I’ve been writing a lot of website copy lately. I’m consistently caught between the web designer’s instructions and the desire of the client. The client, invariably, wants more content on the front page of the website. If they can’t get more text, they will usually ask for different wording. While client satisfaction is a driving factor in my business, when it comes to the Home Page, my answer is always the same. “Your Home Page has a job to do.”
How it looks, how easy it is to use and how readily the search engines can find it are the 3 main focus areas for web designers and copywriters developing a website. I approach the Home Page like a puzzle. Getting the keywords and phrases in relevant text, making it fit in a prescribed area and ensuring it supports the brand of the client is no small feat.
Your Home Page needs to accomplish 3 things. They are:
1) Attract search engines
If your website is not ranking with search engines – specifically Google, Bing and Yahoo – your business is not going to get much traffic. Enough has been written about the importance of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). I’m not going to flog that horse again. It’s imperative that your Home Page contains 6 to 8 keywords or phrases that your prospects will be using in online searches.
My friend Kevin Walsh, a talented copywriter and owner of Copy Unlimited in the U.K. says it best:
Writing for the web is a delicate balancing act. You can easily move up the search-engine rankings by stuffing your copy full of keywords. And you end up with something like this:
Welcome to Widgetz International, the specialists in red widgets. We’ve been manufacturing red widgets for over half a century, and there’s not much we don’t know about red widgets. We eat, breathe and sleep red widgets. We spend $100,000 a year in R&D on red widgets. Red widgets are our life. We’re just passionate about red widgets. If you’re looking for red widgets, you’ve come to the right place. Click here to read more about red widgets.
It’s a sure way to lose the reader. A far better way to move up the rankings is to have useful, relevant copy with keywords occurring naturally throughout.
2) Drive website usability
I had a client who insisted I tell the web designer to remove the tables at the side and bottom of her website so we could include more copy. Those “tables” happened to be navigation buttons. She didn’t understand their relevance until I related it to her business. She is a property developer, so I explained that the buttons on the side of her website were like the hallways and doors in a house. If she didn’t have them, her visitors were going to have a difficult time moving from room to room. The buttons at the bottom linked directly to her Services pages. I equated them to the electricity and plumbing in her house. When she suggested we add more text, I explained that the text box was like a window in a brick wall. We could only use the space that was there if she was prepared to pay for a redesign of her site.
What this client failed to understand is that websites undergo their own construction phase. Every graphic, colour, font and shape are picked for a specific reason. It’s critical that web design reviews are carefully considered before giving the designer instructions to build the website. While things are easily moved in the design phase, once the website is under construction, it can be costly and time consuming to make even small changes in design. To use my building analogy, you wouldn’t get to the decorating phase of a new house and decide to swap out the bricks, would you?
3) Leave a first impression
The most common complaint I hear about the Home Page is that it doesn’t say everything it needs to. Most people are confusing the Home Page with the “About Us” page. The Home Page is designed to give a brief summary of your company and that’s it. You can wax lyrical about your business philosophy on the Profile page. Your credentials and references can be included on whole pages of their own. Your Home Page is not the place for lengthy descriptions about anything. It’s just not.
If the Home Page isn’t working well, the rest of the website probably isn’t worth much. A properly designed and implemented website will represent your brand, generate leads and allow you to develop relationships with your clients. Don’t get hung up on what is missing from the Home Page, and let it do the job it was designed to do.
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