What you say on your home page will affect whether a visitor stays awhile and takes you up on your offer or leaves never to return. Here are the five top copy mistakes that I see writers make … and how to fix them.
1. Welcome To My Home Page!
Don’t waste valuable virtual real estate welcoming your visitors. This has become trite and very unnecessary. Just get to the point with your headline. [Ed. note: I made this mistake on my own website but I swiftly changed it after reading Carma's post.]
2. Feature Focused Headlines
All visitors to your website are wondering one thing: What’s in this for me? Telling them about the features you offer – quick turnaround, excellent background … whatever particular skills you have as a writer – isn’t going to tell them this.
Your headlines need to be benefit focused. How does the fact that you provide a quick turn around benefit your clients? How does your background help your clients accomplish their goals?
Your headlines need to be all about them … not you.
3. Big Blocks of Copy
Reading online is hard enough without being faced with large blocks of text. Break it up. Use bullet points. Use benefit-focused sub-heads. Divide your paragraphs into smaller portions.
4. Trying To Be Someone You Are Not
Be conversational in your copy. Just because being in-your-face works for someone else, doesn’t mean it will work for you. The copy on your home page is an opportunity for visitors to get to know you. Write your copy in your own voice, using a style that is congruent and authentic to who you are.
5. Clever Turns of Phrase
O.K. You are a clever, intelligent writer. But do all your headlines have to allude to alliteration … provide a funny twist … or illustrate your intelligence?
Sometimes a clever headline is just what it needed. But you also need to have benefit-focused headlines sprinkled throughout. Remember, a good percentage of your visitors will only read your headlines. They should be able to get the gist of what you are trying to communicate just from reading them.
Poor use of copy and copy optimization techniques is the fifth deadly mistake of home page design. If you would like to know what all five deadly mistakes are — and learn how to create a more effective website — grab a copy of my book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How To Fix Them!. Grab your copy during the Virtual Housewarming Party, March 15 through April 1, and you’ll also get additional valuable goodies.
Carma Spence-Pothitt has more than 20 years experience in marketing communications, as well as writing and editing. She’s the author of Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How To Fix Them!.
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I also say 'Welcome to my website' on my home page! I'll have to fix that quickly. I probably have to have a little more salesmanship too. I'm not a natural salesman at heart so I feel like I don't sound like myself when I write like that, but I know I can find a happy medium. Thanks for the tips, Carma!
These are all great tips. They really make you think. Another one that an image/marketing consultant Rachel Weingarten told me recently: what's different about you–what one thing do you offer as a writer than no one else does? It's a tough question, but once you come up with the answer it's definitely homepage material.
Being yourself really is key, and harder than expected. It's easy to steer your voice to where you think your readers want to go, but in reality, they just need to know why you're voice is unique.
These are good guidelines. I think a real willingness to feel comfortable stating what sets us apart is what can make a home page more interesting. It's one thing to "know" it, it's another to take the next step and get it on the page.
Ugh, welcome messages are the worst! Great tips – more people need to pay attention!!!
Great tips Carma! I recently revamped my profile and blog and spent eons stripping drafts of long-winded, baroque copy down to the bare bones. A sage graduate professor drilled into me that if every word on a page doesn't have a singular purpose then neither does the entire page. I grappled with "Hi and thanks for stopping by!" (can you imagine!?) for quite a while before realizing it was up to my copy's tone and style to welcome visitors for me.