Most website copy describes the business. The person reading it is trying to work out one thing: do you understand my problem? Those are not the same job, and the gap between them is why a website can look lovely, load fast, and still sit there doing nothing.
The good news is that this is a copy problem, not a rebuild. You can close most of the gap in an afternoon, using the pages you already have.
Start With Her Problem, Not Your Process
Website copy that attracts the right clients starts where the reader already is. She arrived with a problem she can describe in her own words, and she is scanning to see whether those words appear anywhere on your page. If the first thing she meets is your process, your years in business, or your list of packages, she has to do the translating herself. Most people will not bother.
What I’ve found working with women entrepreneurs: this is usually the first thing I change, before design, before SEO, before anything else. The service does not change. The order does. Her problem goes first, your solution second, your process third.
Think about what she typed into Google, or asked ChatGPT, before she landed on you. It was almost never “strategic web design consultancy”. It was much closer to “why is nobody enquiring through my website”.
Count the “We” Sentences on Your Services Page
Here is a five minute audit you can run right now.
Open your services page and count how many sentences begin with “we”. We offer. We specialise. We are passionate about delivering quality outcomes. Then count how many begin with “you”, or name the worry your client actually has.
If the “we” count wins, you have found the problem.
This is not about banning the word “we”. It is about who the sentence is pointed at. Both of these are true, and only one of them is about her:
- Business-first: “We offer conversion-focused website design for service businesses.”
- Client-first: “Your website gets visitors. It just isn’t turning them into enquiries.”
The second one earns the next sentence. That is all any sentence on a website has to do: earn the next one.
Use the Words Your Clients Actually Say
The right keyword and the right copy are usually the same words. Your clients do not search for the industry term. They search for the plain description of what is going wrong.
Where to find those words, in order of usefulness:
- Enquiry emails. Read the last ten. How did each person describe the problem in her own first sentence?
- Discovery calls. The phrase someone uses in the first two minutes is the phrase to put on the page.
- Reviews and testimonials. People describe the before state honestly when they are talking about the after.
- Google autocomplete and the “People also ask” box. Type the problem, not your service name, and read what comes back.
Then use those words. Not a polished version of them. If three clients in a row have told you they feel invisible online, that sentence belongs on your website, because the next woman who feels it will recognise herself instantly.
Write Headings Someone Can Scan in Five Seconds
People do not read web pages line by line. Eye-tracking research from the Nielsen Norman Group established the F-shaped scanning pattern in 2006 and has reaffirmed it since: readers concentrate on the top of the page, the left edge, and the first words of each line and heading. Their guidance is to front-load headings, so the first two words carry the meaning.
So the test is simple. Read only your headings, in order, and nothing else. Do you still understand what the page offers and what to do next?
Headings like “Our Approach” and “Why Choose Us” are decorative. “How we get your website found on Google” does the work instead.
Fix It in One Pass: The Order to Work In
You don’t need a full rewrite, and the idea of a full rewrite is usually what stops people starting. Work in this order and stop when you run out of time. Anything you do will be better than what is there now.
- The headline. Say what the reader gets, in her language.
- The first three sentences under it. Flip anything that starts with you so it starts with her.
- Your section headings. Front-load them so a scanner gets the gist.
- The one next step. One clear action per page, not three buttons competing.
- Everything else. Later. Genuinely.
Google’s own guidance for site owners points the same way: create content for people first, written from real experience, with a clear purpose for the visitor. Copy that answers a real question is what a human reader and a search system are both looking for.
What This Actually Changes
Better copy won’t bring you more traffic on its own. What it changes is what happens to the traffic you already have. The right person stays longer, reads further, recognises herself, and enquires. The wrong person leaves faster, which is also a good outcome.
It’s the same principle behind [why your email list isn’t growing](INTERNAL LINK NEEDED): the number at the top of the funnel is rarely the thing that is broken.
Start with your services page. Count the “we” sentences. Flip the first three. That is the whole job for this week.
You’ve got this.
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