We always dreaded it when we were kids. My mom would set a timer for ten minutes and instruct us to work “hard and fast” to clean up the living room or dining room or whatever area in the house was the most chaotic. (Of course we dragged our feet and worked slowlyyy sometimes instead of actually doing the thing and cleaning the room.) We dreaded the cleanup, but the system worked.

The funny thing is, I do this in my own house now. Thanks, Mom.

Can you do this with your website copy?

YES you absolutely can.

According to MetricHQ, the average website viewer spends, at most, fifty-two seconds on a website page. A few tweaks to your copy can ensure that your viewers get as much relevant information as possible on their visit to your website. If your website viewer doesn’t see anything interesting or pertinent on your website, they likely will click off and not visit again. If they click off your site, they also will not be purchasing your product or service anytime soon. Your website copy directly impacts your sales and connection with your audience.

A quick clean-up of your website copy might take longer than the ten minutes it took us to clean the living room as kids—but a ten minute edit can also make a monumental difference in the effectiveness of your website’s copy.

So, what are the most important things to focus on as you clean up the copy on your website?

1. Focus on your first canvas

The first canvas on your website, the header, is one of the most crucial pieces of real estate on your website. It is responsible to effectively draw the attention of the website viewer and either continue to draw their attention down the rest of your website, or give them enough information to know how you can help them. I recommend you have a clear welcome and intriguing headline (a question or statement of the end result of working with you is ideal), a sub headline that gives a version of your elevator pitch (find out here how to write that!)  and then a call-to-action button that gives an immediate next step.

2. Have a clear tagline

 I see a website with a vague tagline nearly every single day. It is amazing to me how many businesses only allude to what they do, how, why, and how it will help their audience. Your tagline/elevator pitch is simply the succinct version of what you do. If you don’t have that clearly spelled out in your home page copy, most likely your audience will click off your site. Nobody has time to dig to find out what the pretty website is actually for. 😉

3. Shorten your paragraphs!

Online, everything is designed for quick viewing. Capitalize on that in your copy. Use bullet points, short paragraphs, and spacing that makes reading easy. Avoid long storybook style paragraphs. Make sure that the important information you want to communicate to your audience can be differentiated from the details that aren’t as crucial.

I think sometimes when we want to improve our websites, we think “I HAVE TO DO A TOTAL OVERHAUL.” But a quick look through your website copy and a quick change of some of the most glaring things that need changed can effectively uplevel your website. And give you more time to do a quick clean up of your house, honestly. 🙂