How to write web copy that works

Web copy has a job. It helps someone who arrives on your page with a question, and it shows what the next step is: calling, booking an appointment, requesting a quote. Copy that only sounds nice does not do that.

Below you will read how people read on a screen, where to start and how to make copy concrete, and how to write for Google and AI assistants. At the bottom there is a checklist. The examples come from sites we built ourselves.

How do people read a web page?

Usually not from top to bottom. In 1997 Jakob Nielsen studied how people read websites. His short answer: they do not read, they scan. They pick out individual words and sentences. Of his test users, 79 out of 100 scanned every new page; 16 out of 100 read word by word.

That study is old, but the pattern has been seen again since. In 2006 the Nielsen Norman Group first saw the F-shaped pattern in eye-tracking measurements: first across the top, then a shorter line further down, then down the left-hand side. According to an article by the group from 2017, this happens when the text has little formatting for the web, the reader wants to be done quickly and does not want to read every word. The group calls the pattern bad for users and for businesses. Its advice comes down to this:

• Put the most important points in the first two paragraphs.
• Use subheadings, and start them with the words that carry the most information.
• Make important words bold, and put words in a link that say where it goes.
• Use bullets and numbers for series and steps.
• Cut what does not need to be there.

Where do you start writing?

With your visitor’s question, not with your own story. Many business texts start with the business: who we are, since when, what we are proud of. The visitor wants to know something else. Can I get help here? What does it cost? What do I do now? So start with their question, and show how you solve it.

You often already have those questions. For a week, write down what people ask on the phone, by email and at the counter, and pay attention to their words. Someone who gets a letter from their landlord searches for “rent arrears”, not for “tenancy law”. Those words belong in your headings.

Then give every page one main task. For every page ask: who comes here, with what question, and what is the next step? If you cannot say that in one sentence, the page is not finished yet.

If you want to plan this for a whole site, deciding which questions come first, that is content planning; we do it as part of SEO copywriting.

How do you write a heading and a first paragraph?

The heading says what the page is about, in the visitor’s words. “Welcome” or “Our services” says nothing. “Toothache at the weekend: what can you do?” says exactly what is coming. A heading as a question works, if the page really answers that question.

The first paragraph gives the answer, not the run-up: first the conclusion, then the details. That is called the inverted pyramid, and Nielsen already named it in 1997 as a way to make a text scannable. Whoever reads only that paragraph should know what they need to know and what they can do now.

That paragraph must also stand on its own: no “as described below”, and no “this” without it being clear what “this” is. That helps a reader who lands in the middle of the page, and an AI assistant that takes one paragraph from your page. Read more in Getting into an AI answer: the first 200 words.

And the title in Google?

Every page also has a title, which you see in the search results and on the browser tab. Google writes that people often decide on that title which result to click. The advice: a unique, short title per page that describes what is on it, without vague words like “Home” and without repeated keywords.

How do you make copy concrete?

Vague copy fits on any site, and that is why it convinces nobody. “We deliver quality at a competitive price” is something any business can say. It becomes concrete with three things:

• Names. Name your services the way your customer names them. A treatment, a practice area and a place have a name.
• Numbers. How many steps, how many minutes until you arrive. A number can be checked; an adjective cannot.
• Places. Where you work and how far that is. Someone searching for their own village wants to know whether you come there.

Taxi Grou does not just say it is fast, but: there within 15 minutes in Grou and the surrounding villages, with no call-out charge. Each of the 29 town pages gives the distance and the driving time from Grou, so someone in Jirnsum or Sneek sees straight away how far it is. See the Taxi Grou case.

Concrete also means: only writing down what is true. Among its own check questions, Google asks whether a text contains errors that are easy to verify. Below are six sentences before and after, as made-up examples from a plumber in Deventer.

How do you write for Google and AI assistants?

Write for people, and make sure machines can read it. Google writes that its systems prioritise helpful, reliable information created to benefit people, not to manipulate rankings: “helpful, reliable, people-first content”. Google gives questions to check your copy against. A few of them, in our words:

• Does the copy offer original information, original research or original analysis?
• Does it offer clearly more than the other pages in the search results?
• Will someone know enough after reading to reach their goal?
• Are you writing to a word count because you heard Google wants that? Google answers itself: we do not.

What Google advises against is in its spam policies. Keyword stuffing is one of them, with examples such as a block of text listing every place you want to be found for, and repeating the same words so often that the copy sounds unnatural. If you can read your copy aloud without stumbling, it is usually fine.

For the AI features in Google Search, such as AI Overviews and AI Mode, Google writes that there are no additional requirements and no special optimisation is needed. Google names the same basics as for ordinary search, including: helpful content for people, important content in text and not only in an image, and structured data that matches the visible text on the page. What other AI assistants weigh, we leave aside; we only mention what Google itself writes. What we do for your findability is under SEO and GEO.

What goes on buttons and in forms?

The smallest texts sit exactly where it matters. Five rules:

• Say on the button what the visitor gets. “Submit” says what the system does; “Request a quote” says what happens for the visitor.
• Let a link say where it goes. The guideline for accessible websites, WCAG, asks that the purpose of a link can be determined from the link text, or from the link text together with the sentence around it. “Click here” does not do that.
• Give every field a label. WCAG asks for labels or instructions wherever someone enters something. An example helps too: Taxi Grou puts one in the field for pick-up address and destination.
• With an error, say how to put it right. WCAG asks that an error is described in text, with a suggestion if it is known how to correct it.
• Only ask for what you use. At Taxi Grou each step asks one thing, and email and comments are optional.

Put the most important button in a fixed place. At Atiq Tandartsen, Register is in the header of every page, because registering is the most important step on that site. Read more in our article on microcopy.

How plain should you write?

Plainer than you think. A well-known yardstick is language level B1 of the European framework for languages. The Dutch government’s information point for the physical environment (IPLO) writes that B1 is the starting point for all texts in its national environment portal. IPLO’s writing tips work for any web copy:

• Write briefly, and turn a long explanation into a list.
• Use subheadings that say what the text below is about.
• Use short sentences. IPLO mentions around 15 to 20 words, with variation in length.
• Write actively and address the reader directly.
• Use ordinary words, and jargon only if it is widely known.
• Use verbs instead of nouns: “we assess your request” instead of “the assessment of your request takes place”.

WCAG also has a requirement about reading level: if a text requires more reading ability than someone has after about nine years of school, a simpler version must be available. That requirement is at the highest level, AAA, and is stricter than level AA, but it shows where the bar can be. See also web accessibility.

Plain is not childish. A lawyer writing for someone with rent arrears chooses different words than in a court document. For a buyer who uses jargon themselves, that jargon can stay. Sometimes the language itself is the barrier. TaalPro, an online language school for Dutch as a second language, explains words such as DUO, IND, BSN and PIP in plain language in a glossary, and the whole site is in Dutch, English and Farsi. See the TaalPro case.

Write it yourself or have it written?

You know your trade and your customers best. That is why the best copy is often a collaboration: you supply the knowledge and the examples, a writer turns them into a page that can be scanned and is found. Writing it yourself fits if you have the time and know your customers’ questions by heart. Having it written fits if you would rather spend those hours on your own work, or if your copy keeps ending up being about yourself. If texts arrive later than agreed, the schedule moves.

With us, both are possible. This is how it is in our process: if you supply the texts, we put them in the right place; if we write them, we follow the order in which your visitor looks for things. You approve every text, because your name is on top. See also SEO copywriting.

Can AI write your copy?

As a tool, yes. In February 2023 Google wrote that appropriate use of AI or automation is not against its guidelines. It is, however, a violation of the spam policies if you use AI with the primary purpose of manipulating rankings. As an example, Google names creating many pages with generative AI without adding value for the reader.

AI can help with a first outline, suggestions for headings or shortening a long sentence. The facts, the examples from your own work and the choices are yours. A language model does not know your customers, and can write things down that sound convincing but are not true. So check every number, every name and every claim. For texts made largely with automation, Google also asks whether it is clear to visitors that AI was used, for example by saying so.

The strongest argument is your reader: copy that could have been on any site gives them no reason to choose you.

How do you review a page?

Go through every important page with these ten questions, starting with the homepage, the pages per service and the contact form. If the answer is no, you know what to improve.

1. Do you know who comes to this page, and with what question?
2. Does the heading say what the page is about, in the visitor’s words?
3. Is the answer in the first paragraph, and does that paragraph stand on its own?
4. Does the page have one main task, and is the next step clear?
5. Does someone who reads only the subheadings understand what the page is about?
6. Are there names, numbers and places, and can you back up every number?
7. Are the sentences short and the words ordinary, and do you address the reader?
8. Does every button say what happens, and every link where it goes?
9. Does every field have a label, and does an error message say how to put it right?
10. Does the copy sound right when you read it aloud?

When this does not apply

This article is about copy that has to deliver something: a request, an appointment, a registration. For a text people actually want to read, such as a long interview or a column, a run-up is fine.

The research on scanning is from 1997, the article on the F-shaped pattern from 2017. They describe how people read in general, not how your visitors read; you only know that once you measure it. We have not measured what better copy brought in terms of requests on the sites in this article. And B1 is a yardstick, not a law: copy for professionals may use the words of that profession.

What we say about Google comes from Google’s documentation as it was online on 3 November 2026. Google does not say how much each point weighs, and nobody can promise you a place in the search results or in an AI answer.

Frequently asked questions

Wondering what could be better in your copy? Send us the page that has to deliver the most. More about our approach is under SEO and GEO and SEO copywriting. You work directly with Nawid; for each project he puts together a fixed team of specialists.

Sources

Consulted on 3 November 2026.

• Google Search Central, Creating helpful, reliable, people-first content (updated 5 October 2026)
• Google Search Central, AI features and your website (updated 10 December 2025)
• Google Search Central, Spam policies for Google web search (updated 28 August 2026)
• Google Search Central, Influencing your title links (updated 10 December 2025)
• Google Search Central Blog, Google Search's guidance about AI-generated content (8 February 2023)
• Nielsen Norman Group, Jakob Nielsen, How Users Read on the Web (30 September 1997)
• Nielsen Norman Group, Kara Pernice, F-Shaped Pattern of Reading on the Web (12 November 2017)
• W3C, Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 (12 December 2024)
• Informatiepunt Leefomgeving (IPLO), Schrijftips taalniveau B1 (in Dutch)
• Empireyo, Ikiz case
• Empireyo, MijnbouwSubsidie case
• Empireyo, Atiq Tandartsen case
• Empireyo, Taxi Grou case
• Empireyo, TaalPro case
• Empireyo, Process
• Empireyo, SEO copywriting