Writing copy for a business website can often seem like a daunting task if it is an industry that you have little experience in – but by following some basic principles you can engage the target audience and portray the message effectively. Follow our 5 top tips to online business copywriting success.

1 – Keep it simple. This may seem like a throw-away comment, but it’s true almost 100% of the time. People hate spending longer than they have to read information, so if you can explain the business or services within the first couple of sentences you are more likely to keep the attention of the visitor.

2 – Break up the text. As with the last point, people are going to be put off if there is 1000 words of plain text on a page with little or no imagery or colours. Try using bullet points, block quotes and lists to break up your content. Use paragraphs effectively and split large content into multiple pages.

3 – Use an accompanying image. If you are writing about the latest iPhone release – why not have an accompanying image of somebody holding/using an iPhone? Images can really grab the attention of a visitor, so support your message with relevant images.

4 – Don’t talk like a machine. Although you shouldn’t be using the latest text lingo on your website, you should ensure you are writing for your target audience. Don’t provide long lists of technical details or jargon – write in a way that will encourage your visitors to stick around for longer and convert.

5 – Don’t duplicate or copy another’s work. Copying text from another website is bad in the eyes of search engines, and could also put your visitors off altogether. If you’re going to take ideas from another website – ensure you just take some points of interest, and don’t duplicate their work.

So there you have it. Business copywriting doesn’t have to be completely painful, and once you have completed your masterpiece you can sit back and relax while the visitors engage and convert. Good copy doesn’t always mean success though – so back up your content with a service that users will want to use, and most of all, return to use again.

As a side note, one other aspect to writing for the web is SEO copywriting. Copywriting in terms of SEO (or ‘Search Engine Optimisation’) is creating content that is user friendly, but is also targeted to perform well in the search engines. The process of SEO copywriting involves writing content that is targeted to a key phrase (or set of phrases) that may be high-traffic or highly relevant to the services of business. Writing content that is specifically targeted to certain phrases can help a website appear higher within the search results as it will be deemed more relevant to the topic in question.

Whether you are writing killer copy or trying to boost your search engine rankings – always remember one thing: write for your visitors preliminarily, as they will be the ones using your business.

Author Bio: Zeus PR agency Manchester provide expert marketing and PR communications services to businesses throughout the North West.

Category: Computers and Technology
Keywords: copywriting, business copywriting, seo copywriting