Most of the owners behind those sites have real results worth bragging about, and it drives me up the wall that their beautiful layouts say nothing about any of it.
Free copy is worth what you paid for it.
What does website copy written by a designer look like?
You’ve seen it. You’ve probably got it on your own site right now. It sounds like this: For more, see wordPress reality.
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“We’re passionate about delivering innovative solutions that help businesses to achieve their full potential. Our team of dedicated professionals uses advanced technology to create smooth experiences that drive results.”
That paragraph says nothing. It could describe a software company, a lawn care service, or a sandwich shop. There’s no specificity, no personality, no reason for a visitor to keep reading. It’s placeholder text that somebody forgot to replace, except nobody forgot. That’s the final version. The designer wrote it, the client approved it because they didn’t know better, and now it’s sitting on a live website repelling customers. For more, see website backup guide.
Designer copy has this in common across every crappy site I’ve reviewed:
It uses words like “passionate,” “innovative,” “solutions,” “leverage,” “seamless,” and “dedicated” because those words sound professional and mean nothing.
It avoids specifics because the designer doesn’t know your business well enough to be specific. It reads like the work of someone who Googled “what to put on a business website” and copied the first result. Every page sounds the same because the designer used the same template for the copy that they used for the layout.
Why Can’t Designers Write Copy?
This isn’t an insult to web designers. They’re good at what they do: layout, visual hierarchy, responsive design, user interface, color theory, typography. These are real skills that take years to develop.
Writing is a completely different skill that also takes years to develop. A designer who writes your copy is like a plumber who offers to rewire your house while they’re there. They might be able to physically do it, but the results will be dangerous. The same goes for writers. I think I’m a damn good writer, but I’ve never been a copywriter, and I’ve struggled with my own sales copy because the two are totally different skills.
Beautiful design with empty copy is a storefront with gorgeous windows and nothing on the shelves.
I see this all the time. Before AI was a thing, a client showed me a site and wanted my opinion. It was obvious a technical person had written the content. It had every earmark of a technician: crude, never polished for search, written by someone who knew how the thing worked and had no idea how to make anyone want it. I wouldn’t call it awful. It just wasn’t going to sell, and since it was a sales site, that made it even worse.
Designers think visually. They’re filling text blocks to make the layout work. They need 150 words for the hero section, 75 words per service box, and a short paragraph for the About page, and the copy gets written to fill those boxes whether or not it persuades anybody. I think that’s backward. The words should come first, and the layout should present them effectively.
When the designer writes the copy, the site ends up optimized for how it looks and silent about what the business does. A visitor spends a few seconds deciding whether to stay on your site, and that decision is based on whether the words tell them they’re in the right place. Beautiful design with empty copy is a storefront with gorgeous windows and nothing on the shelves.
What Does Bad Website Copy Cost You?
Business owners treat website copy as an afterthought because they don’t see the damage it does. The damage is invisible. It’s the prospects who landed on your site, read your hero section, felt nothing, and clicked away. You never see those people. You never know they existed. Your analytics show the bounce rate, but they don’t show you the contracts you lost because your website sounded like every other crappy template site in your industry.
I don’t think it’s fair to blame the owner for this. Nobody told them the copy was the part that sells. I put the fault on the habit of tossing in website copy as a freebie, a practice that treats the most important part of the site as an afterthought and leaves the owner paying for it in customers.
Your website copy is doing one of two things at all times: it’s either convincing visitors to stay and learn more, or it’s giving them permission to leave.
There’s no neutral. “We’re passionate about delivering solutions” is permission to leave. It tells the visitor that you couldn’t be bothered to explain what you do in specific, human language, so why should they bother reading further?
The business owners I work with as a ghostwriter understand this instinctively about books.
They’d never publish a book full of vague corporate language. They know a book needs to show expertise, tell real stories, and speak directly to the reader. Then they turn around and let a designer fill their website with the exact garbage they’d reject in a manuscript.
What Good Website Copy Does
Good copy tells the visitor three things within five seconds: what you do, who you do it for, and why they should care. It uses specific language instead of corporate filler. It sounds like a real person talking about real work, and nothing like a LinkedIn profile generated by committee. Compare these two versions of a consultant’s hero section:
Designer version: “We provide innovative consulting solutions that help organizations to unlock their full potential and drive sustainable growth.”
Written version: “I help mid-size manufacturing companies cut operational costs by 15-25% without layoffs. I’ve done it for 40 companies in the last decade.” The second version is specific, credible, and gives the reader a reason to keep scrolling. The first version could be deleted and nobody would notice. That’s the difference between copy written by someone who understands persuasion and copy written by someone who needed to fill a text block.
| Element | Designer copy | Good copy |
|---|---|---|
| Language | “Passionate,” “innovative,” “solutions,” “seamless” | Specific, human language |
| Specifics | Avoided, since the designer doesn’t know your business | Who you help, results delivered, why you |
| Process | Written to fill text boxes in the layout | Words come first; the layout presents them |
| Voice | Same template language on every page | Sounds like a real person, in your voice |
| Five-second test | Gives visitors permission to leave | Says what you do, who for, and why they should care |
| Competitor test | Could sit unchanged on a competitor’s site | Credible enough to keep the reader scrolling |
My take
Don’t take free copy from your designer. It costs more than any line on the invoice, in visitors who read your hero section, felt nothing and left. You’ll never see those people in your analytics. Pay a writer, and make the copy say what you do, who it’s for and why they should care inside five seconds. If a sentence could sit on any competitor’s site, cut it.
How do you fix weak website copy?
If your website copy sounds like your designer wrote it, and you already know they did, you have two options.
First, write it yourself. You know your business better than anyone. Sit down and answer these questions in plain language: What do I do? Who do I do it for? What specific results have I delivered? Why should someone hire me instead of my competitors? What do my best clients say about working with me? Write the answers the way you’d explain your business to someone at a dinner party. Then put those answers on your website.
Second, hire a professional writer. Not your designer. Not your nephew who “writes good emails.” A writer who understands how to turn expertise into persuasive copy that moves visitors toward a decision. Someone who will interview you, understand your business, and write in your voice instead of in template language.
Your website is the first impression most prospects will ever have of your business, and it’s working for you or against you every hour of every day. If the copy could describe any business in any industry, it’s working against you. Good businesses lose customers to a paragraph somebody wrote in a hurry to fill a box, so I’d fix it now before it costs you another prospect you’ll never hear about.
Get in touch if you want website copy that sounds like you instead of like every other crappy template on the internet.
Good copy has to be found to do anything. The Day Your Website Died covers how AI search changed the way sites get found and what to optimize for now.
Frequently Asked Questions
- How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages?, Nielsen Norman Group
