Creating a Brand Voice and Tone Guide for Your Website Content

Learn how to document your brand voice and tone so anyone on your team can write website content that feels consistent, on-brand, and professional.

Why Your Website Needs a Brand Voice and Tone Guide

Your visual identity (logo, colors, fonts) is only half of your brand. The other half is how you sound. A clear brand voice and tone guide helps every writer, marketer, and team member create content that feels like it comes from one unified brand, not a mix of different personalities.

This guide walks you through a simple, practical process to document your brand voice and tone so it can be used across your WordPress website, emails, and marketing materials.

Key Concepts: Voice vs. Tone

Before you start, it helps to understand two core ideas:

• Brand voice: Your consistent personality and point of view. This rarely changes.
• Tone: How that voice adapts to different situations (homepage vs. error message vs. invoice email).

Think of voice as who you are and tone as how you speak in this specific moment.

Step 1: Define Your Brand Personality in Plain Language

Start by describing your brand as if it were a person. This keeps your guide practical and easy to follow.

1.1 Choose 3–5 Core Personality Traits

Pick a small set of traits that feel true to your brand. For example:

• Warm and encouraging
• Expert but down-to-earth
• Direct and time-efficient

Write them in your guide with a short explanation of what each trait does and does not mean in practice.

• Warm and encouraging: We celebrate progress and avoid shaming language. We never talk down to readers.
• Expert but down-to-earth: We explain complex topics in simple words, without jargon when possible.
• Direct and time-efficient: We get to the point quickly and avoid unnecessary filler.

1.2 Capture a One-Sentence Voice Statement

Summarize your voice in one sentence that anyone can remember. For example:

“Our brand sounds like a knowledgeable, friendly guide who explains things clearly and respects the reader’s time.”

Step 2: Set Practical Voice Rules (Do / Don’t)

Next, translate your personality traits into simple rules that writers can follow.

2.1 Language and Vocabulary

Create a short list of language preferences:

• We say: clients, website visitors, team
• We avoid: users, traffic, resources (when referring to people)
• We prefer: simple verbs (use, get, start) over jargon (utilize, leverage, optimize) unless needed

2.2 Sentence Style

Decide how formal or casual your writing should be:

• Formality: Use contractions (we’re, you’ll) to stay conversational.
• Point of view: Write directly to the reader using “you.”
• Length: Aim for short paragraphs (2–4 sentences) and clear headings.

2.3 Do / Don’t Examples

Examples are the most useful part of your guide. Include pairs like these:

• Do: “Here’s a simple way to check if your page is working.”
• Don’t: “One might consider performing a diagnostic evaluation of page functionality.”
• Do: “If something breaks, contact our team and we’ll walk you through a fix.”
• Don’t: “In the event of a malfunction, please submit a ticket via the appropriate channel.”

Step 3: Map Tone to Common Website Situations

Your voice stays the same, but your tone should adapt to context. Create a simple tone map for your most important website touchpoints.

3.1 Identify Your Key Content Types

List the main areas of your website and communication where tone matters:

• Homepage
• Service or product pages
• Blog posts or resources
• Contact and support pages
• Forms, confirmations, and thank-you pages
• Error messages (404 page, form errors)

3.2 Create a Simple Tone Table

For each content type, describe the tone and give an example.

Step 4: Turn Your Voice and Tone into a One-Page Reference

Your team is more likely to use your guide if it’s short and easy to scan. Aim for a one-page reference that can be shared as a PDF or added to your internal documentation.

4.1 Suggested One-Page Layout

Organize your guide into clear sections:

• Top section: One-sentence voice statement and 3–5 personality traits.
• Middle section: Do / Don’t language examples and sentence style rules.
• Bottom section: Tone table for key content types.

4.2 Where to Store It in WordPress

To keep your guide close to your website content, you can store it in WordPress:

• Create an internal page: Dashboard ? Pages ? Add New.
• Title it something like “Brand Voice & Tone Guide (Internal).”
• Set the visibility to Private so only logged-in users with the right permissions can see it.
• Paste your one-page guide into the content area, using headings and bullet lists for readability.

What You Should See

When you view the page while logged in, you should see a clean, scannable layout with:

• A clear headline describing the guide.
• Sections for personality traits, rules, and tone examples.
• Consistent formatting that matches your site’s typography.

Step 5: Align Your Existing Website Content

Once your guide is documented, bring your current content into alignment.

5.1 Audit a Few Key Pages

Start with your most visited or most important pages:

• Homepage
• Top 1–3 service or product pages
• Contact page

For each page, ask:

• Does this sound like our voice statement?
• Are we following our language and style rules?
• Does the tone match the tone table for this content type?

5.2 Make Targeted Edits

Instead of rewriting everything, focus on quick wins:

• Replace jargon with simpler words.
• Shorten long paragraphs into 2–4 sentence blocks.
• Update headlines and calls-to-action to match your tone.

Step 6: Share the Guide with Your Team

A brand voice and tone guide only works if people know it exists and use it.

• Share the link to your internal WordPress page with anyone who writes or edits content.
• Include it in onboarding for new team members and freelancers.
• Ask writers to keep the guide open while drafting or reviewing content.

Maintaining Your Brand Voice Over Time

Your brand voice should stay stable, but your examples and tone table can evolve as your business grows.

• Review the guide every 6–12 months.
• Add new examples from real pages that worked well.
• Update tone notes if you add new content types (like a knowledge base or online course).

With a clear, practical brand voice and tone guide, your website content will feel more consistent, more professional, and more trustworthy—no matter who is writing it.