What should go on a homepage?

Your homepage needs to answer five questions: what do you do, who do you do it for, are you for me, what do I do next, and how much does it cost. Put the answers in roughly that order down the page, and get the first couple in before anybody has to scroll.

That’s pretty much it. Everything else on a homepage is optional, and most of it is stuff you want to say, which is a different list altogether.

I’ve been building websites since 2010 and we look after about 70 of them now. I look at the analytics on most of those and talk to the owners about them all the time. The homepages that struggle nearly always make the same mistake. They talk about the business. The history, the team, the values, the dog that comes into the office on Fridays. Meanwhile the person who’s landed there has a couple of basic questions and can’t find the answers anywhere.

My rule of thumb is you’ve got about five seconds to persuade someone to stick around. Selling them anything comes a lot later. If they don’t find what they’re after in those five seconds, they hit back and try the next result on Google (or whatever the AI search thing served up).

Why does the top of the homepage matter so much?

Because it’s the bit everybody sees, on a phone or a massive monitor. And people don’t really read websites. They scan them. They look at the big heading, maybe a sentence or two under it, and decide if they’re in the right place. So the first two or three of these questions need answering right up there, and the rest can follow as they scroll.

1. What do you do?

Say what you do, in plain words, at the very top. It’s so obvious I feel a bit daft writing it down, but loads of homepages don’t manage it. I’ve looked at solicitors’ websites where you scroll the whole homepage, past the awards and the “insights” and a row of key people, and it never actually says they’re solicitors. You’re expected to work it out eventually.

Nobody works it out eventually. They leave.

Your main headline should say what you do. If you really want something a bit clever up there, fine, but put a plain sentence straight underneath that says what you do and who for. A headline like “We look after your legal problems” might feel boring to you. To somebody who’s just typed “family solicitor near me” into Google, it’s exactly what they wanted to read.

2. Who do you do it for?

The next thing people want to know is whether you work with people like them. The easiest way to show it is a row of client logos near the top with a “Trusted by” line. Somebody spots a business like theirs and thinks, right, they do this for people like me. We do it on most of the sites we build.

You can also list the types of customer or sectors you work with, or just say it in the sentence under your headline. “For family businesses in South Yorkshire” does the job without any fuss.

3. Are you for me?

This one’s close to the last one, but it goes a step further. It’s where you qualify people.

“We work with charities” tells me who you do it for. “We work with charities in the north of England” tells me whether I’m in or out. Add a size, a location, a type of job you do or don’t take on. Whatever lets the right person read it and think “yep, that’s me” without having to ask.

Qualifying feels scary because you’re telling some people to go elsewhere. That’s healthy. You’d rather the wrong people leave now than book a call and waste an hour of your week. Case studies and testimonials from customers who look like your visitor help a lot here too.

4. What do I do next?

Once someone’s decided you might be right for them, tell them what to do. Pick one clear next step and use the same one all the way through the site.

“Contact us” is fine as far as it goes. It’s better when the button says what actually happens, like “Book a free consultation” or “Get a quote”. “Get started” could mean anything. Put the button in your header so it’s always there, and repeat it at the bottom of every page, after people have read enough to want it.

Watch out for sending people somewhere they don’t care about yet. A download of your annual report at the top of the homepage is asking a lot of someone who still isn’t sure what you do.

It’s also worth remembering you get two kinds of visitor. Some are still weighing you up, and some already know they want you. You can have a specific button for that second lot, and a softer “talk to us” one sat next to it for everybody else.

5. How much does it cost?

Nearly every homepage misses this one. Somebody likes what they’ve seen so far, and the next thing their brain asks is whether they can afford you. If there’s no price anywhere, they assume it’s too much, and off they go.

You don’t need a full price list on the homepage. A starting price, or a “Pricing” link in the main menu, does the job. I’ve written about why you should put prices on your website if you need talking round. Ours are on our pricing page: websites start at £5,000 and most land between £8,000 and £12,000.

What about everything else?

The team photos, the company history, how many marathons the MD’s run. Put some of it lower down, or on an About page, if it makes you happy. Nobody stays for it.

A potential customer cares about what you can do for them and not a lot else. Harsh, but it’s how you behave on other people’s websites.

What does this look like on a real website?

We rebuilt the website for Rucklidge Law, a solicitors’ firm that does family and children’s law. Their old site was an off-the-shelf WordPress template with stock photos, legal jargon and hardly a call to action anywhere.

On the new one:

• every headline is written to answer “what’s in it for me?”
• one call to action runs through the whole site: “Book your free 30-minute consultation now”
• the navigation was cut down to the two things their clients actually want, services and fees
• the fees are published, which you don’t see on many solicitors’ websites

Every service page follows the same order as well: what the service is, the process, the likely cost, testimonials, then a contact form. Conversion rates are up by as much as 35%, and the site loads in about two seconds, down from six. (Speed counts here too. Your answers are no good to anyone if the page takes an age to show them.)

How do I check my own homepage?

Open your homepage on your phone and pretend you’ve never heard of your business. Look at the top of the page for five seconds and count how many of the five questions you can answer. Then scroll down and see if the rest turn up, in something like the right order.

If people are visiting and you’re still not getting enquiries, I’ve written about why your website might not be getting enquiries too.

Most homepages I look at answer one of the five, if that. It’s the one about how long they’ve been in business, which wasn’t even on the list.