The Gift Of Grab; Writing Website Copy For Your Home Page

When writing copy for your website it has to be attention-grabbing. You have about 15 seconds to engage your readers. That’s it. If they decide your content isn’t what they are looking for they will move on and not look back.

Knowing how small your window is, how do you hook them and entice them to read more?

Make Your Message Clear

Often we try to be clever. Don’t.

Keep it simple and get to the point quickly. Do so in a way that will invite the right readers to the appropriate content based on their needs.

Get past the impulse to shout “We’re the greatest!” We’ve all heard this and, really, what else would you say, “We’re expensive and our service is for the birds”?

Speak directly to the customers’ needs. What keeps them up at night? How can you help them get some sleep?

Examples

Do: “Our widgets resist wear and tear up to 3x longer than our competitors…Click here to learn more.”
Don’t: “We sell the best widgets in the world…”

Do: Our clients have access to live support 24 hours a day…Click here to read our service guarantee.”
Don’t: “Our service is next to none…”

Learning how to stop talking about your features and benefits and start talking about the clients’ needs is trickier than it seems but a skill worth learning.

How Much Copy Is Enough?

The homepage is not where you cram every bit of information about your organization! It’s not even where you put most of the information about your organization.

It is an introduction. That’s it.

Include enough information to clarify who you are, what you do, and your Unique Selling Proposition along with a Call To Action.

Example

Insightly

It is immediately clear what they offer. Visitors can dig deeper through the simple navigation menu at the top, and request a demo right away.

When reviewing your homepage copy, think of one of my favorite quotes; “If I had more time, I would have written a shorter letter” and take the time to write a shorter letter – or in this case, homepage.