{"id":5038,"date":"2022-06-22T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/blog\/story\/7-best-practices-for-website-copywriting\/"},"modified":"2026-03-11T13:46:53","modified_gmt":"2026-03-11T17:46:53","slug":"7-best-practices-for-website-copywriting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hingemarketing.com\/blog\/story\/7-best-practices-for-website-copywriting","title":{"rendered":"7 Best Practices for Website Copywriting"},"content":{"rendered":"

People read words differently online than they do when reading printed materials. For example, instead of reading left to right and line-by-line, website users scan the page looking for phrases or keywords that catch their attention.<\/p>\n

As web users, why do we do this? Usually, we\u2019re on a mission to answer a question we have. We don\u2019t have the time (or patience) to read more than necessary. And frankly, we also know that we don\u2019t\u00a0have<\/em>\u00a0to.<\/p>\n

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Download the Lead Generating Website Guide for Professional Services<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Most of the time, we\u2019re not interested in the entire page of content and are only looking for the sections that pertain to our interests. This is most relevant to informational sections\u00a0of your\u00a0website such as your services pages,\u00a0\u201cabout us,\u201d industries you serve, and contact pages. This is less relevant for longer-form content like articles, white papers, or blog posts.<\/p>\n

In fact, an online study by Jakob Nielsen<\/a> conducted some years ago but still holds true about reading behavior found that, on average, web users read just 28% of the words on a page.<\/p>\n

So, what can\u00a0professional services firms<\/a>\u00a0do to make their\u00a0website copy user-friendly<\/a>? Most importantly, format web copy to support user scanning. If we know users spend most of their time scanning text in search of something, then how you format your text can make a big difference.<\/p>\n

Here are seven best practices to keep in mind:<\/h2>\n

1. Use plenty of headings.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Well-written headlines act as the informal outline of a page. Creating headings that summarize the content of that paragraph(s) lets the user understand what that section is about before deciding whether or not they want to read it.<\/p>\n

2. Use bullet points.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Bulleted lists allow for optimal readability and allow users to easily understand and store that information.\u00a0 Almost any series of items separated with commas has potential to be formatted into a bulleted list.<\/p>\n

3. Keep paragraphs short.<\/strong><\/h4>\n

Long paragraphs are dense and hard to scan. If you review a long paragraph, you can almost always find a place where you could break it up in to two paragraphs. This makes the information easier for the user to digest.<\/p>\n

\"Click<\/a>