This article explores why website copy is essential if you want your business to be found online. I also share two interior design websites that I have worked on this year.

Interior designers create beautiful spaces that present aspirational lifestyles to homeowners, visitors and employees. They know how to deliver a vision, with impact. They understand how to balance colour, shape, light, space and texture. As such, they can create stunning websites.

The challenge for such a visual profession is that they often want a portfolio website. Full of professional photography, images showcase their talents and distinct style. Words are secondary and, in many cases, designers would love to keep written website content to a minimum.

Website Copy & Search Engine Optimisation

A visual website, with just a few lines of text, is very unlikely to get noticed. If lead generation comes from other marketing strategies, this may not be an issue. However, if you want to be found online, then the web page content has to include text.

When preparing website copy, I see it as a triangle. You have to approach it from three distinct perspectives:

• Grabbing the interest of your target customers
• Using words and phrases the search engines will be seeking (keywords and related terms)
• Effectively communicating your message

When an internet search is made, the search engine bots scan millions of web pages to find a match. This does include tags on images, but the best chance of delivering relevant results comes from the page copy.

With billions of web pages to choose between, competition is high. If the written content on web pages is sparse, it is unlikely to be ranked in the listings. For this reason, 300 words are the absolute minimum that should be included. In SEO terms, that is thin content.

How to Make Website Copy Less like an Essay

If you prefer images to words, this sounds like a lot of text to fit on each page. The trick is to break it up in the following ways:

• Design the layout of the website to separate chunks of text
• Include sub-headings through the text
• Use bullets when listing key points
• Incorporate testimonials or a mission statement part way through the page

This approach makes it easier for visitors to skim read and navigate quickly to the information that they are seeking.

Examples of Interior Design Website Copy

I have been fortunate to provide website content writing services for two interior designers this year. One is a recently launched business, the other is more established.

Amberley Studio

Amberley Studio is a business in its infancy, but already working on creating interiors for homes, student accommodation and a newly-built apartment block. Owner Alix took on the challenge of building her website, employing a professional photographer to produce the images and asked me to write the copy.

I’ve seen Alix’s home and was excited to play a small part in getting this new enterprise up and running.

Alix was hesitant about including a lot of text, so we built it up by detailing her portfolio case studies. This information outlines her response to a brief. The large images still dominate the page but combined with the written copy, it helps visitors to understand her approach and style.

“I absolutely love it. It amazes me that I can write you some notes and then you spin that into a comprehensive piece of text. You have managed to make the content professional but still sound like me, which is exactly what I was after and I love how you have organised my services.”

– Alix Stoney

Alix plans to add a blog to her website. This will provide another way to add text that ticks the SEO box, whilst providing information of interest to site visitors.

Petina Julius Interiors

As part of a rebranding project, Petina Julius Interiors wanted to upgrade its website. Petina had a strong partnership with a professional photographer, had selected a web designer and asked me to prepare the website copy. I had collaborated with Petina in the past and understood her unique style and focus on biophilic interior design.

“‘It was important for me to get good content together as well as to fit in with the overall look and feel of my new website.  Content writing is not my strong point and enlisting Catherine’s services has certainly taken a load off my shoulders. She captured the essence and natural tone of my personality and interpreted that brilliantly into what I needed. I would highly recommend Catherine’s friendly, helpful service.”

– Petina Julius

Petina recognised the need for pages brimming with imagery and text, yet wanted to retain a sense of harmony and calm. Each page contains a lot of information, yet due to the way the web designer has divided up the page, it is beautiful rather than cluttered or wordy.

Getting the Balance Right

Even with impressive photography, video and graphics, a website still relies on a match between search criteria and page copy to be found and ranked by the search engines. By breaking up the text and getting the balance right, it is possible to include plenty of words without compromising visual impact.