How effective is your B2B website copy?

We all laugh about website visitors leaving home pages because they can’t fathom what they’re about (in seconds). And businesses bigging themselves up instead of highlighting how they help.

We all laugh, but let’s not be laughing at your website…

This fun quiz helps you honestly assess where you’re at with your website copy. Is it working hard for you or doing you down?

Answer the following 10 questions as truthfully as you can. Then collect your score and read my recommendations.

1. At the top of your home page (before scrolling), do you sum up what your business offers in less than 10 words?

Yes, absolutely

Yes, but in more than 10 words

Erm, no, is that a thing?

2. And within those 10 (or so) words, how many have more than four syllables?

One or two

Up to five

Oh, lots, we want to sound like experts

3. Read through your home page copy. Count the times you use ‘you’, then count how many times you use ‘we’, ‘I’, or your company name. Then select the statement that best describes your totals.

I use ‘you’ far more times that ‘we’, ‘I’, or our company name

It’s about 50/50

Why am I supposed you use ‘you’? A website is about us surely?

4. Now, from reading the main pages on your website, is it clear where your target audience (your readers, hopefully) might be stuck when they’re considering your products or services?

Yes, we know the challenges our audience has before considering us and we empathise with these in our copy.

Whilst we’re aware of their frustrations and worries, we don’t talk about these in our copy.

We’re talking to everyone, so have no idea who they are and what might be bothering them.

5. Do you have at least two examples of these in your website copy? Tick all that apply:

You use any of the following words: unrivalled, market-leading, world-class, expert, solution.

You use any of the following words: facilitate, utilise, leverage.

You use ‘the customer’ or ‘the client'.

None of them

6. Tick every one of these you have at least three examples of in your website copy

7. Have a look at your sentence length. Calculate the number of words in 15 different sentences (ideally in the same section of copy/page). How many are over 10 words?

Less than 3 sentences

4-8 sentences

Pretty much all of them

8. How many pages have a call to action on (get in touch, sign up, buy, etc)?

All of them

2-3

Just the contact page

9. Have you any proof of your value on your website? Tick all that apply:

Customer quotes

Customer stories (case studies count if they include decent customer quotes)

Evidence of awards or accreditations

Client logos

None of these

10. Finally, and be honest… would you contact you having visited your website?

Yes, definitely

Maybe, on a good day

Now you ask, no!