Is Website Copy More Important Than Site Architecture?
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That’s the question that was raised by one of my connections on LiknedIn the other day.
He asked if website copy was more important than website architecture.
The obvious answer (as a copywriter) is: “Well, duh…“
That’s the gist of the majority of responses to his question, with a few minor variations of the theme.
I’m not so black and white about it, though. I never am. It’s both the blessing and curse of being a big picture strategist at heart.
Below is my answer to his question. You may be surprised by my response…
You’re Asking The Wrong Question…
Bill, the question isn’t whether one is more important than another. The real question is “How can I get more leads and make more sales from my web site?“
When you ask the question in this way, you’ll come up with an entirely different answer, and as you know, the answers you receive are only as good as the questions you ask.
The answer isn’t a simple matter of choosing architecture over copy or copy over architecture. To optimize conversion rates you’ve got to consider a number of factors:
- How do your website visitors find you? (PPC, social networks, search engines)
- What is their perception of you, your products & your services before they arrive at your site?
- What is the nature of their need or desire, and how strong is that need or desire?
- How well does what you offer satisfy their need or desire?
Your conversion rate depends quite a bit on your ability to answer the above questions accurately. Your answers also help to determine your website architecture.
First, let’s talk about conversion rates. You want people who visit the site to take a desired action. This “converts” them from a visitor into a prospect or customer.
Now, let’s talk about archecture for a moment, then tie the two together.
Website architecture means different things to different people. For most, it’s all about “site navigation” and site design. That’s only one aspect of the architecture.
To me, “website architecture” encompasses your entire internet marketing system — primary web site, niche blog sites, etc. So, depending on the relative complexity or simplicity of your niche market, you can have a single web site or blog, or a series of linked and related blogs.
Why You Cant’ Consider “Website Conversion” in Isolation
The two actually go hand-in-hand because it’s your architecture that helps to optimize and organize the flow of traffic to and through your web site, and it’s the copy that creates the emotional response and leads to the desired action.
For example, if you know that they are getting to your site mostly from word of mouth (a referral) and that they have an already existing (and strong) desire for what you offer, AND they already know about you, then the copy can be as simple as “Want some? Click here.”
At the simplest level, you can have a single landing page with just a few choice words. Your audience knows you. They trust you. And, they have an already existing desire for what you have to offer.
On the other hand, if you’re relatively unknown, what you offer is something for which people don’t know they need, and your traffic source is mostly PPC, then your copy will be considerably more involved.
As an example of this, I worked a couple years back on a marketing plan for a small software company. They’d developed software for real estate investors to better track their properties from an investor and not a landlord perspective.
It was great software. Their problem was (and remains) that they were trying to solve a problem investors didn’t know they had (except for large investors who hired staff to do this stuff). They had to find an already existing desire within their prospects, then amplify that desire and demonstrate that they could satisfy their need with the software.
It was a tough sell.
They opted for a complex web site with tons of stuff about the software. I urged them to do a single landing page offering a special report that amplified the already existing desire to earn more from each real estate transaction.
I discovered later that their key competitors did what I suggested and were raking in thousands of dollars per month from a membership site, with the software as a “bonus.”
What created the sale here? The copy, or the architecture?
Both.
The more complex architecture, regardless of the quality of the software, didn’t convert because it it created confusion in the minds of the visitor.
That’s Not To Say…
And, just so that you don’t think I’m just in favor of short, snappy landing pages, there are many cases where a more complex architecture with drop-down menus would work.
Architecture DOES matter because you want your visitors to easily and quickly find what they’re looking for. If your company is well-known and you sell a number of related products or services, it makes total sense to have a more complex “Home” page.
The copy on the home page should be crisp, clear, and should excite the visitor to learn more. Then, they should be able to easily navigate to the specific page they want… and THAT’S the page where you really focus in on the copy for conversion.
Hope this helps.
