Your website copy: why it does not convert and how to fix it
Design takes the budget and the copy decides whether anybody writes to you. The five habits nearly every service website shares, and how to rewrite yours in an afternoon.
· Marketing
Money goes into design, photography and speed, and the copy gets written on the last day «to fill the space». And yet the copy is what does the work: a website is a sales conversation in writing, and most of them open that conversation by talking about themselves.
These are the habits that repeat, and how to correct them without rebuilding anything.
Habit 1: starting with yourself
«We are a leading firm with over X years of experience and a highly qualified team.» It is the first sentence on thousands of websites and it says absolutely nothing the visitor can use.
The fix: start with the reader's problem. «The tax office has written to you and you do not know how long you have to reply.» There is somebody who keeps reading.
The pronoun test: count how many times «we / our / we offer» appear on your home page, and how many times «you / your». If the first column wins, you know where to start.
Habit 2: adjectives instead of facts
«A comprehensive, personalised, top-quality service.» Everybody says it, so it distinguishes nobody. The adjectives your competitors use do not set you apart: they level you.
The fix: swap every adjective for a checkable fact. Instead of «fast response», «we reply within 24 working hours». Instead of «competitive prices», the price.
And a rule of honesty that also happens to work better: if you cannot stand behind the claim, do not write it. A promise broken in the first week costs more than the sale that brought it.
Habit 3: speaking your language, not theirs
Your customer is not searching for «tax burden optimisation»: they are searching for «how much tax do I pay if I am self-employed». They are not searching for «business intelligence solutions»: they are searching for «will I make it to the end of the month».
The fix, and it is free: open the emails and messages your customers send you and copy their words. There, in their own vocabulary, is what belongs on the site. It is the best source of copy there is and it costs nothing.
Habit 4: not saying the price or what it depends on
It is the question everybody has and almost nobody answers. Somebody who finds no reference at all assumes two things — that it is expensive and that there will be surprises — and leaves.
The fix: if you cannot give a fixed price, give the range and explain what moves it. «Between X and Y depending on the number of invoices a month and whether you have staff» answers the question and qualifies as well: whoever writes afterwards already knows what they are getting into.
Habit 5: not saying what to do next
The page ends and there is no action, or there are five competing. One action per page, visible, written in the first person and specific.
«Submit» says nothing. «Tell me about your case and I will reply within 24 h» says what happens next. And saying what happens next is what takes the fear out of filling in a form.
The structure that works on a service page
- The problem, in the customer's words.
- What exactly you do to solve it. Specific, not categories.
- What is included and what is not. The «what is not» builds more trust than anything else on the page.
- What it costs or what that depends on.
- How the work goes: the steps, so it is clear there is a method.
- Proof: a case, a figure, something checkable.
- Common objections answered before they are raised.
- One action, with what happens next.
How to rewrite your site in an afternoon
- Copy the current text into a document, with no design. Read it like that: it looks far worse, and that is the honest version.
- Cross out everything that gives the customer no information. Usually a third disappears.
- Replace every surviving adjective with a fact.
- Move the first sentence: make it start with their problem.
- Add a price or a range.
- Close with a single action that says what happens next.
Without touching the design or spending a penny, the result is usually better than the original.
And a warning about what you promise
Text published on a website is a commercial commitment, and in both Spain and Chile advertising forms part of the contract: what you offer on your site is enforceable. It is worth reviewing the copy with that in mind — not out of fear, but because promising only what you deliver is also what builds a reputation.
If this sounds like you
Writing the copy in your customer's words and with the structure that converts is digital marketing and content. The page structure it rests on is in what pages your site needs, and being found is in local SEO.
We are Mindset & Code: automation, data and development for small businesses. You can see what we do and what it costs — with the prices published one by one — and what access we ask for, in permissions.
General guidance. Advertising forming part of the contract derives from each country's consumer protection rules.