“I just need a website, I’ll write the copy for it myself.” is something I hear often when talking with people about their new online presence. Considering the challenges website copy holds though, that’s not always the best idea and frequently leads to poor communication. But what is the most common communication problem in web copy and how can you avoid it? We’re here to find out.
I frequently create websites with my colleague Kerstin Ebner, who’s an expert on branding and web design. I really love these projects and am totally amazed every time a website is finally ready for launch after months and months of work. 🤩
In our websites, text and design go hand in hand, individual solutions are found for the individual requirements of the client and any problems associated with website copy are avoided elegantly. so that the user doesn’t even know about them.
The other end of the spectrum are the gazillion bad websites out there that are closed immediately after being opened – not least because of bad copy!
And that’s exactly why I’d like to talk to you about the #1 communication problem in website copy: forgetting your target audience!
The forgotten target audience – root of all communication problems in website copy
When we’re building a website, we want to prove ourselves. We want to show the things we can do, what we offer, which qualifications we have, how good we are and why people should buy from us.
And that’s all nice and good. But there’s also a huge problem with that: your target audience doesn’t care. At least not in the way you think the might.
Depending on your area there’s no point in listing a myriad of qualifications (nobody reads more than 3 of those anyway), throwing around specialist terminology (your target audience won’t know these words) or patting yourself on the back (nobody likes a show-off).
Sorry, not sorry. And even if that comes as a shock now …
Your website is not for you. It’s for your target audience.
The art in copywriting website texts is to create copy that lets you and your company shine and says everything customers need to know – without appearing arrogant or getting lost in the details.
That alone is pretty challenging, but it’s getting infinitely harder when you’re writing about yourself. Because when talking about themselves, almost everybody struggles to stay focused on what’s important. Because everything’s important, right? 😉
Here’s the thing though: your potential customers need far less info than you might think. More importantly though, they need completely different info than you might think.
And that’s usually what’s at the core of poor communication in website copy: If you forget your target audience when creating your content, customers won’t feel like you understand them and their needs, so they won’t like being on your website, let alone buy from you.
Avoiding communication problems: what info does your target audience need?
To avoid alienating your target audience, always ask yourself: What does my target audience want to know? Which info do buyers need to make an informed decision about their purchase?
If you let yourself be guided by these questions, it becomes pretty obvious what content your website needs and what info you’d better cut. More often than not, it’s better to discuss the myriad of tiny details personally with your customers anyway – or you discuss them in an FAQ, on social media or in a blog.
How to avoid poor communication: photographer’s website
A classic example for a dodged bullet when it comes to poor communication is this photographer’s website from a few years back: Patrick was very adamant about having information about his camera on his website since it’s his most important tool of the trade.
And while that makes sense, it doesn’t change the fact that that info will be completely irrelevant for 95% of his clients. So at the end of the day, it would only steal away some of the limited space on the website from more important info.
After a little back and forth we agreed on putting details about his camera into an FAQ. So we created an FAQ specifically for that and put everything about image format and resolution as well as Patrick’s camera in there.
Which is a perfect solution: people who know a little bit about photography can find the info easily if they want to, and everybody else isn’t bothered with it.
Avoiding communication problems: how does your target audience talk?
Another communication problem that often sneaks in is jargon and specialist terminology. Sentences like “that’s how I proof I know my stuff” and “but that’s just what it’s called” justify word choices that are hard to understand for your target audience in the best case and will downright confuse them in the worst case.
And avoiding jargon is particularly tricky when you’re writing your website copy yourself. Because to you, all that specialist terminology is part of your everyday life – but for them, it’ll be as clear as mud.
Don’t forget: You’re the pro. Your customers are laypeople. If they knew as much about your specialisation as you do, they wouldn’t need you 😜
And that’s why you always have to ask yourself how your target audience really talks about your topic. Which words to they use? Which terms always leave them asking for clarification when you use them while talking to them?
Apart from communication issues, and a worse UX, there’s another reason why you’d better pay attention to word choice: SEO! People google the words they know, not the correct terms that you might prefer because they are technically the correct choice.
How to avoid poor communication: pediatricians’ website
Word choice and jargon was a hot topic throughout the time we worked on a new website for a group of pediatricians because in German, using specialist medical terminology seems to be a badge of honour and quality for health care professionals – at least among themselves. Patients don’t agree, but unfortunately that doesn’t change how most doctors approach this topic.
Apart from the fact that the pediatricians wanted us to use more jargon in the web copy, they also asked for a positive wording for the page describing their offer surrounding breastfeeding and lactation consultation: they suggested “successful breastfeeding” instead of “problems with breastfeeding”, for example.
Even though I totally get the wish to create a positive feeling on the website, this would’ve been exactly the wrong way to go here since Search Engine Optimisation plays a vital role on this website.
A woman who’s feeling pain while breastfeeding will always google her problem, not its solution – so it’s no surprise that “pain while breastfeeding” is searched for 7 times more than “successful breastfeeding”.
To ensure we reflect the reality of how people google, we kept the tone of the copy positive or at least neutral, but still used important keywords with a negative wording to avoid not being found as an effect of poor communication.
Avoiding communication problems: get a specialist’s support!! 😉
If you feel like you’ll be able to do a good job with creating your own website copy after reading this article, congratulations! I’m glad I was able to help you and have fun. 🥳
But if you feel like that doesn’t sound like fun at all, I’d recommend getting in touch with a copywriter you trust – we’ll be happy to help you (AND we’ll enjoy writing your website copy).
Adding an external person to your website project actually has massive advantages:
- We look at your project with fresh eyes, which makes it easier to focus on the essentials and the big picture.
- We’re no experts in your field, so it’s much easier for us to put ourselves in your customers’ shoes and find out, which questions they’d ask.
- We’re text experts and have a few tricks up our sleeves that will raise your web copy to the next level.
- We know a lot about the specific requirements for copy on the internet and know what to watch out for when it comes to text length, placement of info, SEO keywords, and much more.
