The spirals whilst writing for our own businesses can be, frankly, rude. But if you’re here, that means you’ve done the thing. You stared that blank google doc in the face and filled it with words – and not just any words – website copywriting.
Kudos. Take a bow. Seriously.
But now, you’re left wondering how to turn the pieces into a cohesive buyer journey, structure the text so that search engines can effectively crawl your website, and make sure you’re checking the boxes without sacrificing your personality in the process.
That’s exactly what we’re going to dive into today.
How to Structure Your Website Copy: A Quick Page-by-Page Recap
The hardest part is over. Getting the words out is the hardest part. And if you’re still in that process, let this be your golden permission to get’er done. It doesn’t have to look pretty. Hell, it almost certainly wont. But remove the restrictions of needing it to be “perfect” (barf), or “publish ready” immediately after that first pass.
First, make it exist. Then, make it good.Before we get into polishing your first draft, let’s make sure each page is doing its job. For each page, there should be an overarching GOAL or ACTION for the browser to take.
Your website isn’t just a collection of pages. Each page should move your reader somewhere.
Your Homepage: Help Visitors Explore Your Brand
Your homepage is their first impression.
It should state what you do, who it’s for, and why it matters — and then, provide obvious entry points into the various ways to work with you.
The homepage action should be: EXPLORE.
All of the information on that page should support that goal by providing enough context that they know this is the place for them to solve their problem and inviting them to take an obvious first step towards achieving their goal.
Your homepage should NOT have your autobiography (save the insider tea for the About page or your newsletter) or an overwhelming amount of information about each service (save that for the sales or service page).
Think of the homepage like the invitation into your brand world.
Enough context that your audience will care, but enough intrigue that their next logical step will be to explore further.
Your Service Pages: Help Visitors Inquire
From the homepage, each of your services will likely have their own page on your website.
The action on those should be: INQUIRE, BOOK, or BUY.
An important distinction to note:
A page whose goal or action is to INQUIRE is a services page.
A page whose goal or action is to PURCHASE or immediately BOOK is a sales page.
Each page for your services, regardless of the next step, should be informative, compelling, personality-forward, and provide PROOF of results and expertise.
The website pages that showcase your services in depth should be inspiring, exciting, reassuring, empowering, and educational.
Your browsers should feel seen in the language, understood, and confident taking that next step, whether it’s to fill out an application or secure their spot with payment immediately.
As such, these pages should be FOCUSED on ONE action, ONE service, and ONE person.
The reader should always feel centered and like the main character of that page
Your About Page: Build Trust With Your Reader
Your About page is about you, but really about your audience, but also about you.
This is your time to toot your own horn, share your brand philosophy in more depth, give some context to your expertise, and give the tea on you and your business’s origin story.
It’s the page that should make your browser feel confident that you are the person who can solve their problem. You, specifically.
See what I mean?
It’s about you… but reeeeeally, it’s about your audience being reassured they can trust you.
The emotion from this page can be light or heavy, but the through-line is going to be reassuring: they’ve found their person.
Your Contact Page: Make the Next Step Obvious
Finally, the Contact page.
The emotion here will be encouraging.
Even if someone makes it this far and isn’t 100% sure what their next best step is, they should feel encouraged to reach out.
You can use this page as an opportunity to recap your services (similar to the homepage), share some quirky facts that make you relatable but also extremely hireable, and ultimately just make it stupid easy for someone to think:
“Yeah, I’m gonna call them.”
If you want a deeper look at what each page of your website needs to accomplish, check out this blog post which explores it in more depth.
How to Turn Your DIY Copy Into Publish-Ready Website Copy
But once you’ve got the first draft out, you might be left with a lot of DENSE paragraphs, redundancy, and maybe a bit too much “you” and not enough “them.”
Let’s take that first draft into PUBLISH-READY MODE.
Structure Your Website Copy Headlines
Here’s a good rule of thumb to help you figure out how to structure your headlines so that search engines know what your website and each page are about — and also how to make sure skimmers (aka, the majority of people who will read your website) get the point.
Your headlines should tell the story of the whole page.
By simply skimming the headlines of each page, your readers should be able to get a general idea of what you’re offering.
You want these headlines to be enticing enough that the reader wants to learn more, but informative enough that they could get by with just the cliff notes.
That’s a lot of pressure for the headlines.
So, when in doubt, choose clarity.
Summarize what the paragraph below is about.
You might find that once you oPtiMiZE your headlines, you’ll be able to trim some words or even sentences from the supporting paragraph.
And that’s a good thing.
Make Every Word Earn Its Place
There’s a copywriting rule that states “every word should earn its place,” which means, if it isn’t ADDING, it’s taking away.
Unnecessary words can slow the pace, lose the reader, or make a paragraph LOOK DENSE and therefore overwhelming.
Words like “truly,” “simply,” “actually,” and starting sentences with “and” or “therefore.”
You get it.
If you’re reading this article and thinking, “heyyy, WAIT A MINUTE, you’ve said those words!!”
You’re absolutely right.
But this isn’t a headlining page on my website. It’s a blog post.
Nuance is important, and rules are meant to be broken.
So, do with these what you will.
A helpful practice to figure out which words can be cut is by reading sentences and paragraphs out loud.
Try removing words and adding words.
See which flows best.
Remove the “Me, Me, Me” From Your Website Copy
This is one I see a lot when performing website reviews.
It’s easy and natural to fall into the rhythm of starting sentences with “I,” especially when it comes to our businesses.
But if you take anything from this article, let it be this:
It’s not about you.
If you’re a service provider, your business is about the people you serve.
You wouldn’t have a business if there weren’t people who actively needed and benefited from your services.
Your website copy needs to reflect that.
How to Flip the “Me” Into “You”
Read through your first draft.
For every sentence that starts with “I,” think about how you can flip that sentence to start with your target audience.
Ask yourself:
How is this really about them?
Elements like your lived experience, your perspective, your approach, your philosophies, are personal and reflective of you as an individual and as a business owner.
But those elements are most importantly, the deciding factors of why you’re the best option or fit for your ideal client.
If you can flip the lens through which you view your work, your marketing, and the language you use to speak to and translate for the audience you’re trying to reach, connecting and selling will get infinitely easier.
Your DIY Website Copy Editing Checklist
At this point, you’ve written your first draft and combed through it to:
- Optimize your headlines so they’re descriptive, enticing, and tell the page story
- Remove unnecessary filler words and trim repetitive sentences
- Switch the focus from “me” to your audience
- Make the purpose of each page clear
- Give your reader an obvious next step
But before you hit publish, there’s one final pass I want you to make.
Your Website Copy Publish Checklist
For each page, ask yourself:
☐ What is the goal of this page?
☐ What action do I want browsers to take on this page?
☐ What emotion do I want this page to create in my reader?
☐ Is there a clear next step for them to take from this page?
And then ask yourself one more:
☐ Does this page sound like my business — or could it belong to anyone in my industry?
Because SEO, structure, and yes, conversion, matter. But having something that genuinely reflects what you’ve built matters too.
Now, Hit Publish
Writing for your business, and in particular, writing your website copy, can feel intimidating as hell.
But at the end of the day, you just need your message to reach the right people.
Get clear on your point. Get clear on the way you want to make people feel.
And then give them an obvious way to explore your services and take the next step.
Then hit publish.
Your website can get better once it’s actually out in the world.
Written it. Still not sure it’s working?
If you’ve made it this far and you’re thinking, “Okay, cool. But I would really like someone to tell me what I’m missing…”
That’s where The Review comes in.
For when you don’t necessarily need more words. You might just need another set of eyes on the ones you already have.
Inside The Review, I look at your website copy and messaging through the lens of positioning, buyer psychology, conversion, flow, voice, SEO, and the journey you’re asking your reader to take.
Or… you want to write it yourself, but you want a proven framework
That’s what Editorial Studio is for.
It’s the DIY route for writing your website copy with more direction, structure, and strategy — without staring at a blank Google Doc wondering what you’re supposed to write next.
Now go forth and publish the damn website.
