Microcopy

Why the smallest words matter most

Everybody who acts on your site reads the button. Far fewer read the paragraph above it. So the words on the button are read more than anything you spent an afternoon writing.

The same is true of the hint beside an awkward field and the message after a form is submitted. These sit at the exact moments where somebody is deciding whether to continue.

Almost all of it arrives as a default, unread by the business and read by everybody else, including an answer engine describing what your site asks for. Submit, an error in red, a generic thank you page: three inherited strings at three decisive moments, none of them chosen.

It is also the cheapest writing to fix. Rewriting a button takes a minute and is read by everybody who acts, while rewriting a paragraph takes an afternoon and is read by a fraction of them.

Say what happens next

The reader's real question at any action is what this will do to them. A label naming the outcome answers it; a label naming the mechanism leaves them guessing and guessing stops people.

Get a price beats submit. See available times beats continue. Each one describes the result rather than the mechanism, and each costs nothing extra to write.

Our page on calls to action covers the button itself in full, including why one action repeated beats several competing.

Remove the doubt beside the field

An unexplained field is an objection. A phone number with no reason beside it looks like the start of unwanted calls, and the form loses people who would happily have supplied it.

A short note turns suspicion into a reason. We ask for the postcode so we can tell you whether we cover your area is enough to make the field acceptable to almost everybody.

Our page on forms that get filled covers the rest. The reason beside an unusual field is consistently the cheapest improvement available.

Where microcopy earns its keep

The list below is every place a handful of words changes whether somebody continues. Most sites have never written any of them deliberately.

• The button, naming the outcome
• The hint beside any unusual field
• What happens after the form is sent
• The error, saying what to fix
• The empty state, when there is nothing to show
• The confirmation, repeating what was promised
• The line above a price or a commitment

Errors are the sharpest case

An error message is read by somebody already frustrated. Something went wrong tells them nothing and blames nobody; it is the worst string in common use.

Name the field, say what is wrong with it, and say how to fix it. That is three facts and it converts an abandonment into a correction.

Our page on error messages covers doing it properly, including why colour alone cannot carry the meaning.

Confirmations that reassure

After an action, repeat what was promised. Thanks, we will reply by tomorrow morning does more than a thank you page, because it restates the commitment at the moment of doubt.

Say what to do if nothing arrives. That single line prevents most of the follow-up messages that begin with I filled in your form last week.

The page somebody lands on afterward is a larger opportunity than its name suggests, and it is almost always left as a template default.

Writing it

Write microcopy in the reader's voice rather than the system's. The reader is thinking I want a price, not the system is thinking submit form, and the label should match the first.

Keep it short enough to be read at a glance and specific enough to mean something. Two or three words is usually the right size for a button and a line for a hint.

Then read the whole flow aloud as a conversation. Awkward microcopy is obvious when spoken and nearly invisible on screen, which is why so much of it survives.

Keep the same words across the whole journey. A button saying get a price followed by a confirmation saying your enquiry has been logged reads as two different systems, and the small mismatch registers as sloppiness.