Homepage copywriting: a word budget for each section

Key takeaways

Homepage copywriting works best with a word budget: about 10 words for the headline, 25 for the subheadline, 30 to 60 for each supporting section and roughly 400 to 700 words in total for most small business homepages. The budget forces each section to make one point and leaves detail for the service pages.

• Headline about 10 words; subheadline about 25.
• 30 to 60 words per supporting section, one point each.
• 400 to 700 words in total suits most small business homepages.
• Detail lives on service pages, linked from the homepage.

What makes homepage copywriting different?

Homepage copywriting has to serve mixed visitors in a few seconds, so it is closer to signposting than to an essay. Each section makes one point, proves it briefly and points somewhere. The broader craft of writing sales copy for a small business site is covered in our website copywriting guide; this page is about the homepage's budget.

• Why your homepage is not converting visitors into customers
• Website copywriting for small businesses that sells

How many words should each homepage section have?

Use these as GBL working rules of thumb rather than fixed rules. They keep the page scannable on a phone.

• Headline: about 10 words. Subheadline: about 25.
• Trust bar: 10 to 20 words in short fragments.
• Services: one line of 10 to 15 words per service.
• How it works: three steps of about 10 words each.
• Proof and case teasers: 30 to 60 words each.
• Closing call to action: 20 to 40 words.

• Homepage structure for a small business website
• Homepage message hierarchy: one main point, three supports

What order should homepage copy follow?

Follow the visitor's questions: what and for whom, why believe you, what you offer, how it works, proof in depth, then the action again. Write the headline and the closing call to action first, because everything between them exists to get the reader from one to the other.

• The five questions every homepage visitor needs answered
• A 'how it works' section that removes the unknowns

How do you cut homepage copy that is too long?

Cut by moving, not deleting. Company history goes to the About page, service detail to service pages, process detail to a How we work page. On the homepage, leave one line and a link. Then remove adjectives that cannot be proved and sentences that start with 'We pride ourselves'.

• Too much text on your website? How to tell and what to cut
• Is your homepage about you or your customer?

When can a homepage carry more words?

A homepage can carry more when it is the main page for a single service, when buyers are cautious and research heavily, or when it doubles as the main page for local search. Even then, keep the first two screens tight and put the longer copy lower down under clear headings.

• Homepage SEO vs conversion: write for both
• How long should a web page be? Long vs short pages

What does this look like in practice?

A pattern we see: a 1,500-word homepage written to 'help SEO', where the headline and button are lost in text. Cutting it to about 600 words, moving the rest to service pages and adding clear links usually improves clicks to those pages without hurting rankings.

• See client work
• Website Design & Development for UK businesses

Homepage copy checklist

• Count words per section against the budget.
• Check each section makes one point.
• Move history and detail to inner pages with a link.
• Delete adjectives you cannot prove.
• Write the headline and closing CTA first.
• Read the page on a phone before signing it off.

• The homepage subheadline: where the explaining happens
• 'Welcome to our website': the wasted first line

Next step

Paste your homepage text into a document, mark each section and count its words. Anything more than double the budget is the first place to cut.