15 Expert Website Copywriting Tips for Every Page

January 18, 2020

I hear so many stories from people who dreamed of starting businesses from their days on the playground, but that was never my story. Instead, my interest in entrepreneurship was sparked in college.

Any time I had a new business idea during class, I’d write it down in a special notebook so I could spend my nights outlining my thoughts after speeding through my homework.

I may not have realized it then, but there was always one thing my mind envisioned before anything else: the new brand’s website.

I never went on to start any of those businesses (which is a relief after looking back at some of those early ideas!), but I channeled that initial entrepreneurial passion into a website copywriting business I still run today.

In the last four years, I’ve worked with nearly 150 website copywriting clients. As such, I can confidently say there are a few website copywriting tips that are true for most Home, About, and Services pages.

As I open a new round of my website copywriting program for entrepreneurs—taking my former custom copywriting process and turning it into a guided program—I wanted to share some of my favorite recommendations that you can quickly implement into your own website. 

My primary aim is to make website conversion and SEO strategies more user-friendly (and a lot more fun!), so let’s dig into the basics of why each page is important and the simple updates you can make that will make a world of a difference for your lead generation.

Improving your Home page 

I like to think of Home pages as the “central hub” of a business since it’s typically the most viewed page on a website. When someone types in your domain name in their search bar, they’ll be greeted by your Home page. 

Making a positive first (and lasting) impression on this page is your top priority.

Here’s how to make sure you properly welcome new visitors into your brand’s website.

Start with a clear headline

Wow, a website copywriter telling you to write a great headline. Shocker! (I’m not usually great at sarcasm since it goes over my head, but I think I nailed it this time. Right?) But seriously, your headline is really important. It’s one of the first elements of your Home page that a new visitor will notice and (hopefully) read.

There’s a science to creating a great headline, and it goes a little something like this:

• Do introduce what you offer (specialization) and who you offer it to (ideal audience).
• Don’t forget to include your differentiators (what makes you unique).
• Do include a targeted SEO keyword (but not if it makes your headline hard to read).
• Don’t make it overly wordy because it needs to be concise and clear.

You will most likely need to write multiple headlines before you write one that feels like a great fit for your Home page. I usually write 10 on the lower end and 20-30 on the higher end when I suggest headlines to my clients. That may seem like a lot, but your first headlines aren’t always the best options (trust me!).

I also like to keep a list of headline options on my phone’s notepad app so I’m able to write them down whenever I have inspiration. When you’re ready to determine which headline you want to use, ask a few trusted friends for their favorites and, if needed, test a couple of variations on your website with tools like Hotjar and Unbounce.

Give a direct call-to-action

It always surprises me when I go to someone’s Home page and I don’t see ANY information about what action I should take next. I see this most often with massively talented photographers and designers who feature beautiful slideshows of their work BUT they don’t include information on how to contact them or what to do if you’re interested in booking them.

Your Home page NEEDS a direct call-to-action. This isn’t a nice-to-have element; it’s an absolute must-have. An example of a call-to-action would be to visit another page on your website, fill out your contact form, sign up for your email list, or anything else that fits your strategy. You get the idea!

Your Home page is one of the only pages where having multiple calls-to-action makes sense. However, you’ll want to include them in a strategic order. We talk all about this inside my website copywriting group program, which you can sign up for and learn more about here.

Include visual interest

Now that you have a headline and a call-to-action that fits, you’ll most likely want to pair them with a stand-out image, graphic, or illustration that draws your audience’s eye and gives it that extra oomph.

I’ve recently been a HUGE fan of custom illustrations on client websites like NY Book Editors and JETLAUNCH. It probably doesn’t come as a surprise that I hired my brother Zach Hollatz to create icons and illustrations for my own website redesign in late 2018.

You can also create your own graphics inside free tools like Canva or use free stock photos from sites like Unsplash. If you’re looking specifically for diverse stock photos, I have to plug my friend LaShonda who does amazing work with Eye for Ebony.

When possible, I recommend budgeting for brand photography and lifestyle sessions. They’ve increased my professionalism and complemented my copywriting oh so well. I’ve worked with Carly Lavigne Photography, Kristen Dyer Photography, and Meghan Swanson Photography—all of whom I adore!

Add pathways for each offer

Each person who comes to your website will have a different set of goals, priorities, and problems they’re looking to solve. With this in mind, you’ll want to use your Home page as the main place where people can easily find where they need to go next.

Most of us offer more than one service or product (which I highly recommend so you can diversify your business model), so linking to targeted landing pages will help you better connect with each ideal segment of your audience. Then people can self-identify what they need help with as you direct them to the website page that best fits their needs.

When you create this pathway strategy, think about what services you want to offer and who is the ideal client for each one. What do they need assistance with? What pain points are involved? What kind of solutions are they interested in? What does solving this problem ultimately do for them? All of these answers can help you create better pathways on your Home page.

Offer a lead magnet (or freebie)

Many people like to use their Home page as a way to build their email list. Once someone becomes an email subscriber, you can directly communicate with them and provide educational content that helps you build brand trust. While your website captures your audience’s attention for a few seconds or minutes, your email marketing will keep it for the lifetime of their subscription.

It may seem like every brand is trying to grow their email list, but that’s because this strategy works! In order to stand out, you must give your subscribers something of immense value before signing up. You can do this by including an email sign-up form on your Home page that connects to a lead magnet. These freebies can include worksheets, ebooks, quizzes, email courses, video trainings, and more.

If you are looking to offer lead magnets and start your email list, I recommend Flodesk for beginners who want to design beautiful emails and increase their open rates, and ConvertKit for experienced content creators who want access to advanced features. I have used both products and LOVE them!

All of these tips will give you a great start on your Home page, but let’s talk about your About page next. 

Refining your About page 

Most people will say About pages are the hardest to write. 

This is usually because they hate talking about themselves, but in a minute, I’ll tell you why this no longer needs to be a fear.

About pages give us difficulty because it needs to somehow tell your entire brand story in a memorable way while staying incredibly concise and clear. Oh, and it has to grab your audience’s attention and get them excited enough to explore the rest of your website. That’s no easy feat!

If you have been struggling with your About page, here are a few website copywriting tips you’ll want to follow.

Don’t make your About page all about you

This same website copywriting tip is true when you write content for the rest of your website pages, but it’s especially true for your About page.

Let’s visualize this for a second. Imagine that someone just heard about your brand through a conversation with a friend. They don’t know much about what you offer, so they visit your About page to learn more about your brand. If all they see is a close-up headshot of you with a long bio that only includes personal facts about you, your audience won’t know how that information relates to them. 

It’s better to begin your copy by addressing your ideal audience member directly. Then, you can focus on sharing the bigger “why” and mission behind your business in a way that deeply connects with their values. At this point, they’ll resonate enough with your messaging to be interested in learning more about you through a personal bio.

Add at least one headshot of you

People want to work with other people, not faceless logos. Don’t be afraid to show your face (and smile!) on your About page. I recommend selecting a personal headshot where you are looking directly at the camera. This instills a feeling of trust, authority, and confidence.

If you want to add other lifestyle or branded photos to your About page, you have complete freedom to do so. Lead with a close-up headshot and then sprinkle the other images throughout your page. It’s a great way to infuse your personality.

For professional brand photography, I recommend looking at Laylee Emadi Photography and Julia Mary Photography (who is local to Minneapolis) for inspiration. They do a fantastic job of capturing the person behind the brand while visually communicating their brand story. For another example, my About page features a personal headshot with a few Polaroid-style photos toward the middle that’s a perfect fit with my style. 

Make sure your mission statement is clear

Much like your Home page, your About page will need to address the mission of your business. A mission statement is one of the most important pieces of copy you will ever write because it acts as a short brand summary.

You can use your mission statement on your website, digital and print marketing materials, or even edit it for your social media channels. It can also be used as your elevator pitch at networking events.

Here are a few things you’ll want to include in your mission statement: 

• Who you are (brand development)
• Who you serve (audience)
• How you help them (positioning)
• What you offer (specialization) 
• Why they should care (differentiator) 

If you want to learn more about creating a mission statement, I’ll teach you exactly how to write one inside my free CopyCPR email course, which you can sign up for by clicking here. I even give subscribers the opportunity to send their mission statements to me for personal feedback. It’s so much fun!

Internally link to your core Services pages

This is a BIG opportunity that many creative entrepreneurs are missing. It’s usually because they don’t know how beneficial it is to use this easy yet effective SEO strategy.  

Internal linking simply means that you are strategically adding links to key pages throughout your website. It tells search engines like Google that this page is important and relevant to your audience. (You can see how I did this by looking at my About page which links to my Website Copywriting and Content Creation services. Just promise me you won’t go crazy and link to every page on your website after reading this. Only choose one to three max links for your About page.)

I’ll save you from confusing SEO jargon (you’re welcome!) and briefly end this section by mentioning that internal linking will ultimately help you strengthen each page and your overall website’s performance in search. If you want more SEO tips, you can read this beginner’s guide to SEO.

Include some personal fun facts

Your About page is the perfect place to infuse more of your personality into your copy. What you decide to share as a “fun fact” totally depends on your brand. Some fun facts may be more of a fit than others, so I recommend coming up with a master list of commonly known (and little-known) facts about you that will dazzle your website visitors. Then you can narrow down your favorites to feature on your About page.

Are you obsessed with binging crime documentaries on Netflix? Do you volunteer at an animal shelter in your local community? Do you always have a stash of candy by your desk? Do you know how to clap with one hand and want to tell people about it? (Just me? Okay…)

The best part about sharing these fun facts is that it will personally connect you with your audience. I’ve received emails from people in my community who really liked learning about my self-published poetry collection and the bible verse that guides my business among other things on my About page. Start collecting those facts and enlist your friends’ help if needed.

Strengthening your Services page

When written in a strategic way, your Services page will become one of your best money makers as a service-based entrepreneur. Inside your Services page, you’ll need to outline the packages you offer and who they are the best fit for.

There are also a few more things you’ll want to include, which we’ll talk about now with these easy-to-implement website copywriting tips.

Mention the benefits before the features

It’s cool if you talk about how each client will get three 1:1 coaching calls with you and access to a private Facebook group, but no one cares if you haven’t talked about what they’ll actually get from working with you. This is the difference between leading with a feature and a benefit. 

What is it that your audience wants? Is it more clarity, confidence, rest, peace, or something else entirely? Once you understand the benefits that you can offer new clients, make sure you create specific messaging around what results you can help your audience get through your services.

For example, if you help people gain more clarity, is it the kind of clarity that will revolutionize the way they set health goals or will it help them clarify their roadblocks to creating a healthy routine? The more specific you can be, the better.

Re-introduce yourself

There might be people who come to your Services page who haven’t seen your Home or About page. You can’t assume that people know all about who you are and what you offer. 

Here comes the tricky part. You need to give a brief summary of this information on your Services page in a way that adds something new for the people who have already visited those pages BUT doesn’t alienate the people who have only seen your Services page.

As a website strategist, I help my clients understand where they should introduce themselves and how to do it in a meaningful way that doesn’t distract from their message. When you get it just right, everything flows so smoothly.

I handle this inside the group program for my clients, but for now, I’ll say that it’s usually best to re-introduce yourself between the intro copy and your service package breakdown. (To see an example, you can look at my Services page.) This is an especially good idea for people who are writing longer Services pages. 

List every deliverable inside your service package

This list should include all of the tangible features and intangible benefits as we talked about in a previous section. You want to make sure that every visitor understands exactly what’s included inside each package. 

When listing these deliverables, it’s usually best to put them in a bulleted-list format so it’s easy to scan. You might want to emphasize the important details by bolding or italicizing them in the list. You can play with how this looks on your own website. Make sure you adjust your deliverables list if you make changes to your package later on.

You can also assign a monetary value to each deliverable that adds up to an amount that’s higher than the total package investment. This makes your audience feel like they are saving money while getting access to really valuable add-ons. This is by no means required, and sometimes people take this way too far (like saying something is worth $4000+ but they’re selling it for $97…), but it can be a good tactic for some entrepreneurs.

Make it easy to contact you

This might feel like a simple recommendation, but you’d be surprised how many people launch a Services page with no mention of how to contact them. We can’t let that happen to you.

There are a few different strategies you can take, depending on the call-to-action you choose:

• Fill out a contact form and receive a personalized email reply (what I personally use)
• Schedule a free discovery call through a calendar scheduling tool 
• Sign up for an email list and receive an investment or pricing guide

If you choose the first option, you can include buttons to your Contact page, but you may also want to embed a contact form at the bottom of your Services page. This is so people don’t have to click another button in order to give you their information. It takes one more step out of the process which is optimal when we talk about website conversions!

Make sure you’ve completely outlined your sales and onboarding process so you can thoughtfully choose the best call-to-action for this page. 

Highlight your most important FAQs

Even the most well-written Services page won’t answer every single question your audience member has. When this happens, it’s best to include a frequently asked questions (FAQs) section. You can include questions about your process, timeline, project calendar, work philosophy, and so much more.

If your Services page is already pretty long, I typically recommend putting a FAQs section on your Contact page or a separate page you can link to. This is where it helps to have a website strategist on your side to help you make these kinds of decisions, hence my group program! (You knew that was coming, huh?)

If you want an experienced website copywriter and strategist to guide you through a proven process to write website copy with better results, apply to be a part of the next round of my group program!