Web Copy

EW Skill — Web Copy

Dependency: Read core/anti-ai-rules.md (all 8 sections including Section 0) before writing anything.

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WHAT THIS SKILL IS FOR

Website copy, landing pages, and homepage writing. Copy that converts visitors into readers, signups, or buyers — without lying, manipulating, or sounding like a SaaS onboarding wizard wrote it.

Web copy has one job: get the right person to take the right action. Everything else is decoration.

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THE HIERARCHY OF A PAGE

Web readers do not read — they scan. They enter a page with a question: "Is this for me, and is it worth my time?" Your copy has roughly 5 seconds to answer yes before they leave.

The hierarchy:

1. Headline: The single most important sentence on the page. It must state the specific benefit or outcome in plain language. Not a clever tagline — a direct claim.

❌ "Redefining the future of content creation." ✅ "Newsletter templates that don't sound like every other newsletter."

2. Subheadline: Supports the headline by adding one layer of specificity. What exactly does the product/service do, for whom?

3. Above-the-fold body: 2–3 sentences maximum. Confirms the reader is in the right place. Addresses their most immediate concern or question.

4. Social proof: Specific, named, and placed near the claim it supports — not dumped at the bottom of the page.

5. CTA: One action per section. Clear, specific, low-friction language.

Below the fold: Everything that earns the skeptic. Features, how it works, more proof, objection handling, FAQ.

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HEADLINE RULES

The headline must contain a specific benefit or outcome. Test every headline with this question: could this headline appear on a competitor's site without being wrong? If yes, it's too generic.

Specificity ladder:

• Generic: "Better writing tools"
• Better: "Writing tools for independent creators"
• Good: "Ship your newsletter in half the time without sounding like AI wrote it"

The more specific the claim, the more it will resonate with the right reader — and the more it will filter out the wrong ones. Filtering is not a failure; it's precision.

The benefit, not the feature: Features are what it does. Benefits are what changes for the reader. Feature: "AI-powered grammar check" Benefit: "Write without stopping to fix every sentence"

Lead with the benefit. Explain the feature as the mechanism.

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TONE: DIRECT, NOT CASUAL

Web copy fails in two directions: corporate stiffness and faux-casual overreach. Both are forms of not trusting the product to speak for itself.

Corporate stiffness: "Our comprehensive suite of integrated solutions empowers teams to achieve synergistic outcomes at scale." Nobody speaks this way. Nobody trusts it when they read it.

Faux-casual overreach: "Hey there! We know how much it sucks when your content just... doesn't land. We've been there too. That's why we built this for you, friend." Forced intimacy is worse than formality.

Direct: "This does X. It works because Y. Here's what happens when you use it." The reader is an adult. Write to them as one.

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SPECIFICITY AND PROOF

Every claim on a website is a bet. You're betting the reader will believe it. Vague claims pay out nothing. Specific claims build trust.

The proof test: After every benefit claim, ask: where's the proof? If you can't point to a number, a named example, a specific mechanism, or a testimonial from a real person — the claim is a gesture, not an argument.

❌ "Thousands of writers use this every day." ✅ "Used by 4,200 independent newsletter writers, including [Name] ([Newsletter])."

Named testimonials only. "John D., Entrepreneur" is not a testimonial. "Maya Rodriguez, who writes [Newsletter Name] for 12,000 subscribers" is a testimonial. Unnamed quotes read as invented. Named quotes read as real.

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CTA ARCHITECTURE

One CTA per section. The action must be specific and the friction must be named honestly.

Bad CTAs:

• "Learn more" (learn more about what? How much more?)
• "Get started" (started with what? What does that involve?)
• "Join the community" (what community? What does joining require?)

Good CTAs:

• "Start your free 14-day trial — no credit card required"
• "Download the template (PDF, 2 pages)"
• "Subscribe — one email per week, unsubscribe anytime"

The CTA must answer: what am I doing, what do I get, and what does it cost me? If any of those are unclear, the CTA is doing less than it could.

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OBJECTION HANDLING

Every visitor who doesn't convert has an objection. Your copy's job is to anticipate and address the most common three before the reader has to ask.

Common objections:

• "Is this for someone like me?" — Address with specific audience language early
• "Is this worth the cost?" — Address with specific ROI or comparison
• "Can I trust this?" — Address with named proof, specifics, and honest limitation statements

Honest limitation statements build trust: "This works best for solo writers and small teams. If you're managing a content operation with 50+ people, you'll want something more enterprise-scale."

Acknowledging what you're not for makes the reader trust what you claim you are for.

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MICROCOPY

The small copy — button labels, form field hints, error messages, confirmation text — is where brand voice either shows up or disappears.

Button labels: Describe the action from the user's perspective. ❌ "Submit" → ✅ "Send my application" ❌ "Click here" → ✅ "See the full breakdown"

Form field hints: Tell the reader exactly what format you want and why. "Email address — we'll only use this for your account and weekly digest."

Error messages: State what went wrong and what to do, without blaming the user. ❌ "Invalid input" → ✅ "That email format doesn't look right — check for spaces or typos."

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POST-GENERATION REVIEW

After producing any draft, stop. Re-read core/anti-ai-rules.md Sections 1–7 with the draft in front of you. Go line by line through the pre-publish checklist in Section 7. Fix every failure before presenting the output.

Web copy lives on a page permanently. A banned word or AI-patterned sentence in a headline is read by every visitor. Fix it before it ships.

PRE-LAUNCH CHECKLIST

• [ ] Does the headline state a specific benefit, not a clever tagline?
• [ ] Is the subheadline more specific than the headline?
• [ ] Is the reader's primary question answered above the fold?
• [ ] Does every benefit claim have specific proof?
• [ ] Are all testimonials named and specific?
• [ ] Is each CTA clear about what action, what outcome, and what cost?
• [ ] Are the top 3 objections addressed before the reader has to ask?
• [ ] Have you run Sections 1–7 of core/anti-ai-rules.md?
• [ ] Is the tone direct — neither corporate nor fake-casual?
• [ ] Does the microcopy reflect the same voice as the rest of the page?

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: Deupaxx
• Source: Deupaxx/EveryDay-Writer
• License: MIT

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.