The Single Most Important Part of A Website

The most important part of your website is of great debate among people in my industry of web design and development.  Some will say it’s where your website is hosted, some will say it’s how optimized the site is for search engines (aka SEO), while others will claim it’s the design.  Well, friend, I say they are all wrong.

The most important part of your website is the words on it.  In industry speak, we call this the copy.

WHY COPY IS THE MOST IMPORTANT PART OF YOUR WEBSITE

As a web designer, I have to be brutally honest with myself and admit that building a beautiful website alone may be the most fun part of the project, it’s not the most important part.

In this earlier post I wrote about the 3 pillars your website needs to be successful, and the design of the site (the way it looks), doesn’t even make that list.

In that post I make the argument that your website needs these three things to be successful:

• More Traffic
• More Leads
• More Conversions

And in this post, we have to agree that the words you use impacts all three of these.

1. The right words tell search engines what your site is about and when to show it to what people to answer the question being asked.
2. The right words lead people on your site on a journey that ends with them signing up for your email list or buying your product/service.
3. The right words in your follow up emails will drive if a person returns to you to buy for the first time, become a repeat customer, or becomes one of your biggest fans.

How pretty your website isn’t nearly as important as the words on it.

HOW TO GET BETTER COPY

In short, hire a professional.  Honestly, you need a copywriter or at least a copy editor.

As a business owner myself, I get the push back you might be having to the idea of hiring someone to write or edit your words.  We think, “hey, it’s just words; I use those every day, I can handle my own writing.”.  WRONG!  Unless you are a professional copywriter, then I guess you could do this.

Here’s what happens when you DON’T use a copywriter.

• You will write to you or people like you.  Which is great IF all of your clients are just like you.
• You will write with insider lingo that nobody understands.
• You will write WAY TO MANY WORDS.  Honestly, most websites we redesign have way too many words which just increases the fact they have way too many of the wrong words.
• You will write the words “me, I, us, and we” at a much higher ratio than; “you”.  Here’s a hard truth to accept; your audience doesn’t care about you.  All most all of your website visitors come to your website to solve a problem, not to learn about your business’s history.  So, PLEASE take your “about us” section off your homepage, out of your primary menu at the top of the page, and just link to it in the footer area at the bottom of your site.  A few people will eventually make it there.  In fact, here’s a pro tip: your homepage should use the words “you” five times for every one time you mention yourself as “I, we, us, etc”.  TALK MORE ABOUT YOUR WEBSITE VISITOR THAN YOU.
• You will write the wrong words for people and search engines.  For example, with this blog post, I want people who type “what’s the most important part of a website” into Google to find it.  So, I know I need to put that in the title, in a subheading, in the copy of the post itself, link to something else relevant about it, and make sure I answer the question.  HOWEVER, many people would have called this post something like “Why Words Are So Important To Your Website” or “Words Trump Design”.  Cute; but useless to search engines and people with a problem.

So, to get better words hire a professional.  It’s an investment that will make you more money than it cost you.

NOW PUT THOSE WORDS INSIDE AMAZING DESIGN

Now that you have the most important part of your website covered by having great words.  Put those words into the hands of skilled designer that will:

• Ensure they are displayed so they are compliant with the Americans With Disability Act.
• Ensure they are displayed in such an order on the page that leads people to take a positive “call to action” on your site.
• Ensure they are displayed well on all screen sizes.
• Ensure they are displayed along with graphics and images that enhance the words and the user experience.
• Ensure they are on the page and inside proper “tags” for both people and search engines to find the solution you are offering.

Get great words inside an amazing design to get more traffic, more leads, and more conversions.