A Simple Trick to Write Your Website Copy Fast
You know those days where you’re staring at the blinking cursor, then momentarily decide to take a detour via Instagram only to come back to staring at that blinking cursor again? Writing your website copy doesn’t need to take hours, in fact, there’s a simple trick I use that can help you speed up the process and help you write words faster!
How to quickly write your website copy
In this post I’ll be taking you through how to create your own Pinterest Board for words, that will help you write compelling and engaging copy in a fun and efficient way.
Whether it’s your home page, services page, or a blog post, crafting your website content doesn’t have to drag on until the end of the week. And it certainly doesn’t have to be rolling over to next month's to-do list. 😉
A Pinterest board for words (not using Pinterest btw!) will help you not only write words with flair, but I find it also helps in getting you to structure your writing.
Okie dokies… Before we get to it first...
Why are your website words important?
You might be wondering why a Squarespace website designer is talking about writing website copy? To be honest, when I’m on consultation calls, it seems to be an area that is often under-rated. Yet, website copy is key to your site-building game plan.
When you go you build your website, it’s best practice to have your website words ready for your designer to go and build or before you go all-in on DIY. If you’re constantly changing your website content, that will impact the design and can prolong the process of building your website.
Not to mention, it can leave you feeling confused and frustrated. And that sucks!
Your words form the foundation of your website. They communicate to your audience exactly who you are, what you’re about, and what you can do to serve them.
Whether you’re crafting words for your home page, about page, services or contact page, this little trick will help you get there faster.
How to create your inspiration board for your website copy
At a recent National Geographic Travel Writing Masterclass (it’s a fun hobby of mine;)), I asked an editor of the magazine if he had any tips on how to create compelling and engaging writing when you’re feeling zapped for creativity. His pro-tip, look for inspiration outside of your industry, from magazines to newspapers in all types of mediums.
It’s easy to look at your competitors and do what they’re doing. Sound the way they sound. And mimic their voice and style in the hope you might attract some of their clients.
This is exactly what you don’t want to do!
Start collecting inspiration from everything you read. Whether it’s a travel magazine, a favorite blog, a fiction novel you’re reading and write down words and phrases that jump out to you.
Then in a Google doc, start to organize them under useful verbs, cool nouns, adjectives, and great beginnings.
Using client voice in your website words
When you put your heart and soul into writing, you want your audience to feel engaged and involved. Using the client voice is a great way to connect and build a relationship with your audience and give them a “get out of my head” moment.
One of the best ways to write compelling website copy is to do your research on how your ideal clients speak about their pain points and what they specifically want and need. Leaning in and listening to your ideal clients before you hit publish will help you write words that speak to your ideal clients.
Once you’ve gathered your research whether it be from surveys or one-on-one chats, plop it onto your inspiration board. Create sections for:
Questions clients have (fab for blog post material)
Fears and pain points
What are they thinking about their problem?
What are they feeling about their problem?
To go one step further, include photos and visuals of your target audience or what represents them. This helps you connect and picture your audience as you’re writing.
Using your voice in your website copy
Remember when you were at school and you learned to never write the way you speak? Yeah… You can throw that out the window because we want you to sound exactly like you!
A fab way of checking whether your writing is like yours is to put it through a friends and family filter test. Read out loud your text and ask them to point anything that doesn't sound like you, out to you.
But most importantly have some fun! In your inspiration board, note down key phrases you say out loud a lot and create a ‘Me’ column. On my inspiration board, my ‘Faria’s voice’ column includes little words like ‘voilà’ and ‘Okie dokies’.
Note what makes you uniquely you. Quirks and all!
SEO keywords
To help us get the right clients on our website, we’ll need to be using the same phrases and words that our clients are searching for in Google. Put yourself in your client's shoes where they’re looking to solve a problem, what are they typing into Google?
Add a column for SEO Keywords onto your inspiration board and as you learn more about your clients, keep adding to the list.
To summarize writing your website words
If it’s the first time you’re writing blog posts or website copy, the most important thing is to get it down on paper and then correct course from there. Writing for me has turned from something painful where I’d be staring at the screen without anything to write to a discipline that’s in many ways enjoyable and therapeutic for me.
There are days when writing my website words flows fast and other days when I go back to my inspiration board to help me start on the right foot. It’s a work in progress as with anything but it’s progress in the right direction. :) And feel free to add extra columns and sections like ‘Words and phrases not to use’ and ‘favorite quotes’.
I hope this post is helpful to you and feel free to drop your comments below. I’d love to hear from you!
Happy scribbling!
