How to write website copy that sounds like you (and not a robot)

The easiest way to spot copy that came from a generic template is that it could belong to any business in your industry. Swap out the name and nothing else changes. Here's how to avoid that.

How to actually sound like yourself

Start with specificity rather than general claims. Instead of writing "we're passionate about helping clients succeed," describe what success actually looks like for the people you serve, using language they'd recognise from their own problem, since specific language signals that you understand your client while vague language signals the opposite, however sincerely it's meant. Write the way you'd actually speak in a consultation too. Most business owners default to a more formal, distant tone online than they'd ever use face to face with a client, and that gap between how you speak and how you write is exactly what makes copy feel generic. Read your draft aloud, and if it doesn't sound like you, it isn't finished yet.

Lead with the client's problem rather than your own credentials. Your qualifications, years in business and personal story matter, but they land better after you've named the visitor's actual problem clearly, and leading with your own story before addressing theirs is one of the most common reasons copy fails to hold attention. Be willing to leave things out too. Not every service, value or credential needs a mention on every page, and trying to cover everything usually produces copy that says very little clearly. The strongest version of your website copy is almost always shorter than the first draft.

Checking your work, and where structure helps

Use proof in your own words. Testimonials and results matter, but how you introduce them matters too, so rather than dropping a quote with no context, briefly frame why that result matters to someone reading it now, in language that matches the rest of your site. Once you've written a page, run the "could be anyone" test and ask whether a competitor could publish the exact same words. If the answer is yes, there's more specificity to add, whether that's about your process, your point of view or the particular type of client you serve best.

A strong template won't write the specificity for you, but it will stop you starting from a blank page and push you toward the right questions at the right moments, and that structure alone often makes the difference between copy that gets finished and copy that sits half written for months. A simple exercise worth trying is recording yourself describing your business to a friend informally, then playing it back and noting the phrases you naturally reach for. Those phrases are usually closer to your real voice than anything you'd write cold at a keyboard, and generic copy doesn't just fail to stand out, it actively undersells a business that might otherwise have a truly distinctive story, tone or point of view.