You’ve heard the saying “you get what you pay for,” but if you’re not taking that literally when it comes to your website copywriting, you’re throwing your brand’s valuable resources away.
Quality Copywriting Not Your Concern? Well it Should Be.
Websites with thin content, repetitive information or irrelevant content won’t rank high with Google and other search engines and it certainly won’t go over well with readers.
Back in the day content didn’t matter. Instead search engines cared about links and keywords. Websites could sprinkle a few keywords (or stuff them depending on their tactic) and rank high without much effort. Today, however, search engines have raised their expectations and there’s no tricking their robots anymore.
Once Google’s Panda and Penguin came around starting in 2011 and 2012, how web pages were ranked fell heavily on strong website copywriting. If the content is low-quality, search engines don’t want it and they certainly won’t recommend it to users.
Understanding Poor Content
Search engines rank your website based on what content you have on it.
Two major areas search engines look at include:
- Length – If you only have a few sentences per blog post or on your web pages, search engine spiders will think your content is too thin. While there’s no minimum or maximum word count, you want at least 200 words or more.
- Originality – If you’re just rewriting what’s already on the web, you’re not original and search engines won’t think so either. Review your content and make sure it has some personal touches even if you got your ideas and research elsewhere. Also, it wouldn’t hurt to run your articles and website copywriting through a plagiarism checker just to make sure you’re not featuring what is elsewhere on the web.
So Does High-Quality Content Matter?
High-quality website copywriting is crucial. If you fail to invest in quality services, you’ll not only risk your brand, but your revenue too.
Want to know some other ways poor-quality content hurts your business?
Poor Quality Website Copywriting Kills Your SEO
You’ve poured plenty of money and time into your SEO, but if your content is thin, you copy other sites on the web or you’ve stuffed your content with keywords you can be flagged or penalized by search engines. According to Brafton, 89 percent of consumers use search engines to find products, services and companies. If you’re flagged and not showing up on search results, you’re losing out. Even worse, the top three search results are the highest clicked by users—about 60 percent of clicks go to those top three according to Search Engine Watch—so risking your ranking does a lot more damage than you might realize.
You’ll Lose Your Rep
If you don’t check the facts or you copy your content from someone else, you risk losing a portion of your customer base. Once those customers are gone, it’s pretty hard to get them back.
You Won’t Have Much of an Audience
Consumers love to find stuff on social media. When friends, family and acquaintances are recommending something, consumers jump all over it. Low-quality website copywriting is rarely shared with social media and since social media is a hot way to gain a bigger audience, your website is missing out.
You’ll Lose Trust
Consumers rarely purchase from a company or listen to what that company has to say if they don’t trust them. Can you blame them? Low-quality content isn’t trustworthy content.
You Don’t Increase Loyalty—You Might Even Lose It
It’s said that 50 to 60 percent of customers put trust into businesses after they read high-quality content on their website. From a business perspective, it’s more expensive retaining customers than getting new ones; therefore, you need to ensure brand loyalty through the content you post on your website.
How Do You Find High Quality Website Copywriting Services?
Just about everyone these days calls themselves a copywriter, so how do you pick out the quality ones from the average ones? While some copywriting services offer general writing services such as: blogging or article writing, others are copywriting specialists who offer customized website copywriting services.
Look for an Eye for Detail
Website copywriting services should be perfectionists. They want to represent your brand in the best way; therefore, they should provide you with error-free, interesting content. If you’re looking at a larger agency, look for one that employs in-house editors in addition to their writing staff. That means a second set of eyes can review and proof the work before you see it.
Hire Someone with Experience
Great copywriters know how to write and can tackle a variety of industries and topics. Whether you’re looking for an entire website, a few blogs or sales copy, an experienced copywriter can get the job done better than one just starting out. Not sure how to tell if they have experience? Ask for references and a portfolio. And, don’t be shy about asking for a sample to prove their expertise.
Quick Turnaround
There’s nothing more annoying than a copywriting service that takes months to get the job done. If you’re looking for lightning fast turnaround times, you might want to consider an agency rather than a single copywriter. An agency has multiple copywriters on staff that can accommodate rush orders.
Extra Bang for Your Buck
A website copywriting service that offers multiple services in one gives you more options than a company that just writes for one industry or specializes in one section. For example, sales copywriters are excellent, but limited to only sales copy such as: landing pages or advertisements. If you needed general blogs or specialty copywriting services, your sales copywriters might not be able to provide you with those things. Look for copywriting services that offer SEO writing capabilities and consulting services. Often they can look over your website, help you devise a content strategy and even offer search engine optimization tips.