Is your website copy easy to read? Or does it leave your leads confused and ready to leave? Check out these tips and tricks to make your website copy (or your sales or email copy) easy to read and enjoy.

People are reading less. And it takes more and more to claim our attention. The United States National Endowment for the Arts claims reading is at risk. The average attention span for adults is only 8.25 seconds—and yes, that’s shorter than a goldfish. That’s also a 25% decrease from the turn of the century.

We have a lot to thank technology for. And a lot to adapt to.

As a small business owner, you might be one thought away from a panic attack thinking…is anyone reading my website copy?

Deep breath, please. Yes, people are reading your website copy. Just because our focus on reading has been redirected doesn’t mean your ideal client doesn’t care about what you have to say.

Your person still has a problem and still wants it fixed. And to find the answers they need, they have to read!

We have to focus on what we can control. And actually, we can control a lot!

One of those focuses should be on the experience of reading your copy. Is your website copy easy to read? How are you capturing your readers’ attention? Where might they losing interest? How much information about what you do and how you can help them are they actually leaving your website with?

It will take some effort on your part to find the answers to these questions. My biggest recommendation would be to survey your audience (or past clients if you can) on their experience.

But in the meantime, there are plenty of ways you can improve the experience of reading your copy and make your website copy easy to read.

Here are nine of my favorite easy-to-implement tips to make your website easier to read and offer lots of creative freedom so you can still have fun with the process and show off your personality.

Tips to Make the Content of Your Website Easy (And Exciting) to Read

First, let’s focus on writing copy that’s actually enjoyable to read. (And copy that’s effective in persuasion!)

Talk to one person about one thing

As your business grows, you might find yourself serving more than one ideal client or offering more than one service. Look at you and all those revenue streams—that’s fantastic! But if your website copy tries to speak to everyone and sell everything at the same time, you’re sending your readers to that ‘X’ in the top right hand corner of their screen.

If you want to keep my attention, however, I want to feel like I’m having a direct conversation with you. That you see me and my problems and my need for a solution. I don’t want to feel like a number or means to an end.

An easy way to create a personal, more intimate experience and make your website copy easy to read is to speak to one person about one thing.

Talk to your reader like they are the best fit for your offer. And if you have more than one ideal client and offer suite, help your reader navigate to a place where you can talk to them specifically about what they might need.

What keeps your readers interested and what warms up your leads is treating people like individuals.

Repeat your main ideas

If you realllllly want your reader to remember something, repeat it at different points on your website. And I don’t mean copy and paste the same sentence or paragraph in different places. While easy for you, that actually creates a really poor experience for your reader!

Re-sharing information in a new way like the transformation you can help them experience, how to get in touch with you, and your mission and vision will start to cement these ideas in your reader’s mind without them having to think too hard about them. Plus, it makes information accessible in multiple places.

Emphasize key information

If all of your copy looks the same, your reader will remember very little by the time they’re done—and that’s if they finish reading! It’s so important to emphasize the information that’s most important. This can look like utilizing text formatting such as bolding, italicizing, and underlining, using white space to separate lines of copy from others, and strategically writing your headlines.

The variety improves a visitor’s experience and makes your website easy to read.

Excite your reader

Once we get excited about something, it has our attention and we want to be a part of it. So make sure your website copy is giving your reader something to be excited about. You can do this by making your reader feel at home, showing your understanding of their struggles and desires, or painting the picture of what life could look like as a result of your offers.

Don’t forget that writing your copy just one part of the process. The way you arrange it on your website is as important as the words you choose.

You want your reader to walk away with as much information as possible. Particularly the information that will empower them to take action and book your services. It’s our job to create an enjoyable experience for them.

Make CTAs clear and specific

Your calls to action (CTAs) tell your reader what actions they need to take to move forward in their journey with you. And to make life easier for them, they should be as direct and clear as possible. Over and over again, I see service providers try to be fun and witty with their CTAs, which only puts them at a disadvantage.

If I’m skimming a page, I want to know exactly where your CTA button is going to take me—or else I may lose interest! Make your website easy to read with clear directions.

How to Use Formatting to Make Your Website Easy to Read

Now that we’ve discussed how to make your actual copy enjoyable and easy to read, let’s talk about how we can lay it out on the page for a fluid and engaging reading experience.

Vary your sentence length

Have you ever read copy that seems to drag on and on with no end in sight, offering no clear direction, and leaves you feeling confused and like you want to rip your hair out? It makes the solution to your problem feel even further away and invites in that doom-and-gloom feeling of being stuck where you are forever and ever. In fact, it makes you irritable, lethargic, and like you want to crawl into bed and under the covers, ready to give up on the beautiful business you’ve put your own blood, sweat, and tears into and never emerge again.

My gosh, that was tiring to write! I can’t imagine what it was like to read.

You may have also read copy that feels short. Almost passive aggressive. No meat and potatoes. Or connection. Excitement? Forget about it. None at all.

Check your sentence length and make sure you don’t have several long, run-on or short and pointed sentences next to each other. This creates brain fatigue and forces your reader to exert more mental energy to understand what you’re saying. And they’ll only put up with it for so long before clicking off your page! Varying your sentence length creates an experience that feels fluid and natural, making your website copy easy to read.

Utilize white space

Remember high school English class, where you had to read a book you had no interest in and cringed when you saw how small the font or long the chapter was?

You don’t want to create that experience in your website copy.

Put space between different sections of your copy like you would with ideas and paragraphs and have your reader experience small chunks at a time where they are relevant. Otherwise, your message can feel overwhelming. No one wants that.

Use lists

I’m a big list girl. And I’m definitely not the only one! I love how they help me absorb information quickly and effectively—something your website copy should allow your reader to do. A skimmer’s delight! Not only do lists help truncate information so it can be read more quickly, but it gives your readers’ eyes a break from going left to right across their screen and instead, down the page. Such a simple shift works wonders!

Don’t forget to optimize your mobile view

Reading copy on your desktop is not the same as reading copy on your phone. Don’t assume that your website will be easy to read for mobile users because it’s easy to read on your desktop.

And don’t be afraid to format your copy differently from the desktop version of your website on your mobile view! You may have to move headings and photos and play around with white space to create an enjoyable and fluid reading experience.

I hope you found these tips helpful. I’d love to hear you you’re utilizing them to make your website easy to read!

As always, if you have questions, send me an email or a DM. I’m happy to answer any questions with you and brainstorm!

Thanks for stopping by the blog!

If this is the first time we’re meeting—hello! My name is Val Casola and I’m a website copywriter and brand storyteller for creative and lifestyle brands who want to articulate their value and grow their business.

Come say hi over on Instagram or send me an email at valcasolawrites@gmail.com! Thanks for reading!

Photo by JUSTIN BUISSON on Unsplash