Improve your web content with Copilot

You can use Copilot to help improve your web content by asking it to:

  • make your text clearer and easier to read
  • rewrite content in the Cheshire East tone of voice and style
  • create metadata to improve search and accessibility

Optimising your content helps people to find, understand and act on it. This includes people with additional needs, those who are neurodivergent, or who speak English as a second language.

How to use Copilot to... 

Use Copilot to make your content clearer, more concise and easier to understand. Paste your draft text into Copilot, then give it a clear prompt.

Example prompts:

  • “Rewrite this paragraph in plain English.”
  • “Make this sentence more concise and easier to read.”
  • “Restructure this content using bullet points and clear headings.”

Use Copilot to help ensure your content matches Cheshire East’s voice and style.

  1. Paste in the text you want help with.
  2. Give Copilot a clear, task-focused prompt (see below).
  3. Include links to our tone of voice and style guidance by copying and pasting the links below into your chat window:

https://ourcheshire.sharepoint.com/sites/CE-T-cedocs/Shared%20Documents/Tone%20of%20voice%20guidance%20for%20the%20website.pdf

https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/web-standards

Example prompts:

  • “Rewrite this content using Cheshire East’s tone of voice guidance.”
  • “Does this follow our web style guide? Make changes if needed.”
  • “Make this copy more user-focused and task-driven.”
  • “Edit this to remove jargon and make it sound more helpful.”

If you use Copilot regularly for web content, it's a good idea to add the tone of voice and style guide links into your Copilot settings as 'custom instructions'.

Use Copilot to generate page descriptions, keywords, or alternative text for images. This is particularly useful to staff who edit their own web pages.

  1. Copy and paste a link to your live web page, or paste your draft copy into Copilot.
  2. Give Copilot a clear task-focused prompt (see below).
  3. If you want alternative text for an image, you can upload the image directly or give it a description of the image and its purpose.

Example prompts:

  • “Generate SEO-friendly keywords for this page. Format as a comma-separated list.”
  • “Write a page description under 138 characters that’s task-focused.”
  • “Create alt text for this image. It shows [brief description] and its used to [explain its purpose on the page].”
  • “Improve this alt text to make it clearer and more meaningful.”

If you do this regularly, you can save time by updating Copilot's custom instructions.

If you do it often, having to find and paste links to the Cheshire East tone of voice and style guide, or remember the maximum number of characters for a page description is time-consuming.

Custom instructions help Copilot understand your preferences, so you don't have to repeat yourself every time:

  1. Open Copilot in your web browser (opens new window).
  2. Click on the 3 dots at the top-right of your chat screen (next to the tick in a shield).
  3. Select 'Settings'.
  4. Select 'Personalisation' in the left-hand menu.
  5. Make sure 'Custom instructions' is toggled to the 'on' position.
  6. Click 'Edit instructions'.
  7. Copy and paste the custom instructions below, or create your own.
  8. Click 'Save instructions'.

Example custom instructions:

  • When I ask for ideas on improving a web page can you use our style guide:
    https://www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/web-standards
  • When I ask for ideas on improving a web page, can you use the GDS style guide for anything not in our style guide: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/style-guide/a-to-z
  • When I ask for ideas on improving a web page can you use the tone of voice: https://ourcheshire.sharepoint.com/sites/CE-T-cedocs/Shared%20Documents/Tone%20of%20voice%20guidance%20for%20the%20website.pdf
  • Always use English spellings
  • When I ask to provide a SEO friendly list of key words can these be optimised for metadata and separated with a comma
  • When I ask for a page description can it always be under 138 characters and task focused

Help and guidance

Always review Copilot’s suggestions before publishing. 

Only use Copilot for AI support - other AI tools aren’t approved for staff use.

  • See our web standard pages for more information on our style and tone of voice. 
  • See Get started with Copilot (Lighthouse) for practical guidance on using Copilot, including a video on writing good prompts. 

Last reviewed: 29 September 2025
Page contact: Kate Fenton