write-website-copy

Imported from onehorizonai/directory (skills/write-website-copy/SKILL.md). Install upstream with npx skills add onehorizonai/directory --skill write-website-copy. Copyright stays with the author.

Overview

This skill writes or rewrites product website copy — a homepage, landing page, pricing page, feature page, about page, or similar — for one already- defined reader, page purpose, offer, and next action. It produces copy grounded in approved facts and real material conditions, not invented proof, urgency, or outcomes: a benefit only appears if a supported capability backs it, and the call to action only promises what the offer actually delivers.

When to use

• Writing new copy for a website page once the audience, purpose, offer, and approved facts are known.
• Rewriting or tightening existing page copy — a headline, subheadline, body section, or CTA — against the same defined reader and offer.
• Producing headline or CTA options for a page where the underlying strategy (what the page is for, what it offers) is already decided.

Do not use when

• The copy is interface copy for a specific product state, action, error, confirmation, or recovery path (a loading message, error string, empty state, destructive-action confirmation) rather than page copy.
• The page's strategy isn't decided yet: no defined audience, purpose, offer, or approved facts to write from. Resolve that first (a positioning or brief step), then come back with the decisions in hand.
• The request is to translate existing page copy into another language rather than write or rewrite it.

Prerequisites

• The approved facts, proof points, and material offer conditions this copy must draw from — not facts recalled from memory or inferred from the product's general reputation.
• Access to the page's real surrounding layout (existing page, mockup, or component structure) so copy can be checked in context, not in isolation.

Inputs

Gather all of the following before drafting; treat any that are missing as a blocker (see Failure behavior), not something to assume:

• Reader and awareness — who the reader is and what they already know or believe walking in (problem-aware, solution-aware, comparing options, ready to buy).
• Page purpose — the one job this page does (e.g. convert a cold visitor, qualify a lead, close a comparison, support a pricing decision).
• Offer and next action — the exact action the page asks for, and its real material conditions: price, trial length, account requirement, availability, eligibility, commitment, and cancellation terms.
• Approved facts and proof — the capabilities, evidence, testimonials, logos, numbers, and claims that are actually cleared to use. Anything not on this list does not go in the copy.
• Objections — the doubts or hesitations the reader is likely to have that this page needs to address.
• Approved voice — the tone and terminology this page should match.
• Surrounding layout — the page/section structure the copy will sit in, so length and hierarchy fit the real surface.

Procedure

1. Confirm all required inputs are in hand. If any are missing, stop and report the gap (see Failure behavior) rather than assuming a reader, offer, or fact.
2. State the proposition in one line before drafting anything: what the product/offer does, who it's for, and the useful change it enables. Use this as the throughline the rest of the copy has to support.
3. Connect every benefit claim to a specific approved capability or piece of evidence. If a benefit sounds good but isn't backed by an approved fact, cut it or flag it as needing approval — do not infer time savings, outcomes, or results that aren't in the approved facts.
4. Write in the reader's own language: concrete nouns and verbs, consistent product terminology, no unexplained jargon and no oversimplifying of terms the audience actually uses.
5. Build the page as an information hierarchy, not a list of slogans: give each section one job, make headings carry real meaning (state what the section proves or does, not just an attention-grabbing phrase), and order sections so the argument builds toward the next action.
6. Keep the CTA and any surrounding copy honest to the real offer: preserve price, trial, account, availability, eligibility, commitment, and cancellation conditions exactly as given. Do not add urgency, scarcity, guarantees, testimonials, logos, awards, or adoption claims that weren't in the approved facts.
7. Preserve qualifications and evidence strength from the source material — a "some customers report" or "up to" is not rounded up to an unconditional claim.
8. When asked for alternatives (headline options, CTA options), produce genuinely different message angles — different benefits or framings — not synonyms of the same sentence.
9. Set length to the real surface (hero, card, tooltip, full section), not an arbitrary universal word count, and place the draft into the actual surrounding layout before finalizing.
10. Edit once for meaning and hierarchy, once for clarity, voice, and repetition, then do the layout and factual verification pass below.

Output

The copy itself, placed in context: the actual page/component file if editing in place, or a clearly labeled section-by-section draft (heading → body → CTA) mapped to the page structure if no file exists yet. Include a short note on which approved facts each benefit claim maps to, and flag any claim that had to be cut or softened for lack of approved evidence.

Verification

• Read the copy in its real layout at realistic lengths and widths, not as isolated text — headlines that work in a doc can break in a hero at actual width.
• Re-check every benefit and claim against the approved facts list; nothing in the final copy should trace back to memory, assumption, or the product's general reputation instead of an approved fact.
• Confirm the CTA and its surrounding copy preserve the exact material conditions given (price, trial, account, availability, eligibility, commitment, cancellation) — check literally, don't paraphrase from memory.
• Confirm no invented urgency, scarcity, guarantees, testimonials, logos, awards, or adoption numbers were introduced.
• Confirm any conversion or performance claim ("increases signups", "reduces churn") is backed by actual behavioral or experiment evidence — if none exists, the claim doesn't go in, however plausible it sounds.
• Confirm links and named actions in the copy match what the page actually does.
• Report what was checked directly, what was inferred, and what couldn't be verified — separately, not folded into one "done" claim.

Boundaries

This skill writes copy only. It does not decide page strategy, structure, or positioning, does not change the offer or its material conditions, and does not fabricate proof, urgency, testimonials, outcomes, or conversion claims that aren't backed by approved facts or evidence. It does not translate copy into other languages. No commits, PRs, publishing, or other external writes are implied by this skill.

Failure behavior

If the reader, page purpose, offer/next action, approved facts, objections, voice, or surrounding layout aren't available, stop and report exactly which inputs are missing rather than drafting from assumption. If a requested benefit or claim has no approved fact or evidence behind it, say so and either omit the claim or name the approval needed before it can be used. If the surrounding layout can't be inspected, say the copy is unverified in context rather than reporting it as finished. If a requested claim depends on conversion or performance evidence that doesn't exist, refuse to state it as fact and offer the honest, unmeasured alternative instead.

Examples

Rewrite the hero section of our pricing page. Reader: a solution-aware
evaluator comparing us to two competitors. Offer: 14-day free trial, no
card required, cancel anytime. Approved facts: SOC 2 Type II, 99.9% uptime
SLA, works with our three listed integrations. Voice: direct, no hype.

Expected approach: state the proposition (what the product does, for whom, what changes) in the headline; use only SOC 2, uptime, and the named integrations as proof; keep "14-day free trial, no card required, cancel anytime" exact in the CTA area; no invented urgency or comparison claims against the named competitors beyond what's approved; check the draft in the actual pricing page layout before calling it done.

Give me three headline options for the feature page for our new export
tool. Approved fact: exports to CSV and Sheets today; PDF is not supported
yet.

Expected approach: produce three genuinely different angles (e.g. framed around the workflow it removes, the formats it supports, the audience it serves) rather than three reorderings of one sentence; keep PDF out of all three since it isn't an approved capability; flag if any angle would need a fact that isn't on the approved list.