Website copy that sells: talk about your customer, not yourself

Read the first paragraph of most small-business websites and you will find something like this:

Established in 2012, XYZ Solutions is a leading provider of innovative, customer-centric services committed to excellence and quality.

It is not wrong. It is just about the business, and visitors do not care about the business yet. They care about their problem. Good copy starts there.

Start with the customer's situation

Before writing anything, answer three questions:

1. Who is this page for? Be specific: "parents looking for weekend coding classes for children aged 8–14", not "everyone".
2. What problem are they trying to solve, in their words?
3. What result do they want?

Then write as if you are talking to that one person.

• About you: "We offer comprehensive tax services."
• About them: "Too busy running your shop to deal with GST returns? We file them for you, on time, every month."

Be specific

Vague words ("quality", "innovative", "solutions", "best-in-class") mean nothing because everyone uses them. Specifics are believable.

• Vague: "Fast turnaround."
• Specific: "Most repairs are ready the same day. Larger ones within three working days."

• Vague: "Experienced team."
• Specific: "Our three physiotherapists have all specialised in sports injuries."

If you cannot make a claim specific, it is probably not worth making.

Use plain language

Write the way you would explain it to a customer across the counter. Short sentences. Everyday words. No jargon unless your customers use it themselves.

A useful test: read your copy aloud. If you would not say it that way to a person, rewrite it.

Answer the questions people actually ask

Your phone calls and WhatsApp chats are full of the questions people want answered. Write them down for a week. Then make sure the website answers them:

• How much does it cost, roughly?
• How long does it take?
• What do I need to bring or prepare?
• Do you serve my area?
• What if I'm not happy?

A short FAQ section near the bottom of a service page handles the remaining doubts without cluttering the top.

Structure for skimmers

Most people skim before they read. Help them:

• clear headings that say what each section is about,
• short paragraphs,
• bullet points for lists of features or steps,
• the most important point first in each section.

End with the next step

Every page should finish by telling the reader exactly what to do next, and what will happen when they do: "Send us a photo of the damage on WhatsApp and we'll reply with an estimate within an hour." (more on calls to action)

A quick rewrite exercise

Take your homepage's first paragraph and:

1. Cross out every sentence that starts with "We are" or "Our company".
2. Write one sentence that names your customer and their problem.
3. Write one sentence that says what you do about it, specifically.
4. Write one sentence that tells them what to do next.

Those three sentences will almost always work better than what was there before. Our checklist of what every homepage needs covers the rest of the page.