Website Copywriter Case Study

This case study explains my “why” for entering the world of website copywriting… I realized when I took this project on that I know some things that I can share with others. The results for the changes to https://willielittle.com have been tremendous and Willie had his best year ever after revamping his site. It is with joy that I share this with you here.
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This website copywriter case study on the recently completed website makeover for willielittle.com shows you why you should hire a copywriter focused on SEO and engaging content that converts.

When Willie approached me he had a website but he wasn’t sure how it was working and he had me take a look at it.

Willie had done an admirable job for a non-computer savvy artist, and their was definitely room for improvement.

Right off the bat I identified:

1) Not in Google’s index

Search for the phrase “Willie Little” returned ‘0’ results for willielittle.com
Many other sites were indexing on Willie Little.
Analytics showed referral and direct as the only means that people were finding the site
In other words, organic search did not find Willie.
The ONLY way to find willielittle.com was to click a link from another site or directly enter the URL.

2) High bounce rate

Bounce rate is the indicator that visitors do not get past the first page. In other words, they find the site, look at the first page and leave. This usually indicates one or more of the following.

They came to the wrong site
The site loads too slow
They were confused by the content or navigation and gave up

3) Confusing layout/navigation

Redundant menus
Unclear navigation structure
Inconsistent font types, headers, etc.

4) No Call to Action

There was no indication of what Willie wanted the visitors to do.

5) Lacked visual appeal

Visually, I’ve seen worse. But, being a visual artist site, it was lacking the ‘Wow’ factor.
The first image below is the before view, the second image is the after view.

Website Copywriter to the Rescue!

Willie put my website copywriter experience to the test and I developed an action plan that he agreed to:

Modify Existing Site to:

Get site found on Google
Update navigation for coherence

Below is the first revamp of Willie’s old site. We improved navigation and coherence using Wix site builder. This created the template for the even better revamp below.

The first challenge was to fix the Google indexing problem. The 3 items below were found to be the cause and were remedied:

Home page: Duplicate content was ignored by Google.
Missing header tags, alt tags, etc
Site map incorrect or not updated

Create new site using WordPress

Once we had the changes to the site completed, I started on Willie’s new site using WordPress.

In a nutshell, my rant above included, we decided on WordPress over Wix because…

More options/plugins for enhancing the site
Ease of use – The interface is more intuitive than Wix’s site builder
Ease of switching hosting companies if needed
Ease of updating the site
The popularity of the platform means Willie can always find help with the site if he needs it

The image below is the home page of Willie’s new site. Willie and I reviewed several artists’ websites to come up with this visually appealing home page design.

With the home page above you can see we spent time determining what Willie’s top 3 goals were for visitors. With the menu at top you see:

Author, Artwork and Exhibitions.

When you click the Enter button you’ll get the page below with more information and images on what you’ll find inside.

By making it easy to find the information, your visitors are more likely to stay.

The site visitors get a map of the site with an explanation of what treasures they’ll find if they choose to venture further. How many times have you been to a site and got tired of drilling through the many different menus trying to find what you want? Hunting and pecking only to be frustrated to the point of searching elsewhere.

Don’t make your visitors work to find information, show them where and what it is. They’ll be more likely to stick around and… maybe they’ll even recommend your site to colleagues, one of the many goals you should have for your site.

Website Copywriter Success?

Organic search – Google

Checking just now, Google lists willielittle.com as the #1 entry on the first page of Google. So, for the keywords Willie Little, and considering the site never showed up at all before, I’d say we have success. But what about other keywords? What about people who’ve never heard of Willie Little and are just looking for Black artists, or Black Southern Artists? Patience my friend. Those keywords are very competitive and we’re working towards it. But, showing up on the first page of Google organically, (through a keyword search), is a journey that requires continued optimization and content creation. We’ll get there. But for now, we’re pleased we’ve fixed the first issue.

Engagement

For the last week, Google Analytics shows a 650% increase in the number of users. For the same period, the organic traffic, (entered through a keyword search), was 60% while direct was 37% and referral was 3%. Great numbers for organic, but we’d like to see the numbers for referrals higher. I’ll be recommending a link-building campaign.

There is also an uptick in the number of pages that visitors are viewing. I’m recommending we continue to watch this one and tweak if needed. I’d like to see an even better return here.

Contact/Newsletter signups

Finally the site is getting enough interest that visitors are signing up for the newsletter. A few Calls to Action placed around the site tell the visitors what we want them to do while visiting the site.

Looking for a Website Copywriter yourself?

How about you? Are you looking for a website copywriter to help you reach your goals? It costs you nothing to find out if I can help. Contact me now and we can review your site and see if my skills can help you reach your goals.

Note: The newsletter is an undertaking that is next on our list and yours truly will be creating and distributing. So if you’re interested in artwork, check out Willie’s site here and signup for his newsletter. He’s an amazing artist with a great story to tell. A poor gay black child growing up in the rural south who reminds us white folks that we have a much easier path to success than some.

And if you like what you see here, please subscribe for continuing information and tips on making your website all it can be. If you’d like help, contact me and we can discuss your current website challenges. I’d love to help if we see a fit and it doesn’t cost you anything to find out!