DL48 Studio
Town Social

How Much Website Copy Is Too Much?

Dustin-Lee Casey

Creative Director at DL48 Studio

I love pumpkin pie, autumn leaves & the British telly. I also create pretty things for people.

I once had a client fax me 18 pages, handwritten, front and back, of content they wanted on the front page of their site. Every page was illegible and incoherent. It was a nightmare, to say the least.

There’s a misconception when it comes to website copy, and it’s this: there has to be a lot of it. Like, novella type content. A plethora of knowledge spilling out onto the mobile devices, if you will. I’ve had several clients that have come to me and demanded that we put huge blocks of text on a page. Not only that, that text has to be all jammed together at the top of the page.

“Now, Dustin, they have to take a college-accredited course on my business before they call me, okay?”

The thought behind this is, if you want to get your message across and help people understand who you are, what you are about and what you are selling, you need pages and pages of text that explain all of that in great, agonizing detail. This is simply not true.

Having large amounts of text can be overwhelming to Ms. Beaverhausen. Opening up a landing page with 20 different subjects crammed together, each with 2-3 paragraphs is stressful. Not only is it a lot to process, but it’s pulling our poor Ms. Beaverhausen in 20 different directions. It’s like having 20 people surrounding you and shouting in your face, “Hey, what I have to say is important, look over here!” “No! What I have to say is important, look over here!” Before you know it, you have a shoving match, and uncle Merle is on the floor looking for his cane . . . The point is, you don’t want to overwhelm your Ms. Beaverhausen. Remember, she’s skittish and easily spooked.

Speaking of Ms. Beaverhausen’s attention span, you have barely any time to get your message across. Ms, Beaverhausen likes to skim through pages and hunt for the information she’s looking for, and if she can’t easily find it, she’s moving on. Usually within a few seconds.

With your website copy, especially on your landing page, you want to tell a simple, visual story with a clear narrative. Don’t worry, you don’t have to be Hemingway when it comes to your copy. Think of it more like leading Ms. Beaverhausen, down a path with roadsigns pointing to destinations where she can learn more on each topic. This type of copy presentation is the art of MicroCopy.

Once you get to the page detailing about a particular topic, the goal is to still keep it simplified and break it down into sections, however, you can be a bit more detailed.

When developing copy for your website’s pages, the best way to do this is to start with bullet points. Start off with the most important, general points you want to get across to your visitor on this particular page. These bullet points will turn into your section headers, continuing the theme of telling a story. Then under each section header give a simplified description of that section. You can go a step further, breaking it down into subsections, each with descriptions of their own.

Overall, your Landing Page or Home Page should be around 500 to 800 words. Too much and you could bore Ms. Beaverhausen. Too little and you could upset the Search Engine Gods (We like to call them, The Council of Eugene). With every other page, keeping it around 500 to 1200 words is best.

Our fictional representation of
a standard website visitor

Ms. Beaverhausen is a high-rolling aristocrat, so her time is money. Don't waste it. She's also skittish and easily spooked. Prone to leaving parties at a moments notice. And most importantly, she's incredibly judgemental when it comes to appearance and social standards. But in the end, she's lovable and absolutely to die for, darling!
*Ms. Beaverhausen's characterization is based off research, studies, statistics, and analysis on the average internet user and how they interact with the interwebs and individual websites.

Discover Why your Website just Sits on the Interwebs Collecting Dust!

Get proactive. See how you can take your website to the next level and get a return on your website investment by incorporating a solid traffic > conversion > nurturing sales strategy and turn your website browsers into buyers.

10 Reasons You Should be Using a Custom Domain Email

10 Reasons You Should be Using a Custom Domain Email

Many people going into online business make simple mistakes or overlook things that could hurt their overall success online. When building web credibility with your customers, detail is everything. Having a custom domain email adds to your business’s overall credibility. It not only shows that you are a professional operation but an official, legitimate operation.

read more

Get the latest insights, tips, and trade secrets right in your mailbox. Learn how to improve your brand, website, marketing strategies, social media campaigns, overall online presence and so much more.

Handcrafted in the Midwest
Digital Craftsmanship. Graphic Artistry. DL48 Studio. Art Dept. Dublin Lights Dist. 48. A Digital Supply Company. Est. 2012. We will handcraft a design that is tailor-made for your brand Web Development, Web Design, Graphic Design, or Print work, no matter what it is, DL48 Studio will handcraft a design that is tailor-made for you and your brand. Serving Lincoln, NE, Omaha, NE, as well as the greater Nebraska. Whether you need a website developed, graphic design, print work, copy writing or even product or stock photos taken for your project, we’ve got your back, Jack. Web design that is simple, yet imaginative; elegant, yet eclectic; Functional, yet fashionable. DL48 Studio’s goal for web design is to bring your style and personality to a sleek, web 2.0 interwebs. Using a mix of real patterns, textures, images and photo manipulation, DL48 Studio creates unique, artistic designs that capture the essence of what your brand represents. From product photography, stock and artistic photos, all the way to photo editing, retouching and full-on manipulation, DL48 Studio has a passion to create beautiful photographic moments. We’ll write or edit your copy to make the best cohesive narrative that shows off you and your brand. Old Fashion Craftsmanship. Modern Artistry.