Diagnose before you rewrite

Is your copy the problem?

A page that is not converting has three possible causes, and only one of them is the writing. Rewriting the wrong one costs money and changes nothing. Here is how to tell which you have, before you pay anyone to fix it.

The three possible problems

When a page underperforms, the cause is almost always one of these. They look identical from the outside, which is why so much marketing money goes to the wrong fix.

Problem	What it looks like	What fixes it
A traffic problem	Hardly anyone reaches the page, or the people who do were never going to buy	Targeting, channels, keywords. Not writing
An offer problem	Plenty of the right people arrive, read properly, and still do not want it at that price	The offer, the price, the guarantee, the bundle. Not writing
A copy problem	The right people arrive, want the thing, and still do not act	The writing, the structure, the order of the argument

Only the third one is a copywriting job. Any copywriter who takes your money without checking which of the three you have is selling you a rewrite rather than a result.

The three-question triage

Answer these in order. The first “no” is your answer.

1. Are enough of the right people seeing the page? If the page gets a trickle of visitors, or they arrive from a source that was never qualified, you have a traffic problem. Fix that first. A rewrite tested on fifty of the wrong visitors tells you nothing.
2. Do the right people get all the way down the page? If they read to the end and leave, the writing is being read and rejected, which points at the offer or the price. If they leave in the first screen, the writing is failing before the offer is reached.
3. Would you buy it, at that price, from that page, if you did not already work there? Asked honestly, this question catches more offer problems than any analytics tool.

A page that converts well on warm traffic and badly on cold traffic does not have a copy problem. It has a targeting problem, and rewriting it will not help.

The checklist

If the triage points at the copy, work through these. They are grouped by the five sales obstacles, because a page usually fails on one of them rather than on all five.

Interest: do they stay?

• Does the headline say something specific, or does it say what the company does?
• Does the first paragraph talk about the reader’s situation, or about you?
• Could the opening appear on a competitor’s page unchanged? If yes, it is saying nothing.

Desire: do they want it?

• Is there proof, or only claims? Numbers, named results, testimonials that mention outcomes rather than pleasantness.
• Does the page describe the outcome the reader wants, or the features you are proud of?
• Is every significant claim followed by something that makes it believable?

Time and effort: does it feel easy?

• Is it clear what happens immediately after they click?
• How many fields does the form ask for, and is each one genuinely needed to respond?
• Does the page ask the reader to decide more than one thing? Two calls to action usually produce fewer of both.

Urgency: why today?

• Is there an honest reason to act now, or does nothing change if they come back in March?
• If there is a deadline, is it real? Invented scarcity is detected quickly and costs trust permanently.

Money: is the value obvious?

• Does the page make the value clear before it names the price?
• Is the risk addressed, through a guarantee, a trial, a smaller first step or simply knowing what happens if it goes wrong?
• Is the price compared to anything, or does it sit on the page alone?

Score it honestly and one section will stand out. That section is where the money is going. Fixing the obstacle the page actually fails on usually beats rewriting the whole thing, and it is considerably cheaper.

When copy is not the problem

Worth saying plainly, because it is the finding I deliver most often and nobody advertises it:

• The page gets almost no visitors. Better writing on a page nobody reaches changes nothing. This is an SEO or advertising problem. See SEO copywriting.
• The traffic is unqualified. If the ads promise something the page does not sell, the gap is in the ad, not the page.
• The offer is not wanted at that price. No amount of persuasion fixes an offer the market has already judged. This needs a pricing or product conversation, not a writer.
• Nothing is measured. If you cannot tell what the page currently does, you will not be able to tell whether a rewrite helped. Fix the measurement before buying the writing.

If you are not sure which of these applies, that is the normal starting position, and it is what a strategy conversation is for.

Get a second opinion on one page

Send me one page and I will tell you which of the three problems you have, in writing, within three working days. If it is not a copy problem I will say so, and say what I think it is instead.

Frequently asked questions

How do I know if my copy is the problem or my traffic is?

Check whether enough of the right people are reaching the page at all. If visitors are few, or they arrive from a source that was never qualified, it is a traffic problem and better writing will not fix it. If the right people arrive, want the thing and still do not act, that is a copy problem.

How much traffic do I need before a rewrite is worth testing?

Enough that the result means something rather than reflecting chance. If a page gets a handful of visitors a week, a rewrite cannot be judged either way, and the traffic problem is the one worth solving first. The exact number depends on your conversion rate, which is itself worth establishing before you change anything.

Can I just rewrite the headline?

Often, yes, and it is the highest-leverage single change on most pages. If the triage points at interest, meaning people leave in the first screen, the headline and opening are where to start. If they read to the end and leave, the headline is doing its job and the problem is further down.

What does a copy audit actually look at?

Which of the three problems you have, and if it is the copy, which of the five obstacles the page fails on and why. It comes back in writing with the reasoning, so you can act on it with or without me, and it says plainly if the issue is traffic or the offer instead.

Is the audit really free, and what is the catch?

It is free and there is no call required. The honest incentive is that a well-diagnosed problem makes a better project, and some audits conclude that you do not need a copywriter at all. I would rather tell you that than take on work that cannot succeed.