Copywriting Clarity and Your Website’s Conversion Rate

When you’re having a conversation with someone, if they don’t quite understand what you’re saying, they just ask you a question.  You answer the question and the conversation moves on.

On your website, if a visitor has a question about something you’ve written, what will they do?  How many of them will call you, or send you an e-mail, and ask: “Could you please explain what you meant by XYZ?”  Clarity in your website’s copywriting is critical to keeping the conversation with your visitors moving forward towards a conversion event. If they are confused then a call to action is less likely to happen.  Clear writing is authoritative and conveys credibility… a requirement if you expect visitors to contact you or follow through in any way.

An Example of Unclear Copywriting:

Here’s an example from a website we recently reviewed.   Let’s pretend you know nothing at all about the topic.  As you read about the Medical Power of Attorney, do you have any questions you’d like to ask the author?

A Medical Power of Attorney (also known as a Durable Power of Attorney for Health Care) is so critical, because it allows a trusted agent to make healthcare decisions on your behalf. Few hospitals wish to take on the responsibility of determining your healthcare decisions for you, especially in this litigious society.

The Medical Power of Attorney helps your doctors determine when life-supporting measures should be stopped. If your wish is to not use life-sustaining measures, you can convey this to the person you’ve named, and they will be able to fulfill your wishes on your behalf. A Medical Power of Attorney only has this responsibility to you for healthcare decisions, and cannot make financial or other decisions on your behalf (unless, of course, you’ve granted both Powers of Attorney to the same person)

What Questions Would You Have?

OK let’s take these two paragraphs apart and insert some questions or thoughts that might come into the minds of visitors as they are reading it:

• It’s critical  -  Does this mean that bad things will happen to me if I don’t have one?
• It allows a trusted agent to make healthcare decisions on my behalf  – Do you mean my insurance agent?….I’m not sure I want my insurance agent making healthcare decisions for me.
• Few hospitals wish to take on the responsibility of determining my healthcare decisions for me  – I didn’t know that hospitals could make healthcare decisions for me…does that mean that they can decide to pull the plug, so to speak?
• It helps my doctors determine when life-supporting measures should be stopped – Does this mean that there is a document that doctors use to decide when to stop life supporting measures on everyone?  That’s a scary thought.
• If my wish is not to use life-sustaining measures, I can convey this to the person I’ve named and they will be able to fulfill my wishes on my behalf.   – that’s a confusing sentence…sounds like all I have to do is just tell someone that I don’t want life-sustaining measures and that’s it – they can handle it for me.
• It is only responsible for healthcare decisions and it cannot make financial or other decisions on my behalf (unless I grant both powers of attorney to the same person) – OK confused again -  sounds like the Medical Power of Attorney can make healthcare decisions for me but that it can’t make financial decisions – and meanwhile I’m still not sure what a power of attorney actually is.

OK, maybe the questions were a bit over the top…but you get the idea.

Improved version of Clear Copywriting:

Same topic but much clearer and easier to understand, taken from the Mayo Clinic Website:

The medical POA is a legal document that designates an individual — referred to as your health care agent or proxy — to make medical decisions for you in the event that you’re unable to do so. A medical POA is sometimes called a durable power of attorney for health care. However, it is different from a power of attorney authorizing someone to make financial transactions for you.

Best version of clear copywriting:

The Mayo Clinic version is clear, but even it could be improved for reading on the web.  Most people on the web don’t read what is written, they scan it.  So, we could make the paragraph more scanable by breaking it up into bullet points as follows:

Medical Power of Attorney (POA)

• It is a legal document
• In it you designate an individual as your health care agent or proxy
• If you are unable to make medical decisions for yourself, The Medical Power of Attorney permits your health care agent to make medical decisions for you
• It is sometimes called a durable power of attorney for healthcare.
• It is only used for healthcare decisions and not for any other type of transaction for you (financial, or legal for example)

Conclusion:  Check Your Website

Read the copy on your website out loud and see what you think.

Take those long paragraphs and try to cut them in half and then see if you can make it even easier to scan by breaking them down into short sentences, bullets or lists.

Improving the clarity of your copywriting will have a positive impact on your website conversion rate.  Visitors will have more confidence in your products or services if your website’s copywriting answers their questions, instead of raising questions in their minds.