Joe is a legend in direct copywriting)

Tip #2 – Create a cheat file.

That’s right. I want you to create a cheat file of any website copywriting or offline copywriting that seduces you or impresses you. Nobody is born a great copywriter. All the great copywriters got there by standing on the shoulders of the great copywriters that came before them.

If you’re a paper person like me, rip pages out of magazines, collect direct mail, and print out website pages, landing pages and squeeze pages that grab you and save them in a file.

If you’re a digital person, save them on your computer, scan the paper stuff, and/or bookmark the great website copywriting you find.

Study it. Every time you have a copywriting project, break out your file and read some of it to get the juices flowing.

Tip #3 – Write 100 times, I will be a great web site copy writer.

This is a tip I picked up from Maria Veloso. If you want to be a great website copywriter (which should be your goal if you want to make money on the Internet), you need to go to detention and start “copying great copy”.

Print out the best stuff you’ve collected and type it up over and over again. Nothing will get great copywriting into your head faster than typing it yourself. Spend five hours typing various pieces of great copy into your computer and by the end of the five hours, you’ll be on your way to website copywriting greatness.

Tip #4 – Your headline is the most important collection of words on the page.

Take a look at the headline for this post. What are the primary facts about the headline?

•    It’s short. The most effective website headlines are 8 words or less.
•    The primary keyword phrase is prominent – “Website Copywriting”.
•    It makes an offer “website copywriting tips”.
•    It gives you a number that’s big enough to excite but not overwhelm. (10)

There are a number of things that are different about copywriting for websites than copywriting for offline content. One thing, however, is the same. You only have a matter of seconds to grab a reader’s attention.

That’s why the smart Internet marketers have always studied the geniuses of direct marketing. In case you don’t know, direct marketing is primarily defined as those letters you get in the mail selling you everything from watches to investments.

Another great place to find examples of “killer” headlines is in the checkout line at your local grocer. You know those magazines in the racks you stare at because there’s nothing else to do? Those people have professional copywriters who do nothing all day but dream up headlines that will grab you in seconds and seduce you into grabbing their magazine off the shelf.

Study them.

Tip #5 – Sell the sizzle, not the steak.

If you want someone to buy something, first you have to get them excited about it. There’s an old saying in website copywriting:

“People buy the hole; not the drill.”

Everyone has a goal when they get to your website page. And they really don’t care how they achieve it as long as it’s reasonably legal and reasonably moral. Outside of that, everything is fair game.

What I mean is, don’t get hung up on the facts. People don’t get excited by facts. Yes, you need to give them the features of your whatzit but first you have to get them excited that your whatzit will finally solve their problem without them having to think, do or spend.

Tip #6 – Don’t be a starched shirt.

When you’re engaged in website copywriting, don’t sound like an attorney. This is one of the biggest mistakes I find on business websites. Everyone thinks they have to sound like a corporation. I call it “corpspeak”.

When you’re writing website copy, remember that the person on the other end of the wire is still just that; a person. They just want someone to answer their questions and solve their problems. They are a human being with frailties and worries and a mortgage and kids and a boss breathing down their neck to fix the problem or increase revenues.

Talk to them like you’re sitting across the table from them at the local bar or coffee shop.

Tip #7 – Don’t flunk English 101.

I just picked up a new client the other day who is hiring me to rewrite her website and put together an Internet marketing campaign plan for her website. Here’s what she said to me at our meeting:

“As soon as I saw your website, I knew you were the person I wanted helping me. I’ve never picked up the phone so fast after reading a website.”

And then she told me why.

The writing, while casual, was correct (no grammar mistakes.) There were no spelling mistakes. The writing flowed and there were no “jolting sentences” that distracted her.

Never put something up on the Internet until you’ve read it over at least five times. Then get someone else to read it a couple of times. And never trust spell-check. Use it, but don’t trust it.

Tip #8 – Practice your oratorio skills.

The quickest way to get a feel for how well your copy flows is to read it out loud. I always do this.

I’m a member of a business networking group. In this group, I don’t know how many times if watched people get up and read their 60 second elevator speech and I knew they’d never read it out loud until right that moment.

They stumble, they get confused, and the words just don’t connect for people. Why? Not because of their speaking skills but because they’d never read it out loud. Reading your copy out loud is the quickest way I know of to identify badly constructed sentences or inappropriate words. Always read your website copywriting out loud before you submit it to the Internet. You’ll be surprised…

Tip #9 – Mies van der Rohe said, “God is in the details.”

Architect Mies van der Rohe knew that brilliance wasn’t in the bold brush stroke. It was in the finishing details. Remember to go over your copy with a fine toothed comb. If you can find a better turn of a phrase, a slightly smoother sentence, a simpler word that is more inclusive and less exclusive, you’re on your way to great, instead of just good, copy.

Tip #10 – Learn the rules before you break them.

Look back at tip number 1. I said the most effective headlines are 8 words or less. In most cases that’s true. However, there are legendary copywriters who break that rule and make millions doing it.

But they are professionals who lived within the rules long enough to know when to break them. I also said 10 was big enough to entice but not overwhelm. In most cases that’s true. However, I once read a blog post that started with the words “5,679 words on…” Wanna bet that got my attention?

Once you’ve got some website copywriting experience that follows these ten rules and you’ve collected a big enough cheat file, don’t be afraid to start bending the rules a little. Who knows, you might become the next “million dollar copywriter”.