Writing your website copy with ChatGPT: what works, what doesn't

ChatGPT, released by OpenAI on November 30, 2022, can draft any page in a few seconds. As a helper for structure and phrasing, it works well. Left to write your business pages on its own, it turns out generic copy, sometimes wrong, that says nothing about what actually sets you apart.

Where it actually helps

You get the best results when you supply the raw material and ask it for a shape:

• an outline for your "Services" or "About" page, which you then fill in with your own facts;
• ten headline options for the same page, of which you keep one and rework it;
• a list of questions a customer might ask, so you can spot what you've missed;
• trimming something you've already written that came out too long;
• a working translation, which someone fluent then reads through.

In every case above, the substance comes from you. ChatGPT just arranges it.

Where it goes wrong, according to OpenAI itself

The ChatGPT launch post includes a limitations section written by OpenAI. Several points bear directly on website copy:

• It makes things up with confidence. OpenAI writes that ChatGPT sometimes gives answers that sound plausible but are incorrect or nonsensical. On a website, that means a service you don't offer, a guarantee you never made, or a number you can't back up.
• It runs long and repeats itself. OpenAI also notes the model is often excessively verbose and overuses certain phrases. That's where lines like "comprehensive solutions for all your needs" come from.
• It answers the same question differently when rephrased. A small change in the prompt gives you different copy, sometimes contradicting the last version.
• It doesn't know recent events. In the ChatGPT FAQ, OpenAI says it has limited knowledge of the world and events after 2021.

Most important of all: it knows nothing about your business. It doesn't know what you actually do, where you work, your hours, or what you did well last year. If you don't tell it, it fills the gaps with whatever sounds good.

What Google looks for in a page

In Google's announcements over the past few months, the recurring test is how useful a page is to the person reading it. Two of them show the direction:

• In August 2022, Google announced the "helpful content" update. It explains that content created primarily for search engine traffic is strongly correlated with content searchers find unsatisfying. Among the warning signs, it lists using extensive automation to produce content on many topics.
• In December 2022, Google added an extra "E" to its quality rater criteria: E-E-A-T, where the first E stands for experience. It matters whether the content shows the author actually used the product, visited the place, or lived through what they describe.

For a small business, experience is easy to show and hard to fake: real photos of your work, concrete steps in how you do things, the questions customers really ask you. That's exactly the part ChatGPT doesn't have.

What you never put in the chat

In the ChatGPT FAQ, OpenAI says conversations may be reviewed by its AI trainers to improve the system. The same page asks you explicitly not to share sensitive information.

So don't paste in:

• customer data (names, phone numbers, addresses, orders);
• contracts, quotes you've sent, or internal documents;
• passwords, access codes, or banking details.

If you want help with text that starts from that kind of information, strip it out or swap in made-up examples first.

A workflow that holds up

1. Write down the facts yourself, in your own words: what you do, for whom, where, what makes you different, which questions come up a lot.
2. Ask for an outline or a few phrasing options based on those facts.
3. Rewrite it in your voice. Cut the inflated phrases ("a unique experience," "industry-leading") and any promise you can't keep.
4. Check every number, name and claim. If you can't prove it, take it out.
5. Read it out loud. Anything you wouldn't say to a customer on the phone doesn't stay on the site.

If you're starting your homepage from scratch, also read what goes on the homepage of a business website. And if you'd like to work with us on copy and search visibility, see our marketing services.