Where Most Homepage Copy Goes Wrong

Most homepage copy tries to do too much at once. It tries to impress, explain, reassure, and differentiate within the first few seconds, and the result is usually a kind of soft overload — nothing lands, because everything is speaking at the same volume.

The biggest problem isn’t bad writing. It’s uncertainty. Brands often write as if the reader has unlimited patience, or as if they need to prove their worth before the visitor has even decided to stay. That creates noise. You can see it in the opening line: too wide, too vague, too careful. Something that sounds like it belongs anywhere, which means it belongs nowhere.

I notice this most when I’m editing for clients. The first pass almost always includes sentences that try to cover every aspect of the business: the values, the services, the promise, the difference, the ambition. All of it crammed into the space where a reader really only wants one thing: orientation. A sense of what this is, and whether it matters to them.

Another common issue is layering information in the wrong order. A homepage isn’t a presentation; it’s an introduction. If the first thing a reader sees is a long block of text or a sweeping mission statement, they skim past it in search of something more concrete. Skimming is the natural state online. Copy that forgets this tends to feel heavier than it is.

The strongest homepages usually make one clear choice at the top: what the reader needs to understand first. Everything else follows from that decision. Once the opening is anchored, the rest of the page can move with more ease. The service explanation, the reassurance, the proof — they each find their own place instead of wrestling for attention.

Most homepage copy goes wrong because it tries to speak for the whole brand in a single breath. The better approach is narrower: one idea at a time, given enough room to be understood. When the message is ordered, the design feels lighter, even without visual changes. When it isn’t, the entire page works harder than it should.

A homepage doesn’t need to be clever or dramatic. It needs to answer the first question quietly and clearly: is this for me?If the copy does that, the rest of the page can simply continue the conversation.

 — Elia