The golden age of copywriting may very well have occurred in the 1960’s when scotch-fueled, skinny-tied mad men labored for hours over a typewriter in order to craft the perfect five-word slogan. At the dawn of the online era, copywriting’s persuasive and artful virtues were cast aside in favor of keyword stuffing and web scraping, which did more to win over the mechanical hearts of search engines rather than the true hearts of consumers.
“Just Put More Content On Your Website, You’ll Be Fine”
While there’s little doubt today that black-hat techniques do more harm than good, true copywriting has yet to make a full-fledged comeback. In fact, website content is still viewed as a commodity – something that can simply be outsourced at a large quantity and slapped onto a website, netting vast and positive search results. Why else are content marketplaces and article spinning software still so pervasive?
It is obvious to anyone with some knowledge about digital marketing that content and copy are not the same things. The web content Vs. The web copy debate has been going on for years now. If you ask marketing experts if it really matters, the answer will mostly be yes. While content marketing is a powerful way of pushing your business to growth and success, copywriting is a form of fine art that can be effectively used to engage people and encourage them into performing a specific action.
Understanding the difference between the two is important as it can help in defining your market in vivid detail. It can also help marketers in other areas such as identifying growth priorities and hiring people with the right talents to achieve their goals.
An old-school definition:
Web copy is created by using creative words and sentences aimed at engaging people and encouraging them to take some predetermined action. Web copy content has a single aim – of driving people to click through, sign up, fill out an online form, register or make a purchase. It acts as a guiding light, helping people find their way through your website, and providing them with the information they have come in search of.
The web copy must be enticing enough to grab the attention of visitors to your website quickly and make sure that they stick around. The content must sell your brand to them. It obviously means that the core function of a web copy is to sell.
On the other hand, web content is the content found on your website in any form. Web content constitutes all the writing on your website and web pages. The core purpose is to provide information and enlighten people about your website and business.
The key difference between web copy and web content is that the latter is not used for any promotional or selling purpose. Web pages simply provide insights and create value for your business. High-quality and informative web pages can help you gain the respect and loyalty of your customers and achieve your goal of building long-term relationships with your targeted audience.
Web content also includes content in other forms apart from the written word. Well-crafted web content will also have images, videos, and podcasts to support the text form and make the whole page more attractive, impactful, and valuable. If it is information posted to provide your audience with the data they are looking for, then such information can be categorized as web content. It follows that information-sharing is a prelude to educating your audience and gaining their trust.
At the same time, it also helps you create a bond with your targeted audience that can help you sell your products and/or services. Web content can help your organization earn profit in the long term although it must be borne in mind that selling, promoting, and creating sales opportunities are not the intended end goals of web content.
Web content can help businesses attract new customers from diverse markets to their business through a process of creating posts that are informative, interesting, and valuable. Content that provides answers to the most pressing queries that some potential buyers and customers might have can do wonders to your traffic. At the same time, consistency is the key factor. Be consistent in delivering valuable and highly informative content to your readers and visitors and you can be sure that your business will take huge positive strides in the right direction.
Truth Bomb: True Marketers Don’t Produce Content
While it may seem like mere semantics, there is a stark difference between website content and website copy. Let’s take a closer look at what is web content.
The statement ‘Content is King’ may appear clichéd but the simple truth is that content is at the core of any marketing strategy. Web content is the key reason why your visitors view the pages you have developed and share them with others using social media, website links, and other modes. Web content can be in the form of website text, images, audio files, videos, and more.
Website Content:
- News
- Press Releases
- Video Transcripts
- Product Descriptions (manufacturer)
- Executive Summary
Contrast that with website copy, which should tell a story, explain a concept, and persuade readers to action. Whereas content (while necessary) is boilerplate and mechanical, a copy is built for conversion.
A closer view of web copy is needed to fully understand the differentiating factors.
The web copy must be conceived and designed to reassure the visitor about your product or service and convince them to take a specific action such as subscribing to your newsletter or buying one of your products/services. It is crucial to develop a copy that provides vital information that your potential buyers are looking for. The web copy creates exposure for your brand by using the right text.
Website Copy:
- On-Page Text
- Blog Posts
- Social Media Updates
- Product Descriptions (original)
- Advanced Content (white papers, eBooks, guides)
As such, marketers should espouse copy over the content. Effective copywriting requires thorough research and thoughtful editing, conducted by a subject-matter expert and a professional writer. It won’t be fast or cheap but will pay dividends.
It’s The Sales Funnel, Sillyhead
When you draw a distinction between copy and content in this manner, you can see that they correlate directly to the structure of the inbound marketing funnel. Web copy is inherently top-of-the-funnel; built to generate leads, while web content builds trust after a prospect familiarizes themselves with your brand, and should be employed near the end of the sales cycle (bottom-of-the-funnel).
Don’t flip your funnel! Boilerplate web content is ineffective at converting website visitors, period. They should instead be greeted with thoughtful, original, and creative copy that speaks to them at a personal level.
Copywriting should be laborious and painstaking (typewriter and scotch optional) but when your finished product comes to life and wows your reader, you’ll be thankful for the effort. Long live copy!
To have amazing copy on your site and speak to a Relevance Content Strategist book a call here!
Frequently Asked Questions
Once you separate copy (conversion-focused persuasion) from content (information-focused value), it gets easier to plan what each page needs to do.
What is the difference between copy and content?
Web copy is written to engage people and push them toward a specific action—click through, sign up, fill out a form, register, or buy. Web content is the broader set of information on a site, created to inform and educate visitors about the business. Copy’s core function is to sell (or drive a next step); content’s core function is to share information that builds respect, loyalty, and long-term relationships.
What is considered web content?
Web content includes the information found on your website in any form. That can be written text on pages as well as images, videos, audio, podcasts, and other supporting media. If it exists to provide visitors with the data they’re looking for—so they can learn, understand, and trust—it fits the definition of web content.
What does web copy mean?
Web copy is creative, deliberately chosen language that reassures visitors about a product or service and nudges them to take a predetermined action. It has a single aim: to drive behavior, such as subscribing, clicking, registering, or purchasing. It also acts like a guide through a website by presenting key information in a way that grabs attention quickly and keeps people moving.
What actions is web copy designed to drive?
Web copy is built to get visitors to do something specific: click through, sign up, fill out an online form, register, or make a purchase. Because it’s conversion-focused, it needs to be enticing enough to capture attention fast, keep visitors engaged, and clearly point them to the next step.
What are common examples of website content?
Common examples of website content include news items, press releases, video transcripts, manufacturer-provided product descriptions, and executive summaries. This type of content is often informational and “boilerplate” in nature—useful for clarity and credibility—without being primarily written as a persuasive sales message.
What are common examples of website copy?
Examples of website copy include on-page text, blog posts, social media updates, original product descriptions, and advanced assets like white papers, eBooks, and guides. In this framing, copy tells a story, explains a concept, and persuades readers toward action—aiming for conversion rather than simply filling a page with information.
How does tone differ between web copy and web content?
Web copy tends to be more creative, engaging, and persuasive because it’s trying to move a reader to act. Web content is typically more straightforward and informational—built to enlighten, answer questions, and build trust over time. In other words, copy leans into emotional and motivational language, while content leans into clarity, helpfulness, and value.
Give some examples of how to integrate web copy into web content.
Pair informational pages with conversion-focused guidance. For example: place clear, enticing on-page text that directs visitors to sign up or inquire alongside educational resources like transcripts, summaries, or explanations; rewrite a manufacturer product description into an original product story that reassures and persuades; support a guide or eBook with strong calls-to-action that tell readers exactly what to do next; use engaging “guiding light” navigation copy that helps visitors find what they came for while nudging them toward a form or purchase.
Give examples of successful web content strategies.
A strong web content strategy focuses on consistency and usefulness: publish informative, interesting material that answers pressing questions potential customers have; use multiple formats—text supported by images, videos, and podcasts—to make pages more valuable and engaging; treat information-sharing as a way to educate and earn trust, building respect and loyalty over time. When that trust is in place, it becomes easier for well-crafted copy to convert visitors into leads and customers.
