How important is good copy?

Many businesses underestimate the importance of good copy. Even in today’s technologically-savy world, we still stumble across websites that can only be described as ‘functional’ at best. This can be a costly mistake as customers will naturally seek out those competitors which offer them a more valuable, supportive service experience.

In today’s consumer-driven society, a website is often the first contact or introduction a prospective customer will have with your business and it has the ability to literally make or break a sale. Quality content will help you build or cement your reputation and win the respect of your target consumer market – both of which are essential to maintaining and attracting customers. Poor and uninspiring content, on the other hand, will be an immediate switch-off to new clients and send them in the direction of your competitors, regardless of how loyal they have been in the past.

One of the goals of producing regular, informative copy on your website or social media pages is to strengthen the relationship you share with your customers and instil a degree of trust and dependability. To achieve this, businesses need to be addressing the individual needs of their customer base and responding to their common problems so that they can present solutions.

There has been a marked departure from traditional Search Engine Optimisation (SEO) techniques which crammed too many keywords into website articles, giving them a false, computer-generated feel which alienated customers and made them doubt the authenticity of the company.

Consumers aren’t fooled by unnatural, heavily stylised content and will quickly lose trust. Good copy flows naturally, like conversation, and feeds knowledge to the customer without them necessarily realising they have learnt anything. Good copy should reflect originality and creativity and above all provide value to your customers. Websites which are badly-written and empty of value have no purpose and will do very little to secure new customers.

SEO will still help you boost your search engine rankings but this should never be undertaken at the expense of well-written content. Google is continually adapting its search processes to place less importance on keywords and more on quality content. As well as being accurate and informative, website articles have to be unique to rank high on search lists.

One of the most important aspects of writing good quality content is identifying a suitable, attention-grabbing headline. A good headline needs to feature keywords that your target market actually searches for but has to make customers want to read it. Since the birth of SEO, consumers can decipher between good content and mildly disguised drivel and will not give the latter the time of day. A clever title that balances optimisation goals with a desire to be informative will be treated much more seriously.

Good clean copy with no grammatical or spelling errors is essential to protecting reputation but another objective should be developing shareable content. Keywords can help increase website traffic but a thoroughly-researched, thought-inspiring and well-written article can travel the globe at the click of a button giving your business an international stage. Social media sites such as LinkedIn , Twitter and Facebook provide a platform for businesses to build a brand and those businesses which pursue engaging and impactful copy will maximise their audience through the additional sharing facilities of these mediums.

I hope this article has explained why going above and beyond in terms of your website copywriting is worthwhile. Every firm relies on its ability to continuously attract and maintain customers. Your website is the frontman for your business and needs to match the professionalism and customer service skills you pride yourselves while on the job. Shoddy copy will only serve to undermine the good work you’re achieving in reality.

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