How to Write a Homepage for Your Website
Your site’s homepage might be the most valuable piece of digital real estate you own. It’s often the first digital version of a welcoming smile, the first friendly “hello!”, the first handshake with many of your potential clients.
A good homepage should do so much more than just look nice. It needs to work. It has to answer real questions. It builds trust with the right people. And it leads qualified site visitors to take the next logical action.
In this deep dive, I’ll walk you through a homepage framework I’ve used with clients across industries, and I’ll include real-life examples, common mistakes, and tips you can apply today.
Your Site Isn’t a Cheesy Billboard
About two or three times a week, I drive a 45 mile street of the I-10 between my smaller, rural town and the outskirts of the massive Phoenix metropolitan area. (So big that the surrounding cities have all merged together so the only way you know one ended and another started is a sign at the side of the busy streets.)
At the beginning of each trip, I drive through a gorgeous desert landscape: rigid mountains and hills covered in rock, dirt, and desert trees like mesquires, palo verde, and iron woods. Occasionally we glimpse the iconic saguaros, see the herd of wild horses, or (in Spring) enjoy the colorful wildflowers.
As we start to get closer to civilization, the billboards start. You know the type: “Worldest’s Greatest Pancakes! 15 miles ahead” or a familiar band is scheduled to play next weekend at the casino. Some are intentionally flashy to catch your eye and some are so vague you wonder why someone spent a lot of money on it.
A lot of business owners treat their homepage like a billboard: overly flashy or full of generalities. But it isn’t. It’s more.
3 questions your homepage must answer
It is true that you’ve got less than 5 seconds to hook your ideal audience. You have to answer the visitor’s first question: What is this, and is it for me?
Recently, I worked with a medium-sized company and their website H1 headline was simply: “Welcome.” That’s it. A vague single word that did not share any immediate validation to site visitors — nor keywords for search engines, but that is another point entirely.
As a family-owned business with many decades behind them, their goal was to be friendly and welcoming. So we changed it to: “Welcome to [company name], Your Trusted [specific keyword] Provider since [year established].” Within a month, their bounce rate dropped and traffic for that keyword increased.
That leads us into my first tip. Use your hero headline (H1) and its supporting text to let the right people know:
- What you do?
- Who you do it for?
- Why it matters?
My client, Dr. Linda Carr, provides one-on-one coaching for physicians preparing for medical board exams. Her H1 headline needed to make it clear instantly what she was offering and to whom. We also used supporting text to lean into one of the main pain points of her ideal clients: lack of confidence and a preparation strategy customized to their unique specialtities and needs.
Make the next step obvious with a clear call-to-action
After reassuring your ideal audience that they are in the right place, every homepage needs a clear call-to-action. Preferably one above the fold and repeated once or twice further down for those who scroll down. (That’s right, most users spend 57% of their time above the scroll and many never make it down to your site footer.)
But don’t just slap any CTA button up. Be intentional, lean into your ideal audience’s needs: “Schedule a 15-minute Consultation”. Be aware of their challenges: “Book your first appointment”. Get personal: “Get your free estimate.”
Make sure it’s visible, clear, and specific.
Not sure how to write calls to action that encourage visitors to click? Take a peek at seven types of calls to action you can start using right now.
Warning: Avoid giving people too many options. Use your best judgement, but I often recommend to smaller businesses to keep with one main CTA and one backup.
Here’s my next tip. Test different CTA phrasings. “See Pricing” might work better than “Start Now,” or vice versa depending on your audience. Do your homework, get familiar with your ideal clients or customers, and test your language choices.
My client, Nika Gueci, was adding a new offer to her consulting business. We placed three calls to action on the new landing page at key decision points.
- The first call to action for Nika Gueci’s new service page was at the very top, before the scroll.
- The second call to action was placed directly after the 3 step process, at a key decision making point in the copy.
- The third and final was at the very bottom directly before the site footer and leaned into goals and aspirations of her ideal clients.
Know your audience’s pain points and challenges
You’re not selling features. You’re solving problems.
Yes, features are important but, let’s face it, they are boring. People don’t connect with features, even if they are literally doing a side-by-side comparison intended on making an important decision.
According to Gerald Zaltman, a Harvard Business School professor, 95% of purchasing decisions are emotional. Does that high number surprise you? Zaltman went on to say: “…we are driven by feelings. We must be engaged and impassioned by the interaction with your financial institution.”
Use that human drive for emotional connection to your advantage. The body of your homepage to reflect what your ideal client is struggling with, share into how you help, and backed up with carefully selected social proof — aka reviews or testimonials from other people just like them who solved their problems with your services or products.
One of my clients, North Star Sleep Solutions, is a dental practice that specializes in oral devices that can assist with sleep apnea symptoms. While knowing that information is important, it doesn’t make an emotional connection. Instead, we spoke directly to most patients’ current struggles and hopes with phrases like “get a good night’s sleep” and “wake up feeling rested and renewed.”
Don’t settle for boring. Use testimonials, subheads, and short blurbs to reinforce the emotional connection throughout your homepage copy.
Use social proof to build trust
Ok, so I mentioned this in the previous section but social proof is so important it needs to be highlighted on its own. In fact, 95% of people surveyed said that reviews influence their decision to buy or not buy a product or service.
Social proof shouldn’t be regulated to half-forgotten, dusty testimonial pages. A short quote, star rating, or logo bar strategically placed on your homepage can lower friction and dramatically increase potential leads’ openness to your business.
One of my clients, Runnion Equipment, had 65 Google reviews and an amazing 4.8 star rating. Though they were proud of that, they weren’t doing anything with them. I carefully went through all of their 5-star reviews, grouped them according to services, and began to sprinkle relevant social proof in key places of their website — including their homepage.
Customer reviews and client testimonials are marketing gold. The words of happy customers do a far better job selling your business to others that you can. Use them.
Don’t know where to begin? My next tip are some quick-win ideas you can do on a lazy afternoon or over the weekend.
- Add one standout quote near your homepage’s CTA
- Show logos of past clients near your services section
- Include a mini “as seen in” section if you’ve been featured anywhere
Want more examples? Discover how to reuse Google reviews and testimonials in seven creative ways.
Keep your homepage skimmable
As I mentioned earlier, hardly anyone reads a homepage top to bottom like a book anymore. We’re all busy people and when we click on a website, we’re usually searching for something specific.
Lean into that tendency by breaking your homepage copy into clear, easy-to-scan sections. If you have a single page site or are a smaller business, try this homepage framework:
- H1 headline (who you help) and CTA
- The problem you solve with an optional testimonial
- How you do it (services and/or approach) with an optional testimonial
- Mini about to help your visitors get comfortable with you and your business
- Final CTA
You want your homepage to have a natural reading flow so use images or icons to guide the eye through the copy. Even though many visitors don’t scroll down, avoid the temptation to cram the screen with a lot of information or animated effects. Visual clutter is a huge turnoff for site visitors. Adding appropriate white space provides a calming experience and improves user experience.
Also, here is an important homepage copywriting tip: use plain language. That means avoiding industry-specific acronyms and jargon. You don’t have to “dumb down” your copy, but ask yourself: “Is this easily understood by my ideal audience?”
If you would have to explain the basic details on the first call to a potential customer or client for them to understand, then it needs to be simplified or clarified on your homepage.
Make Your First Impression Count
Think back to those billboards I pass on the I-10. They’re meant to get attention, sure, but they don’t guide you in. Click-baity lingo doesn’t answer your questions. Flashing animation doesn’t offer solutions to your problems.
A homepage isn’t a billboard shouting into the void. It’s the front door to your business. And a good front door does more than just look good. It invites the right people in, makes them feel seen, and gently points them toward the next step.
Your homepage doesn’t have to say everything, but it needs to say the right things, clearly and confidently.
Need help writing a homepage that works? We can help build one that welcomes, persuades, and converts the right people. Book a call to get started.
