Using ChatGPT for Website Copy
Let me preface this by saying don’t copy and paste off ChatGPT. Even if it’s technically not bad for your website’s SEO when writing this, I suspect it won’t be great for it over the next couple of years. In saying that, I know how hard it is to write for your website; as someone who does it for clients and still hates doing it for their website, it can be daunting. That’s where ChatGPT comes in. Critiquing and correcting work is sometimes more manageable than coming up with it entirely alone.
This guide is to help you get started to get the best copy for your website. ChatGPT may take the same amount of time to produce the content for your site because, like most AI, the best results are iterative. Still, it is more accessible and helps you think about what you’re trying to achieve with your content. Follow these steps to get the best content.
- Start by telling ChatGPT who you are, what you do, and what you’re trying to achieve. Example: I am a web developer and run a web development firm. We also do design and branding. I need help writing content for my website.
- You can ask it what questions you need to answer to do that, OR you can use the information below (which I got Chat GPT to put together)
- What is the primary purpose of your website?
- Can you provide a brief overview of your business or organization?
- Who is your target audience or ideal customer?
- What are the key demographics and characteristics of your audience?
- Unique Selling Proposition (USP):
- What sets your product or service apart from competitors?
- What benefits do customers gain by choosing your business?
- What specific messages or information do you want to emphasize on your website?
- Are there any particular values or qualities you want to highlight?
- How would you describe the tone and voice you want for your brand? (e.g., formal, casual, friendly, professional)
- Do you want to avoid any aspects of their messaging or design?
- What actions do you want visitors to take on your website? (e.g., making a purchase, filling out a form, subscribing to a newsletter)
- How can we encourage users to take those actions?
- Are there specific keywords or phrases that are important for your business?
- Once you answer those questions, I would like to give it a piece of writing I’ve done for the business: “Here is a blog post I wrote about XYZ; please use this to ascertain the tone of voice for the content.”
- Now you’re ready to get started! Now, it’s getting close to producing content specifically for your business. It’s best not to get it to write all the copy for the website simultaneously. Go page by page and iterate to make it better. Start with something like “I need X number of words for my home page. Can you use the information above to write content for that page? I want the page to rank for these keywords: <Insert keywords>. Can you make it so that SEO is the highest priority on this page but make it so that it’s easy for users to read and encourages engagement.”
- When you get to specific pages like services, you may need to provide extra information about your industry, such as “I need content for the Services page. Our most important service is X; we do this differently because we do X; please write the content for this page with SEO considered and encouraging user engagement.” You might want to add things like “We need a good call to action on this page, please suggest one” or “What’s the best title for the banner on this page?”.
- Iterate, copy and paste into a Word document. Save the document and come back a few days later. Edit that document thoroughly, ensure its information is correct, it sounds like your company’s voice, and you’re ready to upload to your website. As a rule, you should change at least 25% of what ChatGPT has produced.
Now, get out there and start making your websites awesome!