How to tell if your website copy is too vague

Here is a quick test. Cover your logo, read your homepage, and ask whether it could belong to any other business in your industry. If a rival could paste your words onto their site and nothing would look wrong, your copy is too vague. This kind of writing is comfortable to produce and useless to read, because it never tells anyone what you actually do or why they should pick you.

The "so what" test

Read each sentence and ask "so what?" A line like "we pride ourselves on quality service" earns a shrug. Quality compared to what? Service how fast? Every business claims it, so it means nothing.

Now compare it to "we answer WhatsApp within the hour and quote before we leave your driveway." That says something a competitor might not. It is checkable, specific and it paints a picture. Good copy makes a claim someone could disagree with. If nobody could ever argue with your sentence, it is probably too soft to matter.

Look for the words that do no work

Certain phrases are a warning sign that a page is running on filler. "Solutions", "passionate about", "committed to excellence", "your trusted partner", "innovative", "bespoke". They feel professional but carry no information. A reader's eyes slide right past them.

The fix is almost always to swap the abstract word for a concrete fact. Instead of "affordable solutions", write the actual starting price or range. Instead of "fast turnaround", say "most jobs done same day". Instead of "we serve the greater area", name the towns. Specifics build trust because they show you have nothing to hide.

Name the five things every visitor wants

Sharp copy answers five questions quickly, ideally before the first scroll. What exactly do you sell? Who is it for? Where do you work? Why should I trust you over the next result? And what do I do next? Vague pages dance around all five and commit to none.

Read your own page against that list. If a stranger could not tell what you sell, or which town you cover, or how to take the next step, the words are failing. This is usually less about writing skill and more about nerve. Being specific means excluding some people, and that feels risky. But the customer who fits you needs to recognise themselves on the page, and they cannot do that if it is written to please everyone.

Watch out for talking about yourself

A lot of flat copy reads that way because it is inward-facing. "Founded in 2015, we have grown into a dynamic team driven by our values." The reader does not care yet. They arrived with a problem and they want to know if you solve it.

Turn the sentence around so it speaks to what they get. Not "we offer a wide range of services" but "whether your geyser is leaking or your drains are blocked, we handle it same day." The subject of most of your sentences should be the customer and their situation, not your company and its journey.

Read it out loud

This sounds daft but it works. Read a paragraph aloud as if you were telling a customer over the counter. The spots where you stumble, or where the words sound nothing like how you actually speak, are the corporate padding. Real speech is specific. We do not tell a friend we offer "comprehensive property solutions". We say we fix roofs.

Copy that matches your speaking voice reads as honest, and honesty converts. It also happens to be easier to write, because you already know how to explain your work to a person standing in front of you. The trick is just writing it down the same way.

Fixing it without a rebuild

The good news is that clearing up vague copy rarely needs new design. It usually needs someone to go line by line, delete the filler, and replace each empty claim with a real detail: a price, a place, a timeframe, a name, a photo of actual work. That alone can turn a flat page into one that pulls enquiries.

If the whole site reads like a template and the structure is otherwise sound, a Fix & Upgrade focused on the words is often all it takes. And if you genuinely cannot tell whether your copy is too vague, ask a customer who has never seen it to read it and tell you what you do. Their confusion will point straight at the problem. If you want a straight opinion on yours, send me the link and I will tell you where it goes fuzzy.