Website Copy That Sells: A Practical Rewrite Guide

Open your website. Read the first sentence on the home page out loud.

Now ask one question about it. Could your closest competitor put that exact sentence on their own site without changing a word? If the answer is yes, that sentence is describing your industry, not your business, and it is doing no work at all.

This is not about being a better writer. It is about being specific where everybody else is vague. This guide is about the words themselves: how to test yours, what to delete, and what to put in the gap. For how a page should be laid out, read our guide to high-converting web design. This one is only about the writing.

The Competitor Test

This is the fastest diagnostic there is, and it takes ten minutes.

Copy your home page text into a document. Go through it sentence by sentence and mark every one that a competitor could use unchanged. Most businesses find they have marked between half and all of it.

Sentences that always fail the test:

• "We are a leading provider of quality solutions."
• "Our team of experienced professionals is dedicated to excellence."
• "We offer affordable prices and outstanding customer service."
• "We deliver innovative solutions tailored to your needs."

None of those is untrue. That is the problem. They are unfalsifiable, which makes them unpersuasive. A reader has heard them from every business in your category and has learned to skip them.

What passes the test is anything a competitor would have to lie to copy. A real price. A real timeline. A real limitation. "Basic sites from KES 20,000, live in two days" cannot be copied by somebody who takes three weeks.

The Words to Delete

There is a specific family of words that feels like a claim while carrying no information. Search your site for these and delete every one:

Delete	Because	Replace with
Affordable	Means nothing without a number	The actual starting price
Professional	The minimum, not a selling point	A credential or a result
High quality	Nobody claims low quality	What specifically is better
Fast	Compared to what	A timeline in days or weeks
Innovative	A word about you, not them	What the thing actually does
World class	Unverifiable	Delete it, add nothing
Tailored to your needs	Everybody says this	One example of a real change

The rule behind the table: replace each adjective with the fact that made you want to use it. You wrote "affordable" because you knew your price compares well. Say the price. You wrote "fast" because you know your turnaround. Say the turnaround.

Features, Benefits and the So What Chain

A feature is what something is. A benefit is what it means for the person reading. Most websites list features and hope the reader does the translation. They will not.

The method is to ask "so what" until you reach something a person would actually care about.

Keep the feature. Buyers of technical things do want to know what they get. But lead with the last line, not the first. "Mobile-first responsive design" belongs in a specification list, not in a headline.

Use Their Words, Not Yours

Every business develops internal language, and it always sounds more professional to the people inside than to anybody outside.

You do not have to guess what your customers say. You already have it written down:

• Your last twenty enquiries. How did each person describe their problem, in their own words, before you replied?
• Your WhatsApp messages. The least filtered language you will ever get.
• Your reviews. When somebody says what they valued, they are telling you what to sell.
• The question you answer every single week. If you answer it weekly on a call, it belongs on the page.

A worked example. Nobody messages a web designer to ask about "digital transformation". They write "I need a website where people can pay with M-Pesa". One of those sentences belongs on your site and it is not the first one.

Five Rewrites, Before and After

1. A home page opener

Before: "Welcome to our website. We are a full-service digital agency delivering innovative solutions for modern businesses."

After: "We build websites for Kenyan businesses that need to take payments on M-Pesa. Basic sites from KES 20,000, live in two days."

What changed: the greeting went, and two facts arrived. A reader now knows whether they are in the right place.

2. A service description

Before: "Our maintenance packages provide comprehensive support to keep your website performing optimally at all times."

After: "Updates, backups, security patches and uptime monitoring, every month, so your site does not quietly break. From KES 5,000 a month, cancel any time."

What changed: "comprehensive support" became the four things you actually do, and the risk of committing went away in the last clause.

3. An about page

Before: "Founded with a passion for excellence, our team brings years of combined experience to every project."

After: "We have built and maintained over 70 websites for businesses across Kenya, mostly small shops, schools and service businesses in Nairobi."

What changed: a feeling became a count and a customer type. The reader can now tell whether you have done their kind of job.

4. A pricing section

Before: "Contact us for a customised quote tailored to your specific requirements."

After: "Most business sites land between KES 50,000 and KES 120,000 depending on page count and whether you need a shop. Tell us which and we will give you a fixed number, not an hourly rate."

What changed: a wall became a range. Hiding the number does not make it smaller, it makes people leave.

5. A testimonial introduction

Before: "Our clients love working with us."

After: Delete the line. Put the review underneath, with the person's name.

What changed: you stopped telling the reader what to conclude and let the evidence do it. A sentence that only announces the next sentence can almost always go.

Headlines Have One Job

A headline is not there to be clever. It is there to let a reader decide, in about three seconds, whether to keep reading. That is the whole job.

A working headline usually does one of three things:

1. Names the outcome. "Take M-Pesa payments on your website."
2. Names the problem. "Your website is not bringing you customers."
3. Names the audience and the thing. "Websites for Kenyan schools."

A test that catches most weak ones: put "now you can" in front of your headline. "Now you can grow your business with digital solutions" is empty. "Now you can take M-Pesa payments on your website" is a promise a person can act on.

One warning about clever. A pun that needs a second read has already cost you the three seconds you had. Save the wit for somewhere it is not carrying the whole page.

Say What Happens Next

Button text is copy, and it is usually the least considered copy on the page. "Submit", "Send", "Get Started" and "Learn More" all share a flaw: they describe what you do, not what you get.

Weak	Better	Why
Submit	Send My Enquiry	Says what the click does
Get Started	Get a Fixed Quote	Names the thing received
Learn More	See M-Pesa Pricing	Says where you land
Contact Us	Book a Free 30-Minute Call	Sets the commitment

The formula is a verb plus the thing you get. If it also removes a worry, better again: "free", "no obligation", "30 minutes" all reduce the perceived cost of clicking.

Write Down the Reasons People Do Not Buy

This is the exercise most businesses skip and it is the one that finds the missing copy.

Write a list of every reason somebody decides not to buy from you. Be honest and unflattering. Then check whether your website answers each one.

For most Kenyan service businesses the list looks something like this: it is probably too expensive, I do not know how long it takes, I do not know if they have done my kind of work, I am worried they will disappear after taking a deposit, and I do not know who actually owns the website afterwards.

Every item on that list is a piece of copy waiting to be written. Answer them plainly, on the page, before somebody has to ask. A price range answers the first. A timeline answers the second. Examples answer the third. Payment terms answer the fourth. A sentence about ownership answers the fifth.

What Each Page Needs to Say

Page	The one question it must answer
Home	What do you do, for whom, and am I in the right place?
Service	What exactly do I get, what does it cost, how long does it take?
About	Why should I trust you with this?
Pricing	Can I afford this, and what changes the number?
Contact	What happens after I send this, and when?

If a page does not answer its question in the first screen, that is the fix. Not more words. The right words, higher up.

Start with one page, the one that should be selling most and is not. Rewrite it using the competitor test and the delete list. Leave everything else alone for a month so you can tell whether the change did anything.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I know if my website copy is bad?

Run the competitor test. Read a sentence from your site and ask whether a competitor could put it on their own site without changing a word. If they could, the sentence is describing your industry rather than your business, and it is doing no work.

What words should I remove from my website?

The adjectives that sound like a claim but carry no information: affordable, professional, world-class, cutting-edge, innovative, high-quality, best-in-class. Replace each one with the number or fact that made you want to use the word in the first place.

What is the difference between a feature and a benefit?

A feature is what the thing is. A benefit is what it means for the buyer. Mobile-first design is a feature. Your site works properly on the phone that eight in ten of your customers will use is the benefit. Ask so what until you reach something the reader actually cares about.

How long should website copy be?

As long as it takes to answer the questions that stop somebody buying, and no longer. A cheap simple purchase needs little. A high-value service needs more, because the reader has more to be uncertain about. Length is not the problem, padding is.

Where do I find the words my customers actually use?

In your own inbox. Read your last twenty enquiries, your WhatsApp messages and your reviews, and note the phrases people use to describe their problem. Those exact words belong on your website, because they are what the next person will type or say.

Should I write my own website copy or hire someone?

Write the first version yourself, because you know the specifics and a writer does not. You know the real prices, the real timelines and the objection you hear every week. Get help editing it if the writing itself is the hard part, but do not outsource the facts.

Does better copy actually increase enquiries?

Clearer copy usually does, because most sites lose people to confusion rather than to disagreement. The honest caveat is that you cannot know the size of the gain without measuring before and after. Change one page, watch it for a month, then decide.