The budget’s approved. The time is right. You finally got the green light to give your organisation’s website its much-needed overhaul.

But before diving into design mockups and flashy features, don’t forget the crucial element that’s too often an afterthought: the words on each page. 

As the Copy Lead at RM, I’ve had the chance to lead several big website content projects. Different brands, different goals – same content problems.

Here are seven content mistakes I’ve seen many established brands make, time and again.

Mistake 1: Migrating your existing content – as it is

A new website opens up new possibilities – and that extends well beyond design. It’s your chance to rethink not just how your site looks, but how it’s structured and how your story is told.

One of the biggest mistakes teams make? Using their current website as the starting point.

Instead of rearranging what already exists, the smarter move is to step back and rebuild your information architecture from scratch. Get the right people in a room. Map out your customer personas, their questions and their decision journey. Then work out what pages are actually needed – and how they should interconnect.

From there, content decisions become clearer and more intentional:

  • Remove redundant or outdated pages
  • Merge pages with overlapping or repetitive content
  • Create new pages where real gaps exist

Only then does it make sense to assess content relevance and performance. Legacy content that no longer aligns with your goals, values or audience can go. Content that still matters can be refreshed, clarified or strengthened to earn its place.

This clarity also matters for search engines and the AI tools and answer engines your audience increasingly relies on. When positioning and messaging are vague, your content is harder to rank, harder to surface – and less likely to be referenced in AI-generated summaries.

Mistake 2: Diving straight into the writing process without a tone of voice and writing style guide

A tone of voice bible. A writing style guide. A brand voice playbook. 

Whatever you call it, I strongly recommend you spend time creating a clear framework before the writing begins. 

This is absolutely critical when several people across your organisation are contributing to the content creation process. A shared guide will ensure everyone’s writing is consistent and brand-aligned. We’re talking about tone, structure, terminology, formatting and more. 

Starting on the same (writing style) page from the get-go will also mean far less editing at the pointy end of the project – keeping a smooth process and ensuring deadlines are met. 

Without this foundation in place, things can get messy fast… especially when writing with AI enters the picture. 

Mistake 3: Using AI to write without clear guidelines

AI tools have made content creation faster than ever. But speed without strategy and oversight creates its own problems – and a whole lot of AI slop.This could mean: 

  • Generic copy that sounds like everyone else
  • Tell-tale signs of AI writing (ChatGPT has countless favourite phrases!) 
  • Sentences that may sound confident but really say nothing of substance
  • Inconsistent tone across the site 

I’m all for using AI to support your content process and help your team work more efficiently. But it does not replace strategic thinking or human judgement. And if your writers are not clear on the role AI plays (and doesn’t play), it results in poor use – and poor content.

That’s why, alongside your tone of voice and writing style guide, you need clear AI guidelines that define acceptable use, set standards for quality, and spell out a review process before any AI-assisted content is published.

Mistake 4: Lack of collaboration between writers and designers

Too often, design is mocked up or even finished before writers are brought in. But content and design should work together, not in isolation.

When the design is finalised without content, it can lead to generic placeholders that result in awkward content fits or messaging that feels forced. The outcome? A website that looks polished, but feels disjointed. 

So, where possible, get your writers and designers to collaborate from the start. This allows:

  • Designers to create layouts that enhance the content structure
  • Writers to craft copy that works within design constraints (e.g. character limits and interactive features)

When content and design are truly aligned, your website will stand out and work beautifully. 

Mistake 5: Overloading pages with poorly structured information 

It’s okay to have a lot of information on a page. In fact, detailed content can be incredibly valuable, especially when users are actively looking for answers. 

But if all that information lacks structure? That’s when we have a problem. 

Poorly organised and densely written pages are hard to scan and harder to digest. They often result in key messages being buried – and leave readers feeling overwhelmed, lost and frustrated. 

So when structuring your pages, make sure to:

  • Focus on your audience’s pain points and questions to shape each page.  
  • Break content down into clear, logical sections
  • Use descriptive headings to help scanners find what they’re looking for
  • Prioritise key messages before supporting detail 
  • Make use of white space, bullets and short paragraphs 
  • Use images, graphs and other relevant visuals to break up blocks of text

Good structure doesn’t just improve readability – it supports accessibility, strengthens user experience, and helps both search engines and AI tools interpret your content more effectively.

Mistake 6: Not training your subject matter experts on web writing principles

Your subject matter experts have useful knowledge to share. But if they’re not familiar with web writing principles, their content may end up jargon-heavy and difficult for general audiences to understand.

That doesn’t mean you should ban subject matter experts from working on your website though! 

Some expert writing skills training goes a long way. For example, your content writers need to know how to: 

With the right guidance, you can help your experts translate their knowledge into clear, engaging content, ensuring your website serves its purpose – and audience.

Mistake 7: Optimising for rankings alone

The good news? The web writing principles we’ve already outlined support strong SEO. Apply them well, and you’re already helping search engines understand and rank your content.

But today, website visibility goes far beyond the browser. 

Content is now also interpreted and surfaced by AI tools, answer engines and voice assistants – often before a user ever clicks through to a website. 

This is where concepts like Answer Engine Optimisation (AEO) and Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO) come into play. To perform well, content needs to be easy to understand, accurately summarised and confidently referenced by both search engines and AI tools.

In practice, that means thinking beyond keywords and rankings, and focusing on:

  • Structuring pages around real user questions and intent
  • Using clear, descriptive headings
  • Creating content that’s easy to extract, summarise and reference

Get this right, and your website continues to work for your organisation – long after launch.

Planning a website overhaul? Our expert copywriting team can help you strategise, structure and refine your content – so your new site works harder long after launch. Let’s chat.