Read time: ~9 minutes
You and I both know you need a website. You don’t need me to tell you a website is the face of your brand, your digital first impression, yadda yadda yadda. But the thing is every 20-year-old has a website at this point and because of this what you write in the homepage of your website is more important than ever before.
I know from firsthand experience, writing your website homepage content can easily turn into an item to check off the list. But when you don’t give your content the love and attention it deserves, well, it falls flat. Like mushy, flavorless french fries.
The whole point of website copy is to effectively communicate your message with your target audience and guide them through the steps they need to take to become a customer. And when you do that? You’ll see more engagement, happier customers, and higher conversion rates.
Before you dive in, this is not a templated approach. These are 9 tips to help you write your own authentic, original website copy. And if you need me professionally, you know where to find me.
9 Tips To Figure Out WTF To Write In Your Homepage Website Content
There are many aspects to website content and I’m sure every piece you read will say something a little different. In this post, I’ll be covering three main ideas: copy, tone, and visuals.
1. What’s the purpose of your homepage?
(Copy, tone, visual)
You should already know the purpose of your company and what sets you apart (or at least be working on figuring that out).
When writing your homepage content though, you want to think about what the purpose of that specific page is.
- Is it just a pretty face?
- Is it a navigation/guide?
- Is it the first stop on a customer’s journey? The fourth stop?
A better way to think about is to think about what you want people to do as they’re scrolling through your homepage.
- Book a call?
- Make a purchase?
- Sign up for a free trial?
- Subscribe to an email list?
- View a case study?
- Go to another page?
Whatever the end purpose is, make sure the story and path you create take them to where they need to end up.
2. Start with skimmable headlines
(Copy, tone)
There’s a reason the company The Skimm is a beloved highly regarded site. They took the blocky, boring news and turned it into skimmable, understandable content you could understand quickly.
Think of your website like an outline:
- Intro = Above the fold WTF do you do (2-3 sentences)
- Main topics/points that move the piece forward = Headlines (h2/h3’s)
- Transitions to new point/topic = CTAs
- Content = Fill in the points with copy
Outlining your headings allows you to take a step back and shape the narrative of the story you want to tell while ensuring you’ve covered everything you need to. It also helps ensure you’re not rambling.
- Did you incorporate keywords?
- Did you cover objections?
- Did you cover pain points?
- Can a visitor clearly understand what you do if they only read the headlines?
That last point is REALLY IMPORTANT.
People will not read every single word of your content. Seriously, a Nielson study that tracked eye movements in online reading behavior over 20 years (what a job!) found people are skimmers and they don’t read linearly.
So, what does this mean?
- Headlines are very important.
- Bullets, lists, and formatting are more important.
- Clarity is important.
See what I did there?
3. Talk like your audience
(Copy, tone)
Understanding your audience is critical to basically all of marketing, but it’s especially important when writing copy.
Let me give you an example.
I was asked to review a new website from a composting company. The founder was redesigning the website, including copy, and wanted my opinion. As I started reviewing the first page, I immediately noticed it didn’t speak to their audience.
They should be targeting people who want to compost, are thinking about composting, are interested in food waste, etc. But the new website copy felt targeted toward someone who works in the industry. The benefits listed on the page were all wrong and not something I would care about as someone looking to compost.
I brought this up and the founder didn’t even realize that is what had happened. I even had to point out each point and explain how it wasn’t speaking to their audience.
What they were saying wasn’t wrong, it just wasn’t interesting to their ideal audience.
People want to see themselves reflected in the story you’re telling. They want to relate and we do that through language.
If you’re not clear on who your audience is or how they talk, look through reviews and testimonials from your own product or a competitor’s product. You can also use a competitor’s product to get an idea of the type of language/tone they’re using but please keep it as inspiration-only.
4. Where to draw inspiration from
(Copy)
Don’t know what to write in your website content? Welcome to the club! If you’re stuck on what to actually write about, this is where outlining your headlines helps. As far as what to put in those headlines, try drawing inspiration from the following:
- Pain points of your customer and what you’re solving
- Reviews/testimonials
- Look at competitors, what topics have they used for headlines
- Drawn on your personal experience (if you’re your own ideal client!)
- FAQs — what kind of questions do you frequently get?
You want your audience to know you understand them. You get it! That’s why you created your product/service: to fix a problem that wasn’t being addressed or to solve a problem better than someone else’s solution.
5. Objections are your friend
I personally think objections also make great headlines.
As a reader, there’s nothing more satisfying than reading through some copy, coming up with an objection in my head, and then seeing that objection addressed in the next point. I love that!
It answers my question and makes me feel like the company understands where I’m coming from.
- It can be something as simple as discussing the price and why you charge that amount.
- You can talk about who the product is not for.
- You can talk to someone on the fence about why they need your solution.
Oatly has done a fantastic job of turning negative press/criticism into content. They created an entire website called Fck Oatly that features and links to all of the negative press they’re involved in called. Not only is it hilarious and totally on-brand that they did that, it’s a great way for them to tell their side of the story.
If you do decide to use objections, make sure to stay true to your brand voice. Oatly killed this but it could go very wrong if you’re not careful.
6. Use and incorporate testimonials
(Copy)
I’ve touched on it in a few points already but testimonials are so good they deserve a mention all on their own! You didn’t think I was going to leave these out, did you? Testimonials help sell your product or service for you.
Bonus points if you can get ones that have a very clear outcome or objective that you helped them achieve.
*Pro Tip* When asking for reviews/testimonials, provide the person with a prompt. This helps them think of something to say and goes in the direction you want it to. It could be something as simple as:
“I’d really appreciate it if you could share the experience you had with Copy by LP. Don’t know what to say? Here are a few prompts to consider:
- What would you say to anyone on the fence about working with Copy by LP?
- What was your favorite part of working with Copy by LP?
- Was there anything Copy by LP helped you accomplish that you had tried to do yourself and couldn’t?”
7. Who are you? who-who
(Copy, tone)
This is a two-parter.
First, anyone should be able to figure out wtf you do within 30 seconds of entering your site. Statistically, you have way less time than that but I’m giving you some wiggle room.
Second, if you’re a small business or a mission-driven brand, it’s probably in your best interest to have a small ‘about’ section telling at least a little bit of your story.
I get that you might have registered the business under your personal address and phone number and you want to keep your exposure to a minimum.
BUT a photo and/or a few sentences about why you started your business will go a long way.
It turns you from an ‘entity’ into a person.
If I can’t easily find a name or photo behind a small business, I assume it’s owned by a huge corporation or there’s a (bad) reason the info isn’t available.
8. Use clear CTAs to guide the visitor
(Copy, visual)
Remember earlier how I told you to figure out the purpose of your homepage? You’re going to want that reflected in your CTAs (call to action).
CTAs that don’t align with the purpose of the page, or just don’t make sense won’t encourage anyone to take any kind of steps. And we don’t want that.
You’re the tour guide, your website is a map, and the visitor is looking to you to tell them how to get around.
Whenever you’re in a large building (I’m specifically thinking about the Macy’s on State Street in Chicago), what works best?
One sign labeled “Floor 1” or clearly labeled aisles with arrows pointing to the exits, elevators, stairs, and other directions?
Your CTAs are the arrows leading to the exit, elevator, stairs, and other stuff on your website.
9. Whitespace
This is definitely a problem I have. I tend to be wordy both in real life and on paper. But from a design standpoint, whitespace is incredibly important.
Even as someone who likes to read, if I enter a website and I’m immediately faced with a block of text, I’m out of there.
This is where copy pairs with the importance of design.
You need to guide your reader through the story of your homepage, in large, well-lit hallways with lots of natural light. Not creepy dark hallways that border on tunnels and invoke feelings of paranoia.
My best piece of advice is to start with the outline that creates a flowing story, write it all down, but be prepared to cut a lot of it out.
And whatever you do, do not hide content in white text/background color text to “trick” Google. It will not trick them and you will be punished.
Wrapping It Up
As I mentioned at the beginning, none of these tips are hard facts or absolute must-haves on your website.
There are plenty of those out there and following a formula or template can be extremely helpful, but if you’re not careful they can stifle creativity, leading to boring or bland copy.
For every “rule” a template-maker tells you, you can find a case study of a website that broke that rule and is now being marketing-worshipped.
So in the end, be you. There are millions of articles and blogs telling you how you can write the absolute most bestest performing, high-revenue, converting homepage website content that will knock the socks off your target audience and have them throwing their credit card at you.
The key to writing great copy is to write it for people — the readers and the skimmers, make sure Google can scan it, and absolutely never ever ever never copy someone else’s website copy.
Happy writing!
If you’re not sure you can do it, that’s why I’m here! I’d love to talk to you!
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