5 signs you need help from a web copywriter

Small businesses often have small marketing budgets, so it's no surprise that many save by writing their own website copy - but that's not always a good idea. Your copy helps visitors find your site in the first place, and it should also encourage them to reach out and contact you.

Here are 5 signs you might need to consider some help with website copy.

1. The heading text on your home page doesn’t make it clear what you do

Your home page gets lots of traffic. It should make clear exactly what you do, and who you do it for. Even big companies get this wrong. What does this company do?

If you don't know, the answer's at the bottom of the post. But I hope you got the main point.

2. Your website is a wall of text

This page is not only a wall of text, it's a wall of hard-to-read text. You need 15 years of education to understand it easily.

Nearly half of all Australian adults have low literacy. Many of the rest don't like reading.

Your website should use language which Year 8 or 9 students can understand. Test your writing using the Hemingway App. (Hemingway - and Jane Austen, for that matter - wrote in language primary school kids can follow.)

Lawyers, accountants, techies and consultants, I'm looking at you for this one!

3. You have portfolio or gallery pages which are all images with no words

Hello builders, architects and designers! Do you believe photographs of your work will demonstrate what you do far better than words can?

You're right. But (there's always a but) people need to find those photos in the first place. And if they like them, you should tell them what to do next.

This page has 10 images and a grand total of 24 words, including the menu. Unless you know the architect exists, you're not going to find them.

Even worse, if someone finds this page and interested enough to scroll through all the images, they end up at the bottom of the page which is a dead end. What are they meant to do next?

4. Your website is all about you and not about your client or customer

Your website is not actually about you and your business. At least, it shouldn't be.

Your website should be about your customer and what your business can do for them.

'You' is one of the most powerful words in the English language. It shows we're focused on the other person, not ourselves. Do you use it enough on?your website?

5. You have a blog where the last post is more than 2 years old.

Not a good look! If you have this problem, pick one of these options:

1. Remove the blog completely. Not recommended if you have more than a couple of posts, since you'll lose search authority and your Google rankings will probably slip.
2. Reformat the blog so that no dates show on-screen. Now no one can tell how old your most recent post is. This option is relatively quick to implement and won't damage your site rankings significantly, but it won't help them either.
3. Write some more blogs yourself. If you have the time to keep doing this and some basic SEO knowledge this is a good way to go.
4. Hire a web copywriter to work with you on new blogs and fresh content.

Got any of these problems on your website? Seen them on a friend's site? I'd love to help fix them.