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Chapter 05

Copy and content

Your Template arrived with an invented person, invented numbers and images that are not yours. This chapter shows you how to turn that into your own website: where the copy lives, how the conversation with your AI runs and what happens to proof that does not belong to you. Allow a quiet afternoon for the big rebuild.

13 min Applies to every AI Website Template

The golden rule: text lives in one place #

Before you change a single sentence, one minute for the most important rule of this chapter is worth it. The text of your website does not live where you see it on screen. It sits together in one place, and the pages fetch it from there.

In most Templates that place is a folder src/data/ with a file inside it, often called site.ts. It holds your name, address, phone number, the navigation, your services, the prices, the questions and answers and the customer quotes. A Template without a src folder keeps its text directly in the index.html of each page. In both cases the same reflex applies: if you are looking for a wording, look in the central place first, then in the individual page.

  • src/data/site.ts · name, contact, navigation, services, prices, questions and answers
  • src/data/blog.ts · titles, dates and teasers of the articles
  • src/pages/ · per page, the text that appears only there
  • Wissen/tone-of-voice.md · the tone every text follows
Why it is built this way

Your phone number sits in the footer of every page, on the contact page, in the menu on mobile and in the machine-readable details for Google. Maintained in one place means: change it once, correct everywhere. Maintained all over the place means: miss one spot and a customer dials the old number.

Some text does live in the page itself, for example the headline of a single page, a career history or the principles behind the way you work. That is on purpose: whatever appears exactly once lives where it appears. Your AI knows both places and finds the spot faster than any manual search.

This is what you write to your AI

Show me where the text of this website is maintained. Name the central file, the pages with text of their own, and tell me which details appear in several places at once.

The rule in one sentence

Search the central place, then the page. And never maintain the same detail in two places by hand. How your Template is built as a whole is covered in the chapter Inside your Template.

The big rebuild in four rounds #

Your Template arrived with an invented person, an invented company and an invented story. That is on purpose, so you see a complete website instead of empty boxes. Rebuilding it around you is therefore not a touch-up, it is an exchange.

Every Template brings the skill start for exactly this. It runs a conversation in four rounds, collects what it needs and builds something you can look at after every round. You start it with a single sentence.

This is what you write to your AI

I have just bought this Template and want to turn it into my real website. Walk me through the first conversation, ask me one question at a time and tell me each time what you need the detail for.

Round 1: who you are

Name, legal form, location, the people behind it and, in one sentence, what you do. Out of that come the logo, page titles, header, home page and the footer of every page. This round changes the most at once, which is why it comes first.

Round 2: hard facts

Address, phone, email, opening hours and your domain. These details appear automatically everywhere they are needed. Whatever you do not have yet goes on a list of open points and is not made up.

Round 3: your offer

Your services with their process, formats and pricing logic, plus who they are meant for. This is the longest round and the most valuable, because this is where it is decided whether visitors understand what they get from you and what it costs.

Round 4: people and images

Do you have a photo of yourself? Real customer quotes with written approval? Numbers you can back up? Whatever is missing is not replaced, it is removed. One section less is always better than one that is invented.

Why you should let yourself be asked

The first instinct is to dictate everything at once: here is my text, put it in. That works less well than it sounds. Your AI knows every spot where a detail is needed, you do not. When it asks, a gap comes up in the conversation instead of showing up later as an empty spot on your website.

Then there is the tone. Better text comes out of your answers in your own words than out of a list of keywords. Answer at length and the way you would tell a customer on the phone. Your AI takes care of the phrasing afterwards.

One round is enough for today

The rebuild does not have to happen in one sitting. After every round there is a website you can look at. Stop when you get tired and simply say next time that you are picking up at round 3. Your AI reads the current state from the project.

After the fourth round the skill template-aufbau takes over. It works through the rest systematically: images, search engine details, legal pages and finally the search that proves nothing is left of the invented identity. What each skill can do is covered in the chapter The seven skills.

The tone of voice in your Template #

Every Template comes with a fixed tone of voice. It sits in its own file in the knowledge folder, usually at Wissen/tone-of-voice.md, and describes in rules and examples how this website sounds: sentence length, form of address, welcome and unwelcome vocabulary, how a headline is built, how long an FAQ answer may be.

That file is not decoration. It is the reason every text on your website sounds like the same voice, even when the parts were written twenty different days apart. Your AI reads it before every writing round.

If the tone does not suit you, change it in exactly that place. Not sentence by sentence across the website, but in the rule. Then run the existing text against the new rule.

Change the rule, not the individual sentences

Change the tone only in the text you happen to have open and you end up with a website in two voices. The next paragraph, written weeks later, follows the old file again. Change the rule first, then go over what already exists once: that keeps it one voice.

This is what you write to your AI

The tone of the website is too formal for me. I want to sound warmer and more personal without being ingratiating. Change the tone of voice file in the knowledge folder first, show me the new version, and then rewrite the existing text to match.

What a voice of your own is not

  • Not longer. A voice of your own comes from selection, not from more words.
  • Not louder. Superlatives and exclamation marks are meant to add weight and end up sounding like doubt.
  • Not vague. “Professional and modern” is a wish, not a brief. Give your AI two sentences you like and one you would never say. That carries further than any adjective.

Formal or informal address #

The form of address is the one decision that touches every sentence on the website. Most Templates use the formal form, because it is the safe choice in most industries. If the informal form suits you better, switching is a matter of minutes. It only has to be complete.

Complete means more than the body text. It also means the labels on buttons, the hints inside form fields, the confirmation after sending, the error messages, the questions in the FAQ and the text in the consent dialog. A single spot you miss stands out immediately.

This is what you write to your AI

Switch the whole website from the formal to the informal form of address. Please include button labels, form fields, confirmations, error messages, FAQ questions and the consent dialog. Put the new form of address into the tone of voice file first and list every changed file at the end.

Decide once, then stay with it

There is no half form of address. Being casual at the top and formal in the form does not read as relaxed, it reads as careless. If you are unsure, test it against a real situation: how do you address your customers on the first phone call? That is how the website should speak.

Reworking a single page #

Day to day you rarely change everything. Usually it is one page that does not sit right yet. There is an order for that which works reliably.

Say who the page is for

Who lands here, what should the person do next, what holds them back. Without those three answers any text becomes arbitrary. Two sentences are enough, but they have to be said.

Let your AI read first

Before it writes, it should say what is on the page and where it sees the break. Often the diagnosis is half the fix, and you save yourself a draft that misses the problem.

Section by section instead of all at once

A new version of the whole page is hard to judge. Three options for one headline are easy to judge. Work your way down from the top and decide section by section.

Read it out loud

What sounds clumsy spoken reads clumsy written. This check costs two minutes and replaces a lot of opinion rounds. Anything your tongue trips over gets rewritten.

Respect the lengths

The layouts are built for certain text lengths: headlines of three to eight words, section text of two to four sentences, FAQ answers of four sentences at most. Anyone with more to say writes an article.

This is what you write to your AI

Read the page [name] and tell me first who it is written for and where it gets unclear. Then suggest three options for the headline, each eight words at most, in the tone from the knowledge folder. Do not change anything yet.

Text that is too long breaks the layout

Tiles and grids are calculated for short text. When one card is suddenly twice as tall as its neighbours, that is almost never the design, it is three sentences too many. Cutting is the repair here.

Adding a new page #

A new page is more than a new file. For it to feel like it was always there, it has to take over the blueprint of the existing pages and be registered in several places.

That is why you do not create it by hand but through the skill template-aufbau. It knows how the existing pages are built, the tone from the knowledge folder and the places that have to be updated afterwards.

This is what you write to your AI

Create a new page [title]. Use an existing page as the blueprint and the tone from the knowledge folder. Then add it to the navigation, the footer and the overview file for search engines, and give it its own page title and description.

Four places are then updated. Your AI does that off the same sentence, but you should know what they are so you can check them.

  • The navigation. In Templates with a src folder it usually sits as a list in the central data file, otherwise in every single page. Check the menu on mobile afterwards, it is often a separate element.
  • The footer. It often carries a second, longer list of links that does not grow along automatically.
  • The overview file for search engines, usually sitemap.xml. Without an entry, Google finds the page considerably later.
  • At least one link from inside a text. A page only the menu points to reads like an add-on, to visitors and to search engines alike.
New page, own title

Every page needs its own page title and its own description. Two pages with the same title are two candidates for the same search as far as Google is concerned, and neither of them wins. How to phrase both is covered in the chapter SEO and visibility.

When a new page is the wrong answer

Not every piece of content deserves a page of its own. Three paragraphs on a side topic are better placed on an existing page. A page of its own pays off when people search for exactly that, when you want to send its address on its own or when it describes a separate offer. Otherwise only the menu grows.

Removing a page #

Taking pages away is part of the upkeep. A service you no longer offer belongs off the website. The tricky part is not the file, it is everything still pointing at it.

  1. Search first, then delete. Have your AI search the whole project for references, including links in the middle of body text, in articles and on buttons.
  2. Remove the file and resolve the references: navigation, footer, the overview file for search engines and every link from a text.
  3. Decide what happens to the old address. If the page was never public, deleting is enough. If it was live, set up a redirect to the fitting new page.
  4. Check. One pass over all links at the end shows whether anything still leads nowhere.
This is what you write to your AI

I am taking the page [address] off the website. First search the whole project for every reference to it and show me the list. Then remove the page along with its entry in the navigation, the footer and the overview file, and set up a redirect to [target address].

Deleted pages that were live need a destination

Delete a publicly reachable address without a replacement and you send every old link, every recommendation from outside and every search result to an error page. A redirect to the next most fitting page costs one line and saves the visit.

Blog posts and articles #

Articles are the one part of your website that grows on its own. They answer the questions your customers ask before they get in touch, and they are the reason people find you without knowing your name.

In most Templates a post consists of two parts that belong together: the entry in the overview (title, date, category, teaser, image) and the article itself as its own page. If either is missing, the post is invisible or it leads nowhere. Your AI creates both together.

What makes an article good

  • A real question as the title. Write the way somebody searches, not the way a brochure sounds.
  • An opening with the problem and the promise. Anyone who does not know after two sentences whether they are in the right place leaves again.
  • Subheadings as signposts, one thought per section. Most people read only the subheadings first.
  • Lists and tables instead of walls of text. Comparisons belong in a table, processes in a numbered list.
  • Internal links. At least one to the matching service and one to a related article.
  • Numbers only with a source. Anything that comes from your experience is marked as experience.

How much and how often

Length. A post that answers a search question completely usually runs between 1,500 and 2,500 words. Shorter is rarely found, longer is rarely finished. What matters is not the number but whether the question is answered afterwards.

Frequency. One good post a month beats four quick ones. A blog with six strong articles is better than one with thirty thin ones nobody finishes. Set a rhythm you can hold in a busy month, and keep it for a year rather than six weeks.

Order. Start with the questions customers ask you all the time anyway. You know them by heart, you answer them better than any competitor, and they are exactly what people type into search.

This is what you write to your AI

Write an article on the question [question my customers often ask]. Use the structure of the existing articles and the tone from the knowledge folder, 1,500 to 2,500 words, with subheadings, a table for the comparison and a link to the matching service. Create the entry in the overview at the same time and do not invent any numbers.

An article is not finished once it is written

The most effective move is often not a new post but an old one brought up to date: date, numbers, examples and links refreshed. The chapter Maintaining and extending describes the rhythm for it.

Swapping images #

Images carry more trust than any sentence about trust. Your Template comes with placeholders, usually licence-free shots from an image library. They look good, but they do not show you.

What has to go and what may stay

  • Portraits of the invented person have to go. The people shown never agreed to their face standing in for you. No model release means: this image must never appear as your photo.
  • Scenes with recognisable people too. A meeting photo also claims a team that does not exist in that form.
  • Shots without people may stay. Rooms, tools, materials, architecture, workplaces. They show atmosphere instead of people and are therefore unproblematic.
The portrait hangs in several places

In many Templates the same portrait is also the preview image when the site is shared on social networks and the author photo on the blog. Look only at the home page and you will think it is handled. After the swap, have every spot that uses the file listed for you.

How to place an image properly

  • Store images locally instead of linking them. Every image belongs in your project as a file, usually under public/images/ or assets/img/. An image from somebody else's address can disappear or be swapped at any time, and then the hole sits on your page.
  • Set the size before you place it. Photos 1200 to 1600 pixels wide are enough for every spot. An image straight from the camera is quickly ten times that and makes your page slow on mobile.
  • Descriptive file names, lower case, without spaces or special characters: workshop-inside.jpg instead of IMG_4711.JPG.
  • Do not forget the image description. Every image needs a short text describing what can be seen. It is read out when somebody cannot see the page, and it appears when the image fails to load.
  • Keep the image credits current. Where a shot comes from is recorded in BILDNACHWEIS.md. Swap an image and that entry changes too.
This is what you write to your AI

I have my own photos in the folder [path]. Swap them in for the placeholders: store them in the right directory, bring them to a sensible width, write matching image descriptions and update the image credits. Then tell me which placeholders with people are still left.

Your own photos beat any purchased shot, even when they are less polished. A phone by the window, daylight, no flash, held in landscape: that is enough for almost every spot. Staged handshakes and cheering people in front of screens read as decoration to every visitor.

Replacing invented proof #

Customer quotes, numbers and case studies are placeholders

Everything in your Template that looks like proof is invented: the quotes with names and companies, the project counts, the years of experience, the case studies with their results. They get replaced or removed, never polished up.

An invented customer quote is no longer a placeholder question, it is a false statement to your customers, and it is open to challenge under competition law. When in doubt, one section less.

Your Template makes these spots visible on purpose. Quotes carry a marker such as “Example”, case studies carry a label, reference pages carry a note. Those markings stay until real proof with written approval is in place. Removing them without replacing the content is the one genuinely dangerous move in this chapter.

For every piece of proof there are exactly three ways forward, and all three are fine.

  • You have real proof. Put it in, with written approval from the person or the company. The markings can go after that.
  • You do not have any yet. Take the section out. A website without quotes looks new, one with invented quotes looks dishonest the moment somebody asks.
  • You have something close. Describe the way you work instead of claiming results. “This is how a job runs with me” carries further at the start than a number you cannot back up.
This is what you write to your AI

Show me every spot on the website where a piece of proof appears: customer quotes, numbers, years, project counts, case studies and awards. Sort them by whether I can back them up, with file and line. Remove nothing until I have decided.

Numbers you can back up are strong. “In the trade since 2014” convinces more than “many years of experience”, provided 2014 is true. The check run in the chapter Going live looks for leftovers one more time at the end.

The right sentence for the job #

Most of the jobs in this chapter are a single sentence to your AI. This table covers everyday work. Put your own details in the square brackets.

What you want What you write
Find a wording Where is the sentence [start of the sentence]? Give me the file and line and tell me whether it appears anywhere else.
Change the phone number My new number is [number]. Change it everywhere, including the click-to-call link, the footer, the menu on mobile and the machine-readable details.
Add a service Add another service: [title], [two sentences about it]. Remember the links in the footer and number words such as “eight services” in body text.
Shorten a text Cut this section down to three sentences at most without losing the point. Show me the old and the new version side by side.
Adjust prices My prices are changing to [values]. Change them everywhere, including the FAQ answer about costs and the pricing tiles.
Write an FAQ answer Answer the question [question] in the tone of the website, four sentences at most: the direct answer first, then the context.
Change the city The website should run on [new city] instead of [old city]. Change the address, the text, the page titles and the machine-readable details, and tell me where the old city still appears.
Check the tone Read all the text on the website and tell me where the tone from the knowledge folder is not being followed. Report only, change nothing yet.

Before you move on #

Once you can tick these points off, your content is solid enough for design and search to build on.

  • Name, address, phone and email are correct everywhere
  • The services describe what you really offer, at the prices that apply
  • No invented quote, no invented number, no invented case study is left
  • No image shows a face that is not yours
  • Every image sits in the project as a file and has an image description
  • The form of address is the same everywhere, including buttons, forms and messages
  • The tone sits in the file in the knowledge folder and the text follows it
  • Every page has its own title and its own description
  • No link leads to a page that no longer exists
  • Whatever is still missing sits on a list of open points instead of invented on the website
Next comes the look

Your text is in place, now the design can follow. How to change colours, type and spacing through the central values without the system falling apart is covered in the chapter Adjusting the design.