We Rewrote a Client's Website and Realized We'd Been Writing the Same Way

The Problem We Couldn't See on Our Own

Then we looked at our own website. We had 3 pages doing the exact same thing we'd just fixed for the client.

One of our service pages read: "We help businesses grow their online presence through strategic marketing solutions." We'd written it ourselves. We'd approved it. We'd never questioned it because when you write about yourself, you assume readers already know what you mean.

They don't. "Online presence" means nothing specific. "Strategic marketing solutions" could describe 10,000 companies. A stranger landing on that page would learn nothing about what we actually do or why it matters to them specifically.

The irony wasn't lost on us. We fix this exact problem for clients daily. We just couldn't see it on our own pages because we were too close to the words.

What Generic Copy Actually Costs

Every sentence that could belong to any competitor is a wasted sentence. A visitor scanning your website makes a judgment in 8 to 10 seconds. If those seconds are filled with "we provide solutions" and "our experienced team," the visitor learns nothing that differentiates you. They leave.

A Dubai IT company's homepage had: "We offer end to end technology solutions for businesses across the region." Their competitor's homepage had: "Your employees waste 11 hours per week on tasks our automation eliminates. Average client saves 340K per year."

Same industry. Same capability. One describes itself. The other describes the reader's problem. The second company's homepage conversion rate was 3.2%. The first: 0.9%.

The Rewrite Framework We Now Use

Every sentence on your website should pass one test: does this describe us, or does this describe the reader's problem and how we solve it? Sentences about you get rewritten. Sentences about the reader stay.

"We have 10 years of experience in digital marketing." This describes us. Rewrite: "We've documented client case studies, from premier brands like LG and JW Marriott to Mastermind going from zero to 35,000 organic followers with no ad spend."

"Our team uses the latest tools and techniques." This describes us. Rewrite: "You'll see exactly which keywords are climbing, which pages are converting, and which competitors are losing ground. Updated weekly in your dashboard."

"We are passionate about helping businesses succeed." This describes us and says nothing verifiable. Delete entirely. Replace with a client quote that says the same thing with proof.

The pattern: replace what you are with what the reader gets. Replace adjectives with numbers. Replace claims with evidence.

Why You Can't Audit Your Own Copy

We learned this the hard way. You can't objectively read words you wrote about yourself. You fill in context that the reader doesn't have. When you read "strategic marketing," you know what you mean. The reader doesn't. They see two buzzwords.

This is why every business needs someone outside the company to read their website and answer: "What specifically does this company do, for whom, and why should I choose them over the 5 other tabs I have open?"

If the outsider can't answer clearly, the copy is failing. Not because it's badly written, but because it's written from the inside out instead of the outside in.

A Dubai architecture firm asked 5 strangers to read their homepage and describe what the firm does. Three said "architecture." None could explain what made this firm different from other architecture firms. The copy was professional, grammatically perfect, and completely generic.

After rewriting with specific project types, client outcomes, and their unique approach to sustainable design, the same test produced: "They do sustainable commercial buildings in the Gulf and they've won awards for energy efficiency." Clear. Specific. Differentiating.

At NERDSEY, website copy goes through an outsider test before we consider it complete because our own experience taught us that proximity blinds you to your own vagueness.

Read your homepage out loud to someone who doesn't know your business. Ask them to tell you what you do and why they'd choose you. Their confusion is your copy's failure. Their clarity is your copy's success.