Copywriting Series: What Should Really Be On Your Home Page?

I’ve been working on website copy for 3 interior designers over the last several weeks, and one thing is abundantly clear to all of us: great website copy is infinitely more than the words you see on the page.

Website copywriting is an artful balance between compelling, relatable language, business strategy, and psychology. 

In fact, it’s not all that different from interior design. When you design, you create more than a beautiful space:

• All the elements need to talk to each other and get along.
• The space needs to be functional for your client’s lifestyle.
• It needs to speak to them on a physical and emotional level.
• And you’re factoring in the past (your clients’ unique story and tastes) and the future (how they really want to live in their home). 

Creating beauty? Function? Strategy? Experience? THAT’s what your website copy has to do, too!

Over the next few months, I’ll be sharing our Copywriting Series, giving you some insight and strategies for each of the pages on your website. And it all starts with… your Home Page. Here’s what every designer’s Home Page needs to succeed.

1. Your dream clients should be able to immediately identify themselves on your Home Page.

Your ideal client is the WHO of your website copy, and this person should be able to instantly recognize themselves in your Home Page copy. For example, let’s say you specialize in design that makes your clients feel like they’re on vacation all year long. That’s fantastic, but WHO are those interiors for?

Busy families with young kids? Working couples with kids out of the nest? Bachelors? Retirees eager to downsize and live the good life?

I know it’s tempting to avoid niching down, but I can promise you that speaking directly to the clients you love working with will attract more of them than trying to cast a wide net. Far more.

How to do it:

• You could directly state who you serve, or imply it indirectly by speaking to their lifestyle, tastes, or goals.

3. Potential clients should quickly understand what you’re really offering. (Hint: It’s not design.)

This is the WHAT of your Home Page copy. Gone are the days when you could get away with saying “we design beautiful spaces.” It’s not very unique, and it’s missing an emotional connection that will help potential clients see that you understand them. So… what are you really doing for your clients?

Do you bring them a calm and soothing escape from the busy world? A place to connect better with their children and spouse? A haven where their creative genius feels inspired?

If you understand what your client really wants their home to help them do in their lives, you can speak to that final result. Then, your services become so much more compelling — it fulfills your clients on a physical and emotional level.

That’s what will motivate them to book with you.

How to do it:

• I highly recommend reading this post on understanding your clients’  3 levels of need. These are your clients’ pain points, which you can help them solve.
• Address these pain points directly in your website copy.
• Paint a picture of the solutions they can achieve with your help.

4. Your Home Page copy should establish a connection between you and your dream clients.

They are two layers to creating a connection with your potential clients. First, when they are reading (or skimming) your website copy, they should be thinking, “Wow, she really gets me!”

Second, they should also feel that they can relate to you. No, that doesn’t mean your dream client has to be your personality twin, but if you can show empathy and relate to their struggles, goals, or dreams — you are establishing a deeper emotional connection, not just a surface one. 

This is the WHY of your Home Page copy — your mission, very quick background (can be longer on the About page), and why you do what you do. (Just make sure to frame everything through the lens of your clients being the hero!)

How to do it:

• Be visible and introduce yourself (I like to an include an About section on the Home Page which includes WHY you do what you do)
• Be personable yet professional
• Use “I” when introducing yourself — unless you have a larger staff and want to keep everything in 3rd person to feel more like a team.

5. Your Home Page copy should lead potential clients down a defined path.

I bet you don’t include fifty sofa options when you present your design concept, right? The same is true of your Home Page’s Calls to Action — if done intentionally and strategically, less is more. Too often, I see scattered experiences that give the website visitor too much information or too many buttons to click.

Your website copy needs to create a user experience — a defined path that you want a potential client to take, from landing on your Home Page to booking a call with you. The more selective options you can give people, the better off you will be.

This is also the HOW of your Home Page copy — they meet you on the Home Page, and by taking them to the next step (learning about you and your services), you show them the process & how they can achieve their goals with you.

How to do it:

• For the most part, your Home Page’s Calls to Action (usually buttons) should take potential clients to your Services page or your Contact page. They will have these options and others in the menu (About, Portfolio, etc.), so don’t throw everything at them. Only provide buttons to what you really want them to do: learn more about your offerings or book with you.
• Make sure your Calls to Action are very, very direct. Buttons like Book a Call, Work With Us, Browse Services, or Learn More are perfectly short and to the point.

6. Might go without saying, but your Home Page should have text.

The flipside of information overload is too little information. We have all seen the minimalist style websites that have a single, impressive interior (with a view) as the “Home Page” and very little copy anywhere else on the site. I understand the angle here, I really do. These sites are intended to  make you look high-end and let your work speak for itself. 

However, there are a few reasons I don’t suggest this approach. 

First, from an SEO perspective, it is a huge missed opportunity. If there is very little copy on your website, Google won’t have much content of yours to surface in search results. (This is one of the reasons blogging is so powerful for SEO. The more relevant content on your website, the more search engines perceive you as an industry leader and the more information they have to surface in search results.)

Second, by not speaking directly to your dream client, you miss the opportunity to attract that person. Even if your website succeeds in getting potential clients to reach out, it will be a range of people you may or may not want to work with. Wouldn’t you rather attract more of your favorite projects and people?? I would!

How to do it:

• Have more than a few lines of text on your Home Page. I suggest at least 3 sections — an introductory section, a section that shows a quick overview of your services, and an about section. You could also have a process section and/or a section for your lead magnet (which is great).

7. Your Home Page should be SEO-friendly.

Last but not least, SEO. It is so important that your Home Page takes SEO into account. Search engines are looking for specific features (like headings or keywords) when cataloguing your site as a potential source of information for search queries.

If we want your website to pop up in search results, we have to pay attention to these things:

• Make sure you are using headers for the most important ideas — this is good for SEO and makes it easier for people to skim your website and still get the important points quickly.
• Weave your SEO keywords throughout. These words should be related to your industry, your service, your region, and your ideal clients.
• Add a meta description to every page. It should use your keywords and very directly state what you do, who you do it for, and where you do it.

When I’m writing website copy, I always structure the Home Page for SEO (sections with headers), then I write the copy. Then after I’m finished with the copy, I do another run-through to see where we can add additional keywords or their synonyms naturally throughout.

Wondering if your website copy is already doing these things? Or if you should consider a copy makeover?

You can download our Website Copy Diagnostic Test here!

xoxo,
Jaquilyn