"Make it sound more human" has become a common note on content briefs, usually after a draft comes back technically correct but somehow forgettable. It's a fair instinct — but it's worth being precise about what it actually means, because vague notes produce vague rewrites.
What "sounds human" doesn't mean
It doesn't mean adding exclamation points, or sprinkling in casual phrases, or starting sentences with "honestly" and "look." Those are surface tricks, and readers — and increasingly, search engines — see through them quickly.
What it actually means
Specificity instead of generic claims
"We provide quality service" tells the reader nothing. "We respond to every enquiry within 2 hours and follow up twice if there's no reply" tells them something they can picture and trust. Specificity is the single biggest lever — almost everything else follows from it.
Plain language instead of jargon
Jargon often gets used to sound credible, but it usually does the opposite — it signals the writer is hiding behind vocabulary instead of explaining clearly. A reader who understands instantly trusts faster than one who has to decode a sentence.
Varied rhythm instead of uniform structure
Content that's overly uniform — every sentence roughly the same length, every paragraph the same shape — reads as mechanical, even when a human wrote it. Mixing short, punchy sentences with longer explanatory ones is how natural writing actually sounds.
Real examples instead of abstractions
"This approach improves results" is an abstraction. "This approach took one client from 4 enquiries a month to 22" is a real example. Readers remember and trust specifics far more than claims.
Why it converts better
Trust is the actual product being sold in most copy, before any service or price is even discussed. Specific, plain, well-paced writing builds trust faster than polished-but-generic writing, because it reads like it came from someone who actually knows the subject rather than someone filling a template.
There's also a practical search angle: thin, generic content rarely ranks well, because it doesn't give search engines (or readers) anything distinct to latch onto. Specific, detailed writing tends to perform better on both fronts at once.
Practical changes to make today
- Read it out loud. If you wouldn't say a sentence to a person across the table, rewrite it.
- Replace one vague claim with one real number. Pick the weakest sentence on the page and add a specific detail to it.
- Cut every word that sounds like it's protecting you rather than helping the reader — "innovative," "leading," "world-class," and similar filler.
- Add one real story or example per page, even a short one.
Readers don't convert because writing sounds human. They convert because specific, honest writing is easier to trust.