When you think about conversion copywriting, you’re likely thinking about the phrases and messaging that will compel your audience to take an action. But even if your copy is on-point you can undo your hard work by creating unnecessary barriers that turn away those perfect-fit leads who were loving every word you wrote.

It all comes down your website’s user experience—what you’re saying and NOT saying and the hoops you’re making your readers jump through in order to make the decision to reach out.

This isn’t a technical post about UX copywriting (that’s a whole other post, TBD), but for reference, UX Copywriting is the art of structuring the copy in such a way that it pulls readers down the page and provides easy support and guidance that lightens the “mental load” required to make a decision. (To buy, subscribe, click, or pass.)

UX copywriting is traditionally a specialty role used by product companies, but today’s websites are products and your readers are the users. Good UX is no longer reserved for apps and SaaS (software as a service) companies.

You can start creating a better website user experience by asking yourself:

When a reader lands on a page, is it obvious what their next click should be?

If you’re giving readers the option to “choose their own adventure” do each of those adventures end where you want them to?

Are you making them do any extra work? (You’ll see what I mean below.)

Are you setting pricing expectations?

Is it clear which offer they should choose?  

Attention spans are shorter than ever and your prospects are on a mission. They are looking for your offers to see if they match their problems. Give them the Three Doors trick. Lay out your top three offers with a 1-2 line description and a CTA button to “Learn More”. Make it easy for them to choose a door to enter.

From there you can take them to a Services Splash Page (all your offers on one page) or individual offer pages. (Read: Which Services Page Is Right For You?)

Also, this should go without saying but if your services aren’t listed anywhere on your site, you’re making it impossible for colleagues and happy clients, who did jump through the hoops, to refer you to a friend. I speak from experience as someone who has wanted to send a client a link to specific offer I know would be a perfect fit, but couldn’t find the page link and was too busy to take the extra time out of my day to go searching or emailing. People are BUSY, y’all!

Unless you have brand-name recognition or your average client investment is above $20K, don’t do this. I will die on this hill.

But, Courtney, someone who is serious about working with me will make the effort.

No, they won’t. People are busy and will take the path of least resistance, every time. (i.e. They will exit your site and click over to the next person on their list.) It doesn’t matter how many Gs they have in the bank, or their monetary expectations, you’re making them work to offer you money. (?!??!)

Pricing guides are a massive waste of time—prospects need to know if they can afford to hire you or not. And even if they can afford you, think about the user experience you’re creating:

Here’s a poor user experience scenario:

The prospective client likes what they see and are interested in learning more > They fill out a form > They wait for the guide to hit their inbox > they get distracted by their inbox/Slack/DMs/looking at your competitor’s site > pricing guide arrives but they are busy > three hours later they open your guide…

Path 1: They don’t have the budget to work with you and you wasted their time and took their email without earning their trust or providing some value in exchange.

Path 2:  They reached out to someone else (with transparent pricing) hours ago and already have a meeting on the books. Their motivation to reach out to you is low and they might wait until they chat with your competitor first.

Path 3: You’re within their budget range > they click the link to set up a meeting but their first interaction with your brand put the onus on them, when they are reaching out specifically to get rid of more responsibility. You’re digging yourself out of a 5/10 brand experience from the get-go.

There is one scenario where I’m okay with using pricing guides… ⤵️

The only time pricing guides are acceptable is if you’ve given some indication of the average client investment or price range for an offer. You also want to make it clear if several offers are often packaged together, signaling another level of investment.

Why is this important? Repeat after me: