How to write website content that isn’t a commodity
by Julian Rogers
Your website is probably accurate. That’s the problem.
Most marketing teams have shipped a page that followed the template, used the same words as every competitor and answered a question the reader had already answered for themselves. Nobody complained. Nobody converted either. And now that AI Overviews and chat assistants summarize the agreed-upon answer before anyone clicks, accurate-but-generic content doesn’t just underperform. It gets absorbed and forgotten.
The fix isn’t to be louder or weirder. It’s to do two jobs at once: start from the ground your audience already stands on, then add the part nobody else can copy. Consensus earns attention. Specificity earns the appointment, the demo and the contract.
What counts as website content
Website content is any written, visual or audio element on a site. Blog posts, service pages, photos, logos, video, FAQs: if a visitor can read it, watch it or hear it, it counts.
When you plan a build or a rewrite, group it by the job it does:
• Page content: home, about, service or product pages, contact
• Editorial content: blog articles, guides, explainers, FAQs
• Conversion content: landing pages, offers, calls to action
• Visual and media content: photos, logos, video, audio, illustrations
Shopify’s guide to website content defines it as the combination of text, visuals and media designed to engage and inform users. Notice that’s two outcomes, not one. A page that only informs is a reference document. A page that only engages is noise. You need both.
Why consensus has to come first
Consensus doesn’t mean bland agreement. It means starting from what your reader already accepts as true, important and urgent.
Content that opens by arguing with a belief your audience holds firmly spends its first half losing a fight nobody asked for. Content that starts inside that belief spends its whole length moving the reader forward. A practice administrator already believes patient no-shows are expensive. Don’t spend three paragraphs proving it. Start there and go somewhere useful.
Paul Boag’s “10 Steps to Compelling Website Content Creation” lays out the research that establishes consensus before you write a word:
1. Create your value proposition
2. Pinpoint your users’ objections
3. Understand your audience’s questions
4. Identify people’s top tasks
Every one of those steps is listening, not writing. The value proposition forces you to say what changes for the reader. Objections surface why they hesitate. Questions reveal the language they use. Top tasks show what they actually came to do, which is almost always narrower than what you planned to explain.
Write the value proposition as a change, not a claim
A value proposition that reads like a slogan can’t anchor a page. Write it as a before and after: what the reader has now, what they have once they work with you and what makes that shift possible.
Then run the swap test. If the sentence still works with a competitor’s name in it, you’ve described your category, not your offer. “Compassionate, patient-centered care” passes the swap test for every practice in America. That’s a failing grade.
Answer objections where the doubt shows up
Objections don’t wait politely for the bottom of the page. Cost worries surface early. Fit worries surface in the middle. Risk worries surface at the call to action. Put the answer where the hesitation happens. A question about insurance or pricing answered on the first screen builds more trust than a testimonial buried in the footer.
Use your audience’s words, not your industry’s
Pull question wording from sales calls, front-desk notes, support tickets and search queries. If patients ask “how long until I see results,” don’t write “treatment efficacy timelines.” Consensus is built on vocabulary as much as facts. Matching the reader’s phrasing is how they know the page was written for them. It’s also how search engines and AI assistants match your page to the question being asked.
The commodity trap
Once a topic has a consensus answer, that answer gets cheap. Anyone can publish the five steps, the checklist, the definition. Search engines hold thousands of versions. AI tools can generate another one in seconds. Readers have learned to skim all of them.
A page that only restates the agreed-upon answer competes on formatting and luck. And in a zero-click search environment, it often doesn’t compete at all. The AI summary gives the reader the consensus answer and they never reach your site.
Commodity content has a recognizable signature:
• Generic examples
• No named trade-offs
• No point of view
• No evidence the writer has done the work
It’s accurate at the level of a dictionary entry and useless at the level of a decision.
Where differentiation actually comes from
Differentiation isn’t a bolder tone or a cleverer headline. It’s material a competitor can’t copy without doing the same work you did. Four sources carry most of the weight:
• Evidence: numbers from your own delivery, not estimates borrowed from someone else’s study
• Specificity: the named scenario, constraint or exception that applies to a slice of your audience
• Judgment: what you recommend against, and why
• Structure: how the answer is organized, sequenced and made easy to act on
The first three require experience. The fourth requires craft. All four are defensible because none of them can be produced by paraphrasing what already ranks. They’re also exactly what AI systems look for when deciding which source to cite instead of which source to summarize away.
Build the page so the argument holds
A strong argument still needs architecture. Every standard web page element carries part of the case:
Element
Its job in the argument
Header and navigation
Confirms the reader is in the right place and shows what else exists
Hero section
States the value proposition in the reader’s language
Content blocks and cards
Break the case into scannable claims with supporting detail
Call-to-action buttons
Turn agreement into a next step at the moment it peaks
Search bar and breadcrumbs
Keep people oriented when they land mid-journey
Watch for two failure modes. A consensus-only page reads like an encyclopedia entry: correct and forgettable. A differentiation-only page reads like a sales pitch: loud and unearned. The structure has to hold both. Shared ground first, then the part that’s yours.
A practical workflow
1. Write the consensus answer first. One paragraph, plain language, no hedging. If you can’t state it, you don’t understand the topic well enough to differentiate on it.
2. List the questions that answer leaves open. Those gaps are where your experience becomes the only source of a real reply.
3. Attach evidence to every gap. A number, a scenario, a named exception or a documented outcome.
4. Draft backward from the reader’s top task. Start with what they came to do, not your founding story.
5. Put objections next to the claims that trigger them.
6. Run the commodity test. Flag every sentence that could appear on a competitor’s site unchanged. Rewrite it or add detail only you can supply.
7. Put a review date on the calendar. Accepted answers shift as tools, regulations and buyer expectations shift. In health care, that can happen fast.
How to tell whether it worked
Two signals separate consensus content that converts from consensus content that fills space.
The first is engagement quality: time on page, scroll depth and whether readers reach the section that answers the hard question.
The second is conversation quality. Do prospects show up to the first call already holding the assumptions you published? If traffic looks healthy but every sales conversation or new-patient consult starts from zero, your page is consensus without differentiation.
Where a content partner fits
Most practices and professional services firms already have the differentiating material. It lives in proposals, delivery notes, intake conversations and the answers senior people give on calls. What’s missing is the work of turning that into website content that’s structured, evidenced and kept current.
That’s a strategy and production problem more than a writing problem. If your team knows the answers but doesn’t have the bandwidth to publish them, that’s the bottleneck worth paying to fix.
Start with one page. Pick the topic your buyers or patients ask about most. Write the consensus answer, then add the two or three things only your organization can say. Publish it, watch what readers do and let the results decide where the next page goes.
Frequently asked questions
What is website content?
Website content is any written, visual or audio element on a website, including blog posts, service pages, marketing copy, photos, logos and video. A useful working definition is the combination of text, visuals and media designed to both engage and inform visitors, from landing pages to blog articles.
What’s the difference between consensus content and copying what already ranks?
Consensus is the shared ground your audience already accepts: the questions they ask and the answers they trust. Copying what ranks reproduces the wording and structure of existing pages. Use consensus as your starting point, then add evidence, judgment and specifics from your own work. The shared part earns attention. The specific part earns the inquiry.
How do I know if my website content has become a commodity?
Read each section and ask whether a competitor could publish the same sentences unchanged. If most of the page passes that test, it’s interchangeable. Rewrite the generic sections or add detail drawn from your own experience, such as named trade-offs, exceptions and real outcomes.
Why does commodity content perform worse in AI search?
AI Overviews and chat assistants can summarize a consensus answer without sending the reader to any single source. Pages that offer original evidence, specific scenarios and clear judgment give those systems something worth citing, which makes them more likely to earn a link or a mention.
Where should the value proposition go on a web page?
Put it in the hero section, where visitors see it before scrolling. Content blocks, cards and calls to action carry the supporting detail further down. The header and navigation confirm the reader is in the right place, and call-to-action buttons convert agreement at the moment it peaks.