Improve your website copy, fast

Split your paragraphs

Consider splitting any paragraph on your website homepage that’s more than three sentences. Anything longer than that becomes difficult to scan online.

Don’t be afraid to have a paragraph comprising of one sentence. It’s easy to scan and it’ll make a statement.

(Just don’t tell your English teacher).

Split your sentences

There’s a time and a place for long sentences – and it’s not on your website homepage. Any sentence that makes you draw breath when you read it aloud needs the chop.

• Read: Write a content marketing plan
• Read: Build a website
• Read: Build a blog

Bold your keywords

But take it easy. The purpose is to make the website homepage copy easy to scan – not to overwhelm your readers.

Add sub-headings

Can you break your website homepage copy into smaller sections? If so, get on with it! Good sub-headings will give your reader an overview of the page without reading every single word of copy.

Remove superfluous words

I remember shoving as many flowery words into my school essays as I could get away with. It’s a hard habit to break. Aside from strings of unnecessary adjectives, the usual suspects are words like any, that, like, very, really and a lot.

Hunt ‘em down and get rid of ‘em.

(See what I did there? The one sentence paragraph is powerful, isn’t it?)

Clarify your call to action

You do have one don’t you?

Can you make it clearer? Is it too wordy? Is it in plain English? Leave nothing open to interpretation. The whole point of having a website is to encourage your readers to do whatever it is you want them to do, regardless of whether that’s making their way to your cash register with their credit card in hand, signing up for your email newsletter, or picking up their phone and asking you to come and fix their plumbing.

If you don’t have a call to action, then make it your priority to put one together, and ensure it’s as compelling as possible.

This edited article by Amanda Gonzalez is reprinted with permission from Flying Solo — Australia's solo and micro business community.