How to write a homepage that makes people stay

sarahelliswrite
Aug 5
4 min read

HINT: It's not sorcery

Think about every time you’ve come across a brand or small business online, and when you’ve clicked onto their homepage you’ve thought ‘ah, they get it. This is what I was looking for!’

You probably take a little scroll down, stopping to read glowing testimonials, pausing on the sections most relevant to you (which you find easily because the whole page is skillfully skimmable), and you’re gently guided right to where you need to be to make your purchase, send the enquiry or join the list.

It’s almost like they’re reading your mind.

How the heck do they do it?

Allow me to walk you through it, section by section.

The secret to a sticky homepage and how to keep your people reading

Start by making them the main characters, not you.

You love what you do, you’re a fantastic founder, your business is starting to grow, and it's really, really exciting. But alas, you are not the hero here.

Great homepages more or less start with:

You’re here because (where they are now) and you want (where they want to be).

They don’t often start with:

Welcome, I’m (name), and I am a (title – that people may or may not even understand)

This is your opportunity to paint a picture, and it's where your voice of customer research will come into its own.

Remember, it’s storytelling that builds connection, so resist the temptation to just dive in with a list of pain points and make someone feel crappy about how far they have to go to get what they want.

I’ll show you. Let’s imagine a luxury travel brand.

Their ideal client is a time-poor professional or couple who’s tired of generic, overcrowded holidays and wants something truly special. They crave unique, seamless, and luxurious travel experiences without the stress of planning, and they value expert guidance. They don’t want a holiday, they want an epic experience.

Swap this:

Hi, I’m Jane, a luxury travel advisor for uninspired holidaymakers...

For this:

Discover the extraordinary with tailor-made trips expertly put together by luxury travel specialists. We do more than plan holidays, we create transformative experiences for curious travellers who crave more than just a change of scenery. From iconic escapes to hidden gems, every itinerary is guaranteed to be your trip of a lifetime.

I can almost taste the coconuts, can’t you?

Still not sure where to start? Work with the problem they know they have, or the transformation they know they want – not the solution you’re trying to sell.

Speak in headlines, not paragraphs

Most website visitors don’t read; they scan. Fast.

Your homepage should be:

clear at a glance
skimmable in seconds
structured with bold headlines, short copy blocks, and CTA buttons

It should be super-duper easy for someone to find what they’re looking for on your homepage. Don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be – and seek feedback!

Still not sure where to start? Find a website you like. Not a competitor – you don’t want to end up parroting. Instead, choose one you’ve recently bought from and study the layout. How many words are in a section? Where do they use bullets? Mimic it.

Get your tone of voice and brand language down

You know pretty quickly if you click with someone, right? Imagine every time someone looks at your homepage, they’re meeting you for the first time. Give it some personality, or prepare them to make their hasty excuses and leave.

I’ve had too many conversations with stuck-in-the-past business owners at networking events who still think professional = boring. Yet dig a little deeper and you find out that they themselves choose to buy from businesses that don’t sound like a dusty old copy of the Oxford dictionary. Funny that.

Boring, bland, blending in? Bounce, bounce and bounce.

People like to be entertained. They’ve liked to be entertained since the dawn of time. So don’t be scared to inject some voice into your copy.

Look, like this:

Our mission is to empower in-house legal teams to operate at their best.

As a leading alternative legal services provider, we are dedicated to supporting in-house counsel with high-quality legal expertise tailored to the demands of modern business.

We deliver practical, responsive, and solutions-focused legal support, combining deep technical knowledge with a flexible, client-centric approach that enhances efficiency and reduces complexity.

Snore.

Try this instead:

We exist to bring out the best in in-house lawyers.

Given we’re the highest-rated alternative legal provider for in-house teams, it’s safe to say we know our stuff. But we deliver it with clarity, flexibility, and none of the jargon.

Yes, we’re lawyers, but we’re humans first. Promise.

See? Still profesh.

Still not sure where to start? Go back to your voice of customer research and use their language. Call yourself what they call you. If they’re saying to you, ‘I’ve been round the houses with lawyers, I can’t understand – I just need someone to talk human to me’, then say that.

Guide, don’t shove

The best homepages act like tour guides, not encyclopedias.

Your homepage should:

show who you are
show what you do
show who it’s for (and who it’s not)
give them a clear next step (book, browse, buy)

That’s it.

No need to cram everything in here. That’s what your About and Services pages are for.

Still not sure where to start? Pick one goal for your homepage – for example, book a call – and lead them there.

Sign off with a confident call to action

If your homepage ends with a whimper (or worse, no cta at all), you're wasting every second of attention you just earned.

Think:

Ready to make even more money with your ecommerce platform?
Support, community and one awesome wingwoman right this way. Let’s get your next course launched and loved.
Tired of overcomplicated financial support? So were we. Let’s fix that.

Make it feel bold, human, and high-trust. And don’t be afraid to tell them exactly what to do next.