Your website content may be utterly useless.
Sure, it’s interesting. It’s often funny. It’s accurate and informative.
But it’s probably repetitive. Your website content most likely repeats several sentences throughout your site. Worse, it might even repeat sentences on the same page.
Your customer only needs to be told once that you’re a green company, or a hot copywriter, or that you specialize in lawyer-oriented websites.
Every word should contribute to convincing your client and telling him something new. Otherwise, you risk frustrating your reader. You don’t want to bore him by sounding like a broken record.
Want an example? That first sentence used to read “every single word.” Since ‘word’ is singular, saying ‘single’ was redundant. That’s what you’re looking for.
You could even remove that last sentence completely. “You don’t want to sound like a broken record,” basically means the same as, “Every word should tell your client something new.” I’ve used different words to communicate the same idea – but it’s still redundant.
When you remove the unnecessary and repetitive words, your website communicates its message more swiftly. More effectively. With stronger results.
A concise message lets your reader’s brain process your message quickly. There’s no clutter, and he’s more likely to take action because the need feels more immediate.
In every way, concise web copy is better web copy.
If you want to learn how to write better web copy, register for the Damn Fine Words writing course. It’s open right now to new students, and you’ll learn all the ins and outs of concise, effective writing that brings your business results.
You’ll thank yourself for it.
But in the meantime, here’s a tip you can use right away. You’ll have vastly better copy on your website in 20 minutes by following these two simple steps:
- Go look at your web copy right now.
- Take out every word that doesn’t contribute something new.
Come back here and tell us about the before-and-after. I bet you’ll have something to say!
