Tips on Writing Amazing WordPress Homepage Content
A homepage often becomes the first touchpoint with your business.
You have mere seconds to tell about what you do and why a customer should choose you. If you have not managed to grab their attention, they may just leave without exploring further. It takes 7 seconds to form the first impression.
Therefore, yes, a homepage matters.
Writing a homepage feels like too much pressure after what we have said. Still, after this article, you will see that it is not rocket science. We will take a look at the must-haves of every homepage and discover tips that will help you write an amazing WordPress homepage.
Smart Homepage Structure for WordPress
All homepages have a similar structure. This structure allows them to give the fullest business overview of the smallest amount of words. It is also easier to start writing homepage content if you have a structure.
So here is what every homepage should have:
Headline
A headline is the first thing a visitor sees on the website. The text size is big and the headline should be as short as possible. We will talk more about the headline later.
Sub-Headline
It is a small description under the headline that is longer. Usually, business bonds with customers through pain points in there and describe shortly what they do.
Call-to-Action
Call-to-action is usually a button like “Try for free”, “Get a consultation”, “shop now”, etc. It should be above the fold (a part of the page you see without scrolling).
Benefits
Tell customers why they need your product or service and how it can help them fix their problems. It is usually presented in the form of bullet points.
Features
In this section, you may elaborate more about what your product or service does. It is better to have a bullet list as well.
Social Proof
It is about linking the testimonials of previous customers. A perfect testimonial contains a photo, a name, and a small quote that summarizes their attitude towards your business.
Navigation
A customer who did like your homepage is interested enough to discover more but they are not interested enough to make an effort to discover more. So make a menu bar simple and visible.
Offer
You can offer content or a sale. People like free stuff. You can utilize all the power of the FOMO (fear of missing out) and limit your offer in time to collect more leads.
Success Indicators
If you have been recognized, had a good ranking somewhere, or won some prize, you should show it off on your homepage.
Tips on Writing Amazing WordPress Homepage Content
Sadly, knowing the structure is not enough. As we have mentioned, the majority of brands use a similar structure, but some of them manage to get leads, and some of them don't. In this section, we will discuss additional tips on how to make your homepage stand out and discuss some structure components more.
1. Visitor Perspective
Homepages are not created so that you can show off your business. They are written so that a potential customer can discover what your business is about quickly and easily.
Therefore, the first rule of writing the homepage content is to mind the visitor. It affects both content and the form.
You should give only the information that will be useful for the customer, especially at the very top of a page. For example, a customer will not care whether you worked with Google or not if they still have no idea what you actually do or sell.
They will want to hear more about what benefits they will get from interacting with your business than how many offices you have and what is your story. If you want to check on whether the text is written for a visitor, take note of pronouns: user-oriented texts use “you” and “your” more often than “we” and “our”.
The language should be visitor-friendly as well. If you put an excessive amount of terms and jargon in the text, a reader will not fight through them but rather leave the page. The same goes for long sentences, constant use of passive voice, and language of administration.
Let’s take a look at FindLaw as an example. If you have ever dealt with laws, you know how their sentences and vocabulary are: long, confusing, and you end up rereading the same sentence three times before you get to slowly realize what is written.
You can not tell from this homepage. They use the language of users: no law terms and no passive voice.
2. Headline Tips
As we have mentioned before, the headline is the first phrase that a user will read as soon as they enter your website. You have approximately 5-12 words to grab their attention. So how can I use these words in a smart way?
Writing a headline is extremely challenging, here is how you can face that challenge with the victory of higher conversion rates as a result:
Create as Many Versions as You Can
It costs nothing to write many versions on paper or type them in a document. You will go back to previous versions, combine them into something new, get completely new ideas after rereading previous versions or realize that the second version out of dozens was the best.
However, if you do not write anything down, you will forget great ideas or not write a single word after hours of staring at the blank document.
Unique and Beneficial
In your headline, you need to have one feature of yours that competitors do not have and, at the same time, it is what your visitors will want badly. Clearly defining your competitive advantage would help you curate high-quality content as now you would know what to focus on.
Include the Reader
If a visitor reads your headline and there is the smallest thing about them or what they would like to become, you will grab their attention easily. So make sure to profoundly analyze your target audience to fully understand their needs and offer the best solution to their pains.
Find Strong Words
Words like “very”, “great” and “professional” are so 2010. Try to find more descriptive words. They will both save space (think “spotless” instead of “very clean” and “fascinating” instead of “very interesting”) and communicate your values better.
Write It at the End
Before you come up with the best headline, you should dive deep into benefits, features, target audience, and testimonials. After you have researched all of that, it will be easier to find what is so special about your business and your customers.
Let’s take a look at Freshbook’s headline. They address their target audience, meaning “non-accountants”, define what they do (accounting) and make target audience dreams come true: they do not have to do the accounting.
3. Embrace The White Space
The worst thing that can happen to a homepage is too much text with too bright colors and too many pictures. A reader does not know you yet so they will not put too much effort into reading every word on the home page.
Put one point in one paragraph. It is much easier to read short passages. Many users also may read only the first sentence of the paragraph to filter out the information that they need. Therefore, put your main point in the first sentence and elaborate on it more in the next ones.
Do not list every benefit and every feature that your business has. You should prioritize those that communicate your uniqueness and are more attractive to potential customers than other points.
DropBox owns everything out of white space and still, the page does not seem empty. You know what they do and there is a call-to-action.
4. Keywords Are a Must
If you want to be noticed by search engines and, consequently, users, you have to put keywords in the homepage content.
How do you find the right keywords?
Every website has its main topic. Let’s take CV writing help. They may use such words as “CV”, “hire”, “career”, “personal profile”, “skills”, “education”, “experience”, etc. Basically, it is everything that is related to the topic and everything you can find in an actual CV.
You can make research and scan websites of competitors as well. Take notice of what words are used more often than the others, put them through keyword tools to find out their ranking, and make a list of the most effective ones.
5. Create Content with Scannable Structure
Most of the website visitors do not have time to read all the information on your home page. So they just scan through it to see whether or not it has something interesting to offer.
Dividing your content with subheadings and structuring it into logical blocks would make the information easy-to-comprehend and would convey your idea and offer even to those who don’t have time to read everything.
You can use special tools like HotJar to see when website visitors stop scanning your page. Segmenting all the information into blocks, using bullet points and elements for visualization would help to improve the parts when you lose visitor’s attention.
Conclusion on WordPress Homepage Content Writing
A good homepage will make your business succeed but writing the homepage content is that bumpy ride to success.
Yet, as long as you know the structure, use friendly-user language, pay enough attention to the headline, keep it short, and find the right keywords, you will be alright.
Creating something from scratch is difficult only when you do not have enough knowledge. We hope that you do have a great toolkit for writing an amazing WordPress homepage now!
This post is written by Alyse Falk. She is a freelance writer with experience in digital marketing, technologies, content marketing, marketing trends, and branding strategies.
