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Writing copy isn’t just about writing copy. Website copywriting isn’t the same as writing for a brochure, or a newsletter. And website copywriting for service-based businesses isn’t the same as writing for ecommerce sites. Being a website copywriter for service businesses is a niche all of its own. When you’re choosing a copywriter, thinking they’re all the same thing is one of many mistakes to avoid.
Writing copy for service-business websites means balancing the needs of the search engines with the needs of the readers. It means addressing the things that people interested in a particular service want to know, in a way they want to hear it. It’s less about making a sale or describing a product than about building trust and creating the right customer journey.
(If you have a service-based business and already know you need an experienced website copywriter, why not get in touch?)
Improving your website impressions – and not just in numbers
Impressions are a key metric online. But first impressions count too, not just the number of them. If your business tracks website statistics, you’ll be looking for continually increasing impressions – as you should. However, you also need to think about the first impression your website visitors get, especially as this will also influence future search impressions.
The often-quoted statistic, that you have around 50 milliseconds to make an impression online shows how important good design is. But design is just the beginning of the story. Once people start reading what you have to say, they’ll make judgements there too. And if they don’t get the information they want quickly enough or easily enough, they won’t stay. People also have different expectations and experiences reading online than they do when reading offline material.
Copy that gets you found by the search engines
Whether or not a website is appealing when people land on it is irrelevant if it’s not turning up in searches. Website copy should be written for the search engines as well. Too many websites have either been written just for people, or just for the search engines.
It’s possible to write for both.
With ecommerce sites there can be an element of people wanting a product – and not necessarily caring who sells it. For service businesses, particularly if you want to charge a premium price, get found, and differentiate yourself from all the other generic-sounding businesses out there, you’ll need the right copy.
Copy is a key element in website navigation
If you’ve ever been on a website with no clear user journey and it’s hard work navigating round the site to find the information you need, it’s probably not just down to the design. The copy is key in creating a good user experience and guiding customers through a process. Copy is not just there to convey information.
Online copy differs from offline copy
We have different expectations when we’re online. We tend to read books and printed matter in a linear fashion. Online, we tend to scan. Structure and clarity are paramount. How much white space there is, the length of sentences and paragraphs, the use of things like bullet points and headings: all these things contribute to how likely people are to hang around and read further.
The search engines are also looking to give their searchers a great experience. They look at all these things and more – both as a way to index pages, and to assess how likely they are to fulfil a reader’s requirements.
Why service businesses need different copy to ecommerce businesses
Unlike products, services are intangible. Many are discretionary. Copy has to build trust and confidence as well as providing clarity. There needs to be more emphasis on outcomes, benefits, or transformation – but not to the point where what’s being offered isn’t actually clear. Strong calls to action, in the right places, are key. Unlike ecommerce businesses who are looking for sales, many service businesses want visitors to book a call, make an enquiry, or join a list.
Service businesses and selling a service
It’s important to establish trust and authority with things like reviews, case studies, and blogs. Where relevant, sharing professional qualifications and memberships of governing bodies or associations is a must too.
Finding the right tone and seeming professional matters for everyone. Showing professionalism isn’t just for doctors and lawyers. And it isn’t about being formal and stuffy. Professional helps you seem trustworthy. You can be friendly, down to earth, chatty, irreverent – whatever your brand values are – but you still need people to feel they can trust you.
Copy that converts
Sometimes it’s hard to articulate exactly what you do and for whom when you’re running a service-based business. A website copywriter should be able to help you with both if you’re not sure.
A copywriter needs to understand your service and how you work. They need your perspective and that of your target customer too.
When I’m writing website copy for service businesses, I dig deep into how your business works, what exactly you offer and why, and who your target customer is. Knowing how you want to be seen and what resonates with your ideal audience will help inform the tone and style if you don’t already have a style guide. I’ll weave in the keywords and phrases and layout the search engines are looking for too so it’s seamless. Good search-engine optimisation isn’t adding it all in after the copy has been written and good website copywriting doesn’t ignore SEO.
Mistakes to avoid when writing copy for service businesses
There are plenty of ways to make your website copy work for you. These are some of the key issues I often see that can damage a brand:
- Ignoring search-engine optimisation
If you could choose between two brilliantly written pieces of copy, one that has been written with search-engine optimisation in mind and one without, you would probably choose the latter. Unfortunately, the search engines wouldn’t – and they are the ones returning web pages in searches. Beautiful website copy that never gets seen and isn’t working for you is not going to advance your business.
- Adding in the SEO after the copy has been written
This just creates messy copy that reads badly and doesn’t really do anything properly. It won’t be a great representation of your business, even if people are more likely to see it.
- Using too much jargon or technical language
Copy should be written to appeal to your target audience and reflect their level of knowledge. It should also reflect how they would like to be spoken to. It’s not there to show off to peers or demonstrate your technical knowledge.
- Focusing on your company and not the client
A lot of what you think is vitally important and incredibly interesting often isn’t either of those things for your target audience. You need to tell them what they need to know and what they want to know, not just what you want to tell them. You’ll need to take an outside view to determine what those things are.
- Thinking you should write your copy because you’re the expert on your company
This is in fact one of the biggest reasons to not write your own copy. You’re just too close to your business and your sector.
- Ignoring the user journey and experience in the copy
Website copy should help visitors navigate a website as well as making them want to know more. Forgetting to link to other pages and making it difficult to access information will frustrate a reader as well as making it harder for the search engines.
- Forgotten or weak calls to action
If you don’t tell people what you want them to do and make it easy for them – book a call, download a lead magnet, etc – they probably won’t.
When to hire an SEO copywriter for your service business
There are many reasons to hire a website copywriter for your service business. Here are just a few:
- Your website is getting very little traffic
- You have low conversion rates that need improving
- People are confused about what you do or what you offer
- Your website really doesn’t represent the level of professionalism you want to project
- You are growing your business and your website needs to reflect that
- You want to compete with larger companies
- You’re investing in marketing to drive traffic to your website
Working with a website copywriter
I write website copy for service businesses that does all the things you need it to do – properly. I work with businesses directly and also with website designers to help them get their clients the best results. If you’d like to know more about what it’s like working with me and how I can help, please take a look at my reviews. If you’re interested in how we could work together, please book a call.