“We need more traffic.”
Maybe you do. But before you spend more money getting people to your website, I’d check what happens when they arrive.
Open your homepage and pretend you’ve never heard of your business. Within five seconds, can you tell:
- What the business does?
- Who it helps?
- Why someone might choose it?
- What to do next?
If you have to scroll through three paragraphs of “innovative solutions” to find out, your visitors probably won’t bother.
You’ve invited people into the shop, but forgotten to put signs on the shelves.
The trouble with sounding too professional
I see the same words on business websites all the time:
Trusted. Experienced. Bespoke. Quality. Customer-focused.
There’s nothing wrong with being any of those things. The trouble is that they don’t tell a potential customer much. Your competitors probably use them too.
Take this homepage line:
We provide a comprehensive range of accountancy services.
It tells me you’re an accountant. It doesn’t tell me whether you’re the right accountant for me.
Now try:
Accounting and tax support for owner-managed businesses that want clearer numbers and fewer surprises.
I can picture who it’s for and what they might get from it. That’s far more useful than another claim to be “a leading provider”.
Try the five-second test
Ask someone who doesn’t know your business to look at your homepage for five seconds. Then hide the screen and ask them:
- What does this business do?
- Who is it for?
- What would you click next?
Don’t explain the page while they’re looking at it. You won’t be standing beside every visitor to translate it for them. If they struggle, start with the first screen of your homepage. Say plainly what you offer and who you offer it to. Give people an obvious next step, whether that’s viewing your services, booking a call or asking for a quote.
Then look at whether the rest of the page backs up that promise. Are there examples, reviews, answers to common questions or anything else that helps someone feel comfortable getting in touch?
More visitors won’t solve a confusing page
Traffic matters. SEO, ads and social media can all bring the right people to your site.
But if those people arrive and can’t work out whether you can help them, paying to send more of them there may get expensive very quickly.
Before increasing your marketing spend, give your homepage the five-second test. You might find that your next improvement is a better sentence, a clearer button or a more useful explanation of what you actually do.
That’s a much cheaper place to start.
