I’ve seen more crappy WordPress sites than I care to think about, and the crappy part is almost always the writing. The sites look polished, load fast, have beautiful layouts, and say nothing, because the business owner paid a web designer $5,000 to build the site and the designer threw in the copy for free. That drives me up the wall, because most of those owners have real results worth bragging about.
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 it was written by 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.
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 actually does. A visitor spends three 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 Actually 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.
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, not the way you’d write a press release. 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. I hate watching good businesses lose customers to a paragraph somebody wrote in a hurry to fill a box, and 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.
