How to take the mammoth, unwieldy task of ‘writing my homepage’ and make it simple and easy.
A couple of months ago, I was doing a live website review for another copywriter.
She had a solid draft of her homepage and needed another copywriter to check her work.
She felt really confident about the sales pages for her various services, but the home page?
Home pages are hard.
They have to:
- Ground the reader in what you do in 3 seconds or less
- Show the reader why you’re different, also in 3 seconds
- Be carefully designed to speak to all different types of decision-makers (at least four of those) and all stages of awareness (five of those)
- Properly funnel those readers into the right pages of the rest of the website based on their awareness and decision-making type
- Be visually exciting, verbally appealing, and incredibly easy to read with little to no jargon
This is why home pages are notorious.
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I know I’ve been bogged down before in trying to craft a homepage to fit all of the parameters, or at least as many as possible.
I wouldn’t even call it a juggling act.
It’s more like trying to make it across a carpet covered in LEGO without stepping on any of them and screaming loudly in pain.
Or sometimes you get so close to perfect and then realize you forgot to put in a key benefit that would totally shift everything else on the page.
Like that famous Twilight episode?
The one where all a guy wants to do is to read in peace but he can’t, and then when the world ends and he’s the last person on earth.
He walks up to a library, thrilled that his dream is coming true?
And then his glasses break?
Yeah.
Writing homepages are kind of like that.
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Ok, enough of poking at pain points.
Let’s get to the solution part of this blog post.
When I was giving the website review to that fellow copywriter, I told her:
“You’re soooooo good at writing sales pages, [name redacted].Every single page on your website is a sales page, including your home page.Your homepage is simply selling your whole business, not a specific product.”
When I saw her lightbulb go off over her head, I realized that maybe other folks need to hear this.
👉 Every single page on a website is a sales page, selling different aspects of your company.
- Home page: your entire company
- About page: your company culture and ethos
- Services: your offers
- Blog: your specific knowledge
- Contact: your communication style
Once I started treating webpages not as complicated beasts to be tackled but as simple sales pages for different offers, everything got way easier.
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If you’re writing a home page as a sales page for the entire company, checking off all the boxes for home pages naturally happens. (usually)
Treating an about page as a sales page makes sure you don’t just put up a bio and leave it at that. It ensures you’re telling a story that leads to some type of call to action.
Same with a blog—this is more than a list of things to read. It’s specific expertise and knowledge.
Next time you’re struggling on a web page for a client, sit back and ask yourself “what aspect of the company am I selling here? And what conversion needs to happen?” (sometimes it’s not filling out a form or buying something, sometimes it’s simply clicking on a button)
Then go out and sell it.
That’s what we copywriters are best at.
We just get bogged down sometimes on all the things a page should be communicating.
Next time you’re stuck on a page that isn’t for a specific product, think about what you’re selling and write for that.
The Go-Try-It-Out Section
Go on over to your own website.
If a reader came to your homepage, is it accurately selling your overall business model?
How about your about page?
Is it just a bio or are you leading them through a story toward a conversion?
Ready to tackle a website rewrite?
Book a Copy Flight today.