A few weeks ago, I was auditing the website copy of a B2B service provider.
It had all the usual suspects:
- “Trusted Solutions for a Better Tomorrow.”
- “We Empower Businesses Through Innovation.”
- “Partnering for Performance.”
🤢
Apparently, they had paid good money for the copy alone.
And yet—it said nothing. It clarified nothing. It converted way below the market benchmark.
If your site visitors aren’t converting into conversations or contracts, then your copy isn’t doing its job.
It isn’t persuasive copywriting. It’s just… polished insecurity.
This article is not about what constitutes “good copy.”
It’s about what your copy says about your business psychology and why most B2B websites sound like insecure 14-year-olds trying to sound cool.
So, let’s strip the fluff.
Why Most Websites Sound Like An Insecure 14-Year-Old
Most SEO pages are written by
- Content writers who know SEO but don’t understand sales.
- Copywriters who understand sales but write like they’re still selling toothpaste to consumers.
The result? Pages optimized for clicks, not for conversion.
And when you add brand guidelines and a few other vague excuses for marketing, you reach what I call the hellhole of lost conversions.
Only reached after the successful accomplishment of the following deadly sins.
- Abstract vision-speak pretending to be strategy.
- Vague “brand speak” headlines (they got a place in hell specially for these)
- Clichés standing in for clarity
- Key differentiators buried in paragraph 8
- A tone that screams “we’re important” but whispers “please like us”
- Keyword-stuffed Frankenstein sentences stitched for Google, not humans.
- One-size-fits-all CTAs
At this point, users have stopped interacting with a website. They are assessing a performance review written by an overachiever with abandonment issues.
What Your Copy Actually Needs to Do
Your copy has one job. Actually, scratch that.
Your copy has to kill two birds with one stone. (Nobody said it was an easy task.)
- Every sentence should get people to read the next sentence until they reach the point of sale.
- Turn the right people on and the wrong people away at every sentence.
This is not about impressing Google or your investors. It’s about conversion.
And conversion copywriting is about removing friction, not adding more dopamine. Removing friction from confusion, hesitation, and irrelevant expectations.
Compare:
- “We offer innovative digital transformation consulting to help future-proof your enterprise.”
🧠 = “Okay! Moving on….”
- “We build dashboards that stop your COO from calling you every 10 minutes.”
🧠 = “Oh. Okay. Tell me more.”
So ask:
- Does your headline immediately tell me if this is for me?
- Does your page clarify what you solve and for whom?
- Does your site filter out the wrong clients before they fill out your form?
Because every unqualified lead costs the sales team hours. Every vague page costs strategic credibility. And every call with the wrong prospect kills morale.
Strategic Copywriting Isn’t Poetic—It’s Precise.
When I began copywriting a decade ago, like many copywriting virgins, I used to think, “Oh, great copy needs to be intelligent and pretty.”
But then you know how life works. After a brief stint of trying to reinvent the wheel powered by uninformed stubbornness, I learned…
Great copy isn’t pretty. It’s surgical. And it follows a path:
- Clarity of problem (what’s burning?)
- Authority of solution (why you?)
- Proof of results (back it up)
- Ease of decision (what now?)
This path isn’t just neat theory.
It’s the natural architecture of how high-intent buyers process trust:
- If the problem isn’t clear, they bounce.
- If your authority isn’t obvious, they doubt.
- If your proof isn’t front-loaded, they hesitate.
- If your next step isn’t frictionless, they ghost.
Most websites skip this and go straight to “About Us” and “Our Vision.” (As if your client’s pain will be solved by your 17-year timeline and headshots from 2009.)
And on the path to their problem resolution, the right customer has a certain intent that carries a different psychological temperature at each level:
- Informational: “I’m trying to understand the landscape.”
- Navigational: “I know what I want. Is this the right place?”
- Commercial: “I’m shortlisting. Prove you’re the ROI bet.”
- Transactional: “I’m ready. Just need a reason not to bounce.”
When you violate this sequence, it doesn’t matter how “pretty” or “on-brand” your site is.
You’re asking them to do cognitive work, and in a competitive market, they won’t.
Plus, if your website or landing page treats all four like they’re the same visitor, you’re burning great demand with lazy positioning.
UX Copywriting Alone Won’t Save Your Website
Most “UX writing” advice is about microcopy tweaks — emptying a signup button or trimming a headline.
That’s necessary but not sufficient.
UX copy without buyer-intent mapping is just putting lipstick on a broken funnel.
Your website isn’t a poetry slam.
It’s a decision flow.
The copy isn’t just there to “sound good” on a landing page.
It should:
- Answer objections before they’re asked
- Highlight pricing logic before the question arises
- Structure CTAs to reflect intent, not hope
This is where copy meets UX.
It’s not about the F-shaped pattern or the button color.
You’re not closing a deal.
You’re starting a conversation with a qualified buyer.
If your copy makes every lead feel “invited,” you’ve lost.
If your copy makes the right lead feel understood, you win.
Rewrite Your Site Like a Sales Page for High-Ticket Buyers
Rewriting web copy isn’t an aesthetic upgrade. It’s a profit unlock.
Ask these five questions to acid test your website copy:
- Would my dream client immediately know this is for them?
- Is there one clear action for each page?
- Could I read this to a human without cringing?
- Does this page make a lazy buyer smarter—or just confused?
- Would I forward this site to a peer I respect?
If the answer to any is no, rewrite it.
And if you’re already ranking, that unlock is sitting one layer away.
Want me to suggest 5 top copy changes to your website? Drop me a hi!
