Latest / The Unfiltered Tea with Evie / Website Copywriting 101: How to Write a Homepage That Builds Trust and Converts
Transcript
- Evie Tavares: I'm Evie, and you're listening to The Unfiltered Tea with Evie. I'm a business owner, a copywriter, and a storyteller at heart. And over the years of building my own business and growing my own community, the thing I've loved the most is hearing people's stories, the strategies that they swear by, the mindset shifts that changed everything for them, and the honest truth about what it takes to grow a business from the ground up. Every person has something that makes them different in their industry. And finding that thing and amplifying it is basically my whole job. And this podcast is just another way I get to do that. In this podcast, I'm bringing on incredible guests from my community, experts in marketing, business growth, and mindset to share the real, unfiltered version of what building a business looks like. There's no polished highlight reel in these episodes, just the tea. So let's get into it. We are back with another solo episode. And before we dive in, I just want to take a moment to point out and notice that we have a new intro and a new outro for the podcast. I started the podcast back in January. And since then, there's been a lot of shifting, a lot of changing, a lot of growing, as there always is in business. And I've been able to really refine exactly what I want this podcast to become, what kind of guests I want to have on, what kind of conversations I want to be having. So with that came a little bit of an update with the intro and intro and outro. There's also the fact that when I first started podcasting back in January, I wasn't as good. Let's just throw it out there. I wasn't as good or as comfortable talking into the microphone or talking about what I'm doing, what the goal is. Like I just it was a beginner project and we have grown since then. So I hope that you liked the new intro. You're gonna hear the new outro at the end of this episode. And that's what we're gonna be using moving forward. So yeah, just the goal ultimately of the podcast is to Infuse like the unfiltered conversations around business ownership and marketing and copywriting and mindset, business mindset. And that's just it's not only the title of the unfiltered tea, it's the core of what we're doing here of having those deeper conversations. I'm not one to have like surface-level conversations. I'm gonna ask the questions that need to be asked, I'm gonna give the answers and say what needs to be said. And this new direction that we're going with the show is just really a testament to that. All of that being said, I am going to do a little series of solo episodes all around websites as a whole. So websites as like the home base for your marketing. And what are the things like from a copywriting perspective? What are the things that I think are really important, even from like the design perspective? And how do those things really work together to make your website something that is a true reflection of not just where you've been and where you are now, but where you're going and what the goals are for your business and how your website shapes how to get there. So we're gonna go over a few different things. We're also gonna cover like some stuff about SEO and searchability and how to make sure that that's all put into the website. Like I feel like when it comes to your website, it's not a one and done. It's not a I just need a designer. It's not a I just need SEO. It's not a I need words that sell on my website. It's all of these things put together that just create that true reflection of your brand and your business and that help to build the trust and authority that you need in order for your website to work. That's the doorbell. What did I order from FedEx? Let's go find out. Okay, so before we start, I want to share some stats with you that I found on the internet because your girl loves stats and analytics and all of those things, which you know. So, did you know that up to 88% of consumers will creep a business's website or view a business's website when deciding whether or not to buy from them? I'm one of those people, like, even if I find a brand on Instagram, I look at their entire ecosystem. I sign up for the email list. I follow them on socials. I check out their website. I need to see every piece of what they're doing. Maybe it's just my marketing brain too. But I need to see every piece of what they're doing before I'm willing to make a buying decision. And that's for like purchases big and small. That's for products, for services. I need to. view all of that, your entire marketing ecosystem, before I can trust you and know that you're legit, that you know what you're doing and that you're somebody that I want to invest in. That's me and also 88% of consumers. Up to 84% also say that a business's website directly impacts their trust and willingness to engage. So it's not just about having a website, it's also that it does its job, that it like communicates that trust, that it builds the authority. And we're gonna talk more about how to do that in your website in this episode, but Making sure it's covering all the bases that somebody needs to know again with that buyer journey. There's different types of buyers, different types of buyer journeys, but making sure that those steps or those check marks are all checked by each of those types of buyers and each of those buyer journeys. 84% say that a business with a dedicated website is more credible than one with only a social media presence. And this one, this one does get to me because, okay. Again, I'm one of those consumers that needs to see every facet of marketing before I can really figure out who a brand is. This even goes for restaurants because like If I'm looking up the menu, I want to be able to pull up the website with the menu, see pictures of the food of what I'm ordering, and make a decision from there. So it can be big or small. It can literally be when you're ordering your takeout that having a website that has every every question answered, everything that a consumer needs to know before they click the order now button or the delivery button, it's all right there. And I actually found that stat really interesting because there are some larger businesses and even like some coaches and stuff like that that I've seen who, you know, say that they don't have a website or they don't have sales pages or anything like that. They just have Instagram. And I just feel like that's a big risk to take as well, because you're depending on something that you have no control over. I've seen just in this summer, I've seen two local businesses have their Instagrams completely shut down overnight. Completely gone. Years and years of content, building the the account, building the community, everything gone. No way to get it back. And that's the reality of using like rented land or rented space as the only way to build your business. A website you just have so much more control over. And it's like I said, it's the home base. So from there, people can go to your Instagram, they can go to your podcast, they can go to your blog, they can go to your LinkedIn, they can go to your email list. It's like the home ecosystem, the home base of your ecosystem. Not necessarily the first place people go unless they're searching on Google, which we will also get into that. Unless they're searching on Google, it's not necessarily the first place that they're gonna go. But there's an 80, what was it, 88% chance, 88% chance that it is a place that they're gonna go. So my philosophy is that when a business starts, they build their website initially based off of what their vision is, right at the very beginning. But you and I both know that that vision changes and that the business changes, and that as you're growing and as you're working with people, it just grows organically. And if your website is kind of stuck, in that past version of yourself and people are still going to it, then think about what you're missing out on. Of yeah, you have a website, it's pretty, it's got words on it, it's there, and people can go to it, but is it really reflecting the business that you want to become? And that's a hard question to answer. That's a hard, that's a very personal question to answer. But it's the most important because how are you going to get the business to where you want it to be if If your website is still stuck in that past version of yourself. And that's where 88% of your audience is gonna go. So, with all of that said, this series, I'm gonna cover each of the pages in your website. I call them the core four pages. So we have home, about, services, and contact. We're gonna cover each of these pages and what I believe should be on these pages in order for them to build the trust with your audience who are visiting. build authority with your audience that's that's visiting and moves them to take action or to continue through the site because yes we have calls to action to get them to book a call with you or buy something, but are we also moving them through the site? Or are they going on the home page, being like, nope, this isn't for me and bouncing off. Or even worse, going to the home page, scrolling down. And having nowhere else to go, no direction to go to continue to learn more and to work with you. So we're gonna cover all of those things. I'm also gonna tie in a little bit of what I know about SEO and and how we can incorporate that in the different pages. And by the end, you're gonna have kind of an outline of from a copywriting perspective, what should be on each of the pages of your website. So we're gonna start with the homepage, which is the home base of your home base. It's the first page that people are gonna go to. And another fun stat for you is people decide in 0.05 seconds whether they like the visuals or not. Like they process the visuals of the website in 0.05 seconds. From there, it takes three to five seconds for somebody to decide whether or not to stay on your website and keep scrolling. So when we're looking at the homepage, what that makes me think of is that heading, the first thing on your website and the subheading. In three to five seconds, they're not going to be scrolling down into the depth of the copywriting or the depth of design. We're looking at the very top first glance view of your homepage. What is on there? Is it s first of all, is it up to date? Second of all, is it ridiculously clear that they're in the right place? are you saying who you who you serve and how you serve them? We're not talking about you yet because we're still trying to get people to be like, yes, I'm in the right place. I walked in the right door with this website. I want to learn more. And I think the hard thing with the heading and the subheading is people want to get really, really clever. Like really whimsical things Just like whimsical titles and titles that you think describe what you do, but is it how other people would describe you? So, what are people actually searching for when they are looking for you? And what are the words and the language that they're using? Because we want to be crystal clear, like as clear as we can get as possible in that line, in that section. And that goes for SEO search engine optimization and AI optimization as well. Because that's also the first thing that Google's gonna scan. So it's gonna say it needs that clear language of if somebody is writing copywriter in Ontario, copywriter for service-based businesses, website services, website copywriting for service-based businesses. Those are the things that people are actually searching on Google and on AI. So are we actually saying those things as they are, or am I saying, word whisperer who is passionate about helping people show up as their truest selves. Yeah, that's what I do. That's how some people have described me. That's how I would maybe describe myself. But that's not what people are searching. They're not searching for a word whisperer. They're searching for a copywriter. So are we super crystal clear in those first three to five seconds that somebody's in the right spot, they've found what they're looking for and they can continue to move forward. The next section on the homepage is like the authority. It's where we're gonna put in like brands that you've worked with, awards that you've won. We really wanna show people that you have the experience to back up your statements, to back up your professionalism and back up what you do. So, for example, on my website, I've got the logos. I say trusted by these brands and more, and I've got the logos of some of the customers that I've worked with. For a long time. And it just like it's it's hard because I feel like we don't want to brag. But at the same time, we need to show people that we have experience, we have the authority, we know what we're doing, and that other people trust us because that's the social proof that people are looking for. That if they say, hey, like this business trusts Evie to do this, then that that's a good check mark in my box of why I should work with her. So that's the way that we want to think about it. The next step in the homepage that I usually do is the about me section. So this is not your entire about me page rewritten on your homepage. This is like just a little sneaky peek into who you are, why you do what you do, a bit more like what you do. And it's hard because you're talking about yourself, but you need to talk about yourself in a way. That you're actually talking about who's on your page. So that's a very fine line and a very fine balance to hold when you're telling your story, but you really want people to see themselves in your story. So if you say, like, I've I used to do this and now I do this, and I've served people for this, this, this, then they're envisioning themselves in that person that you serve. And we want to keep this section like fairly short because Yes, people want to know a quick gist of who you are, but they want to get down into the the roots of the copywriting and the roots of the homepage. So what you can do is you can add a button or like a call to action to say learn more and direct that to your full about me page. so that they can like, if they wanna dive into learning more about you, that's always again something as a consumer. I love to go to the about me page or about us page to see like Who's involved in the company? What do they do? What's their story? Like I'm, you know me. I'm a stories girly. So I am always looking into those things. From there, that's when we want to get into what does this mean, what does what I do actually mean for the person who's on this page. So we want to talk about what they're experiencing. We're not pain point poking, but we're acknowledging where they're at and showing them that we understand where they're at and what struggles they're facing. And then what's the solutions that we offer? So this is like a quick breakdown of services. we're taking a little blurb to say, hey, this is where you're at. We get it. We heard for you. Here's how we can help. And then a services highlight. So we're not, again, same with the about me section. We're not deep diving into the exact details of all of your services. We're doing like a little almost like a preview of your services. So For example, on my website, I've got website services, email marketing, and brand photography. So those are the three services, and I give a little blurb about why each of those is a why each of those are important in your marketing and how I do them differently. So what's the experiences that people have had in working with me that's different? That I can use on there to get people to be like, like this is cool. I want to learn more about that. And then obviously like a call to action or a button for people to go in and learn about more learn more about each of those services as well. Then we want to get into some more social proof because people want more proof. They love proof. And so this can be in the form of testimonials, whether it's screenshots that your clients have sent you, or just like a what's it called? Like a slideshow of testimonials written out and names. so for me, because I'm B2B working with other businesses, I always like to include a link to the business's website as well. Because for me, especially if I wrote their website or like built their website or whatever I've done with them, that's a testament to what I've done as well and the kind of work that I can do. So I'll link even if it's just one page, I'll link that page to the testimonial so that people can, you know, see the other side of it. Not just seeing what the customers said, but what is it that I actually did for them. Then I like to get into the method or the process because everybody's got a method and sometimes they can be like kind of similar, but I feel like everybody has something special that they do in their method. And I love to draw that out in the copywriting and bring it out into the website. And this is where I like to do it. So I do like what's the process or the method, like what can people expect when they work with you? What does it look like to work with you? What's like a step-by-step process? Or what's like, I even had I have a friend Mel Grimes, she was just on the podcast as well. I'm not sure when this comes out, if her episode's out yet or not. But she talks about her align method, which is an acronym for her method of working with her clients. That's what we want to put on there because then people automatically associate that acronym with your work, they connect with it. And it's something that's uniquely you. So that's where I would put something like that, because it's like your Batman signal on your webpage of like here's how you can work with me and what it really, really looks like. Then this is the part where we get into like the AI searchability, and I think a lot of people would maybe skip this on their homepage, but it's having an FAQ section on the homepage. What we've typically seen in the past or what I've seen in the past. Is an FAQ page on like a services page or a sales page or the contact page. And there's just one and it answers a few questions. But with the new developments in AI searchability, it is actually recommended to have an FAQ section on your homepage. And I'm not just talking like the basic FAQs, like this is where I'll always like do the research of like what are people. Asking about your industry, what are they asking about your service? And using those as the FAQs. So it's not just like how much does it cost? How long does it take? Da-da-da. It's how do I decide whether I need just new website copy or an entirely new website? Or how much does it cost for a how much does it cost for a small business to get their website redone? Or How can I make my website show up on search engines and AI? Right? You're asking the questions in a way that people are actually asking them. And then you're answering them with your thought leadership, with your specific methods, with your specific ideas, AI just honestly eats that up. So that's where I would put the FAQ. And then. We want to give people another opportunity to move. I always finish off every page with some direction to go in. So whether it's directing them to another page on your website or to work with you, like whatever the contact pages or the call to action, I always put one at the bottom as well. And actually, I did forget about something. I also put one right up at the top. So where we have the headline and the subheading, then I have a quick call to action for those quick buyers who are like, yep, I'm ready. I just want to hop on a call with this person. I'm ready to go. We want to have that at the top. Then we've got the one to the services pages where we talked about the services. And then we've got one at the bottom again, that invitation. If you're not inviting people to take a next step or to move somewhere else in your site, then the reality is they're not gonna do it. People like to be invited to do so. And then yeah, and then at the bottom, like the footer that's on every single page, include like links to all of your socials, links to your podcasts, links to every page in your website, so that if somebody wants to hop right to your blog or to your services page or to your about me page, they're not having to scroll up and down and Click all these buttons, you're just making it so simple, clear, and easy. That is what we want on a homepage. Okay, so that covers my typical method and strategy for a home page. Those are like the basics. I feel like with every business there's some nuances and like there's some changes that can be made or like sections that could be added or whatever that needs to look like. But that's like my core go to, my core method. it's just we're walking people through that buyer journey in a sequence that makes sense and that's the important part. We're not jumping them all over the place when they don't even know who we are yet or what we do. That's it for this solo episode. Like I said, this is gonna be a whole little series. We're gonna dive into all of the different pages of website copy and websites. So stay tuned. Make sure to subscribe so that you get to tune in on the next one. And we will chat soon. I want to just chat for a second about website services because I'm currently booking for fall of 2026, which is just around the corner. And My question for you is, are you one of those people that had a website when you first started your business and now you're a few years in and you have so much more clarity around where your business is not only at now, but where you want it to go in the future. But your website is just kind of holding you back because it's stuck in that past version of yourself. That's something I can help with to bring your website up to date with where you are, not only just where you are, but where you're going. It's the home base of your brand and your business. And it's done strategically. It's done in a way that connects with your audience on an emotional level. And it's something that you can actually be proud to send people to. You don't have to do that disclaimer anymore of, my website's a work in progress. That's exactly what I can help with at EVTavaris Branding. So if you're interested in staying in one of the spots for fall 2026, slide into my DMs on Instagram, visit me at evtaverasbranding.ca, and let's chat about how we can get your website into that future version of your business and beyond. That's the tea for today. If something in this episode landed for you, I would love to hear about it. And if you're curious about working together, whether that's finding your own unfiltered tea and bringing it to the front of your marketing, or writing copy that really sounds like you, reach out. I'm always open for a conversation. And before you go, hit subscribe so you never miss an episode. And if you're feeling extra generous today, leave a review. It really helps this show to reach more people who need to hear it. Thank you so much for listening, honestly. And I will see you next time.