6 Signs Your Web Copy Needs a Facelift

It’s a new year! Which means a lot of you will have spent time over Christmas reviewing your business, looking at things you might not have looked at for a while. Like your website, for example. And yes yes, I know it’s been the holidays, but I’ve never known a business owner who can completely mentally switch off from their business for 2 weeks, so I know you’ve been doing it.

If you were one of the people thinking about their website, I want to know what you thought. How it lived up to what was in your head, and what areas you thought you could improve on. If you didn’t, I invite you to take a look at your website now, so that you can put your best foot forward into the new year. Here are a few of the things you should be looking out for, that tell you your web copy needs a facelift.

It’s Attracting The Wrong Visitors

Good copy isn’t just about attracting visitors or customers. It’s about attracting the right ones, and actively pushing away the wrong ones. After all, no one wants to waste their time going through the sales process only to discover you’re not a good fit for each other. If you’re attracting the wrong type of customers time and time again, it’s likely that:

  • Your SEO keywords are too broad
  • Your target audience isn’t obvious
  • Your target audience is wrong
  • Your calls to action are encouraging wrong-fit prospects
  • Your content is sending the wrong message

Your Target Audience Has Changed

Since you last checked on your web copy you might have made some changes to your business. You might have decided to pivot your business, change your offering or just target a new market. Suddenly you’re talking to a whole new market with a whole different set of pain points, and your copy is missing the mark.

For example, your clients before might have been domestic, but now you want to branch out to commercial clients too. The same copy isn’t going to be attractive to both audiences, nor is it going to answer any of the relevant questions. So you need to update and adjust the copy to match your new target audience.

Your Prospects Always Have The Same Questions

Your web copy isn’t just about showcasing what your business can do. It’s also about answering the questions your prospects might have, so that they can be confident you’re the right person to help them. There’s a level of anticipation there, of needing to know what they want to know and giving it to them upfront. Answering all of those common questions will empower them with the knowledge they need to move to the next step – as well as cutting out a lot of time answering the same questions over and over again!

The higher-performing websites will use a combination of web copy and blogs to answer these questions – the blogs for prospects just starting on their buying journey, the web copy for those on the verge of converting. But if your copy is unclear, vague or confusing (or full of jargon), then it’s not going to work. Instead you’ll get prospects coming to you with the same questions time and time again.

It Doesn’t Represent You

Businesses change and evolve over time. If your copy isn’t evolving with it, then it’s only natural that it will start to feel outdated. So when you look at it now, it doesn’t feel authentic to you, or represent you as well as it should. If you’re not sure, I recommend going and reading some of your competitors web copy, and then comparing it to yours. If you think your copy feels:

  • Safe and unadventurous
  • Bland
  • Lacking personality
  • Sterile and sanitised
  • All tell and no show

Then it defiantly needs a facelift.

Your Tone Is ‘Off’

I yammer on about tone a lot, but that’s because a) it’s important and b) it’s my job. Your tone of voice is all about the way that your copy sounds and the brand personality it conveys. If you want to be successful, you need a consistent, recognisable tone that really represents your brand. This is what helps make the right connection with your audience. So if yours isn’t ringing true, it’s time for an update.

There are a lot of reasons you might read your web copy and think it sounds ‘off’. It could be because…

  • You tried for ‘professional’ and landed on bland and uninspiring.
  • There were too many people contributing to the content.
  • You copied and pasted pieces from different websites, so it all feels muddled.
  • Your copy has evolved over time, so the amendments feel different.

If you want to read more on tone of voice specifically, you can read my blogs on why brand voice matters, the anatomy of a brand voice, and why brand voice is really important.

You’ve Rebranded

In all of the excitement of choosing new colours, logos and visuals for a rebrand, the copy often gets left until last – if it gets done at all. Many businesses think that if they’re just updating their style and not changing their offerings that they don’t need to change their copy, but they couldn’t be more wrong. Now you have copy that doesn’t reflect you in the same way as your visuals do, and even if it’s been a minor change, it will still feel very ‘off’ and ‘not quite right’. Rebranding is a chance to start from scratch, so it’s the perfect time to review your copy and bring that up to date too.

At Vivid Copy I write web copy on the regular. It’s one of the things I like to do because you get to learn so much about a business, and often the business learns a lot about themselves too! Getting the right information put in the right places, in a way that converts is exactly what I do, so if you need some help. Give me a shout.

Click here to book your FREE web copy audit, and find out if your web copy is working hard enough for you.