How to Design Copy to Engage Your Audience and Increase Search Rankings

You don’t have to overspend on web design to get content that moves your audience to action.

For most small and micro-businesses, a copy-first strategy is the most affordably effective way to market over the long term.

When resources are limited, sophisticated, elaborate web design can be difficult to access. For our clients, we recommend using design as a way to enhance the stories they’re telling with their words. This way, most of their resources go toward optimizing their copy.

And copy is what sells.

This week, I’m sharing the simple DIY design and formatting tips we use to create compelling content that engages readers and moves them to take action.

How Renia explains the relationship between copy and design: “Good design helps enhance the story we’re telling with our words.”

Successful digital content includes at least two features— engaging headlines and mobile-friendly formatting.

The titles and headings of your content serve three purposes.

1. To outline what your content is about for your audience.
2. To outline what your content is about for search engines.
3. To outline what your content is about for screen readers.

As I mentioned last week, most people just skim the highlights when engaging with digital content. This means we read the title, headlines, and maybe the first couple of sentences before deciding if the content is worth our time.

What message is your content sending when you skim it?

Does it explain the value you are offering? A reason to pause and dig deeper?

If the benefit to the readers is not clear in your headlines, your audience may decide to move on.

When it comes to SEO, it’s not enough to use benefit-driven headlines. For better search engine rankings, remember to use header tags.

Search engine algorithms use cues to quickly understand what content best matches a user’s query. One of those cues is header tags.

Fortunately, most website builders make this part easy.

While each drag-and-drop website editor is different, there are some similarities. For our site, we are currently using the Elementor WordPress theme. As you can see below, we simply select the “Heading” block and drag it to the correct place on the page.

A screenshot from our chosen website builder with the “Heading” block circled and an arrow pointing to where we placed the block when building the page.

Then, we select which type of header tag we want to use.

Think of the outlines you may have created in school. There should be one primary purpose or focus. In formatting, this is called your Heading 1, or H1.

Screenshot from our website builder showing the header tag “H1” being selected from a drop-down menu for a Header block.

Your main topic is then divided into subtopics (H2s), which are further divided into sub-subtopics (H3s), depending on the content.

Screenshot from our website builder showing the header tag “H3” being selected from a drop-down menu for a Header block.

When you choose the words of your headlines with purpose and match them with header tags, you eliminate confusion when bots crawl your page.

By taking these steps to make your content more engaging to your audience, you’re also making it more accessible.

Screen-reader users are not exceptions to the rule that most people skim digital content, stopping only when they find something relevant to them.

Using benefit-driven headers and header tags makes it easier for screen-reader users to navigate and engage with your content.

If you missed it, I explain why sustainable businesses need accessible digital content here.

Once you’ve mastered the properly formatted header, it’s time to focus on mobile-friendly design.

According to one study, almost 60% of web traffic now comes through mobile phones.

However, not all websites are formatted to work well on mobile devices.

Suppose you put out an ad directing your audience to a sales page for your latest service, but the page isn’t optimized for mobile. How many do you think will stick around long enough to find that “Buy Now” button?

According to another study, which puts mobile-based web traffic nearer to 70%, mobile-first formatting significantly impacts sales and engagement:

• 61% of users are turned off by websites that are not formatted for mobile.
• 80% of users are more likely to buy from mobile-friendly apps or sites that are easy to navigate.
• 70% of mobile-based searches lead to online action, like calling, booking, or purchasing.

Fortunately, making your copy mobile-friendly requires a few simple steps.

The first step is to make sure you are using a responsive website builder.

The good news is that, as of 2022, it might be more challenging to find a website builder that hasn’t caught on to the mobile trend. A quick Google search shows Wix to be very popular for mobile responsiveness. Other common choices are WordPress, Squarespace, Weebly, and Shopify.

The next step is to avoid cramming too much into a small space.

I addressed this issue in last week’s post because it’s a good rule of thumb for putting any content on the internet. Using plenty of white space, bulleted or numbered lists, and short paragraphs makes our content more engaging and easier to consume.

A screenshot from our website where we used a numbered list, bolded sections, and plenty of white space to draw the eye and make our content more engaging.

The third step for mobile-friendly formatting is to avoid pop-ups or disable them for mobile users.

When used strategically, pop-up ads on your website can positively impact sales. But on a mobile device, they tend to be distracting, at best. If a user cannot easily click away, the pop-up could cost you customers. When my clients want to use pop-ups on their sites, I encourage them to disable them for mobile — a common feature in most website builders.

The final and possibly most crucial step is to test, test, test.

Before any of our content goes live, for ourselves or our clients, we check it on a mobile device. Is the font large enough? Do any images show up strangely? Does each link work? It won’t work for our audience if it doesn’t work for us.

Example of the same webpage on desktop and on mobile. Responsive website builders move elements around to best fit each type of device.

Good design helps enhance the story we are telling with our words. And it doesn’t have to be complex to be effective.

For most local businesses, a copy-first digital strategy will be more sustainably cost-effective than one focused only on fancy web design.

These simple DIY formatting tips can make your copy shine when resources are limited. And with compelling copy to boost engagement and sales, who knows what your resources will help you do next?

Which of these tips can you implement this week?

Do the headings on your homepage tell your audience what they need to know about your business?

Do your emails read well on mobile?

What steps can you take to make your content more engaging and effective?

To learn more about the advantages of a copy-first marketing strategy, check out this article.

Check out my Complete Guide to a Copy-First Marketing Strategy here.