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I’ve seen more crappy WordPress sites than I care to think about. Not crappy design — crappy writing. Sites that look polished, load fast, have beautiful layouts, and say absolutely nothing. Because the business owner paid a web designer $5,000 to build the site and the designer threw in the copy for free.
Free copy is worth what you paid for it.
What Designer Copy Looks Like
You’ve seen it. You’ve probably got it on your own site right now. It sounds like this:
“We are passionate about delivering innovative solutions that empower businesses to achieve their full potential. Our team of dedicated professionals leverages cutting-edge technology to create seamless experiences that drive results.”
That paragraph says nothing. It could describe a software company, a lawn care service, or a sandwich shop. There is 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.
Here’s what designer copy has 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 Designers Can’t 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. The copy exists to serve the design, not to persuade a reader. That’s backward. The design should serve the message. 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, not for what it says. 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 Bad Copy Actually Costs 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.
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 is no neutral. “We are passionate about delivering solutions” is permission to leave. It tells the visitor that you couldn’t be bothered to explain what you actually do in specific, human language, so why should they bother reading further?
The business owners I work with as a ghostwriter understand this instinctively when it comes to books. They’d never publish a book full of vague corporate language. They know a book needs to demonstrate 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, not a LinkedIn profile generated by committee.
Compare these two versions of a consultant’s hero section:
Designer version: “We provide innovative consulting solutions that empower 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 to Fix It
If your website copy sounds like it was written by your designer — because it was — 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. It’s working for you or against you every hour of every day. If the copy on your site could describe any business in any industry, it’s working against you. Fix it or keep losing customers you’ll never know about.
Get in touch if you want website copy that sounds like you instead of like every other crappy template on the internet.