How to write website copy that sounds like you and sells

Most website copy is written in a costume. The owner sits down to "write for the website," and out comes a stiff, corporate voice that sounds nothing like the person who runs the business. Grammatically fine. Totally forgettable. Here's how to write the other kind. Copy that sounds like you and makes a stranger choose you. No costume required.

Start with the "could be anyone" test. Take any line on your site and ask: could a competitor use it unchanged? "We're committed to quality service." Yes, anyone could say that. Cut it. "We're a family electrician, and we'll show you the panel and explain what we're doing before we touch it." No, that's a specific promise from a specific business. Keep it. Run every line through it. The survivors are the start of real copy. The rest were doing no work.

Find your one true thing. Before you write a word, answer the question customers actually ask: why you? Not the polished answer. The real one, the one you'd give on the phone. Usually specific and a little plain: "I've done this in this town for twenty-plus years and I'm licensed, so you're not gambling." That sentence is your spine. Everything else sets it up or backs it up. Don't know your one true thing? Then you can't write good copy. You can only decorate.

Write the way you talk, then tighten. The fastest route to copy that sounds like you is to say it out loud, like a customer just asked, and write that down. It'll be too long and a little messy. Good. Now cut it in half without losing the truth. What's left is warm, specific, and unmistakably yours. The costume gets added in editing. The real voice gets revealed in it.

Use specifics, not adjectives. Adjectives claim. Specifics prove. Watch:

Generic: "Experienced, professional, trusted electrical services you can count on." Specific: "Licensed, twenty-plus years in Nevada County, and a real person answers the phone."

Generic: "A welcoming environment for all skill levels." Specific: "Never done yoga? Our first class is built for exactly that. Come early and we'll walk you through it."

Generic: "A family-owned bakery committed to quality." Specific: "Same sourdough starter since 1998, fed every morning by hand."

Notice the specific versions aren't fancier. They're plainer. They just refuse to hide behind adjectives, and they let the reader conclude "these people are good" instead of being told.

Steal this template. For any section, write three lines. The claim: a real, checkable fact about you. The proof: the credential, the years, the story behind it. The step: what you want the reader to do, said like a human. Claim, proof, step. Do that for your top three sections and you've got a homepage that says something.

This is step six of the eight-step method, but it's the step that makes or breaks the site, because it's where "could be anyone" either dies or survives. If you've read the thesis post on specificity and the methodology post, this is those ideas turned into sentences.

And yes, it's exactly what Pages does for you. The engine runs the "could be anyone" test across your whole site, surfaces your one true thing, and rewrites the generic into the specific, in your voice, for you to approve. Do it by hand with the steps above and it'll work. Or paste your URL and watch the costume come off in minutes. Same goal either way. A website that finally sounds like the person who answers the phone.