How to Write Website Copy

The item that slips most in a website project is not design or development but the copy. The reason is usually this: writing copy requires deciding who you are telling and in what order more than describing the business, and while that decision is postponed the project waits.

What should the home page say?

When a visitor lands on the site they look for answers to three questions within seconds: what does this place do, is it useful to me, what is the next step. The top of the home page must answer all three. A clear one-sentence definition, a subline that makes clear who you address, and a single prominent call to action are enough.

Sentences like "Our vision is to be a leader in the industry" answer none of the three questions and send the visitor away.

Order: result first, method second

The most common mistake when writing copy is telling the story from our own point of view: founding year first, then the team, then the process, and at the very end what the customer gains.

The visitor cares in the reverse order. The right order is:

1. What they get — the problem solved.
2. How it happens — the process, briefly.
3. Why you — proof: completed work, references, numbers.
4. How long, how much — uncertainty loses the most here.
5. The next step — single and clear.

Service pages

A separate page for each service works better than listing them all on one page. The visitor finds what they are looking for, and each page appears in its own search.

What a service page should contain: a definition of the service, who it suits, the steps of the process, a realistic time range, the items that affect the price and frequently asked questions. Even if you don't want to state a price, writing what determines it answers half the questions at the quote stage in advance.

Clichés to avoid

• Empty adjectives. "Innovative", "customer-focused", "quality". If your competitor's site says the same, you have said nothing.
• Company-centred language. "We do ..." instead of "Our company provides ...". Short and direct inspires trust.
• Vague time expressions. "Within 1-2 business days" instead of "as soon as possible".
• Several calls scattered across the page. A page should have a single main action.
• Text embedded in images. It is neither found in search nor read by screen readers.

What writing concretely means

Compare two sentences:

We build your website quickly and professionally.

If your content is ready, we deliver a 5-10 page corporate site in 3-6 weeks.

The second is the same length but makes a promise and can be compared. This is what lets the visitor decide; AI tools also quote this kind of verifiable sentence.

How long should it be

There is no fixed number, but there is a practical frame: home page sections should be short and scannable; service pages should contain enough detail to support a decision.

The rule is this: every paragraph should have a job. A paragraph without a job gets deleted. Shortening copy is almost always harder than lengthening it and does more good.

Test the copy before publishing

The fastest test is showing the site to someone who doesn't know it at all. Let them look for five seconds and close it; then ask: what does this place do, who does it address, what does it want you to do?

If they can't answer all three, the problem is not traffic or design but the copy. This test takes ten minutes and reveals most of the fixes on its own.

Who should write

The best copy comes from the collaboration of the person who does the work and the person who knows how to structure writing. The person who knows the business gives the raw information in bullet points — the process, frequently asked questions, real examples — and the editor makes it readable.

Copy fully outsourced is usually well written but hollow; copy written fully in-house carries the right information but its order and length are built around the writer, not the visitor.

Copy and search visibility

Good copy and appearing in search engines are not alternatives; they are largely the same thing. The search engine, like the visitor, looks at which question the page answers.

In practice three items work:

• Write subheadings as the sentence people ask. "How long does a corporate website take?" instead of "Our services".
• Put the answer right under the heading. A direct two- or three-sentence answer addresses both the reader and the search engine.
• Don't open a second page on the same topic. When two pages target the same search they split each other's value; expanding the existing page gives better results.

Stuffing the keyword into the text again and again is an approach abandoned years ago and today only makes the copy unreadable.

Copy on a multilingual site

The English version usually doesn't work when it is a word-for-word translation of the Turkish copy: examples, industry terms and the form of address change with the target audience.

There are two practical rules. First, use a separate address for each language and indicate that the pages correspond to each other. Second, don't go live with a half translation — a site with one page in Turkish and another in English leaves a worse impression than a single-language site.

Keeping the copy current

Published copy is not something written once and left. When your service scope changes, the price range shifts or the process gets simpler, the page must change too.

Reading all service pages once a year is a sufficient rhythm. The thing that surfaces most often during this reading is a service you no longer offer still sitting on the page.

Frequently asked questions

Can I have AI write the copy? Useful for a draft, but copy published as is tends to be well written and hollow. The concrete information about your business — timelines, examples, frequently asked questions — must come from you.

How many words should it be? Home page sections short; service pages enough to support a decision. Instead of counting words, check "does every paragraph have a job".

Should I state the price? Even if you don't, write what determines the price. Giving no information at all is the most common reason for being ruled out before the quote stage.

Images and copy work together

Copy is not judged on its own. A screenshot, a process diagram or a photo of completed work can replace three paragraphs of description.

Stock photos, on the other hand, often backfire: the same smiling team photo appears on dozens of sites, so it inspires no trust. A real shot from your own work, even if technically weaker, is more convincing.

Don't skip writing descriptive alt text next to the image either; it is needed for accessibility and tells the search engine what the image shows.

You can browse our guides on copy structure and content production on the Blog page and our service scopes on the Services page.