5 Tips for Writing Website Copy That Connects

You’ve been taught that your website copy should speak to your website’s visitors. And if you’re using a web stats tool, like Google Analytics, you know where they live, what browsers they use, how long they visit, what pages they exit, etc.

The problem with this information is that it gives you a false sense of how people interact with your website. It presents your visitors as various crowds. But in reality, there is no crowd.

What I’m about to tell you may be so obvious, that you’ll probably want to smack me for pointing it out.

Only Individuals Visit Your Website

I told you it would be obvious. But still, it’s an important point to get. The reason why is that speaking to an individual is terribly different from speaking to a group of people.

Here are a few tips to keep in mind:

1. People don’t watch the Internet in their living room. Putting Hulu or Netflix aside, when was the last time you crowded around a computer with your family, friends, or co-workers. You have to speak intimately to one person.
2. Use second person narrative. When I write in the first person (like I am now), I take the focus off of you. And I’m not the the most important person in your world right now. You are. (See?)
3. Don’t use jargon. They probably never attended your bored board meeting.
4. Write for mobile. Check GA to see how many people use mobile. Write very short web pages.
   
5. Write for 3rd graders. Dan Zarrella found that content written at a 3rd grade reading level gets shared the most. If you write content above your visitor’s reading level, you’ll lose them, and they certainly won’t share.

How are you writing for one person?