How to create a more effective homepage | Hacker News Reader

How to create a more effective homepage

mkt1.substack.com

113 pointsgmays15 comments

I have no idea what this company does.

This is intentional.

The craftman speaks directly: "I need 8 valves to make a V8". But "leaders" (i.e. management), to not be confused for craftmen will speak in riddles and say "We'll probably need more than 2 valves to make the V8 product, am I right quadcore?". It also shows they have emotional intelligence and communication skills.

Since management generally take decisions, homepages will start by describing the product in riddles, like management does.

Of course, the homepage reflecting the lingo of the leaders is incomprehensible to the would-be customers. To the rescue comes the guild of scoundrels (i.e. marketing), who know the customers don't want products, or someone else's vision - they want the promise all their worries will be taken away. They thus say, "We're transforming the global logistics", and "Our new V8 product will supercharge your business to win in this complex world". And so says the site now.

Needless to say, the only visitors not confused by this are the ones who are even more confused about what problem they themselves have, and what they need to solve it.

Disagree. People in general are horrible at writing and explaining things to those who lack the context.

Think to every stereotypical story about a engineers getting frustrated that they can't sell their boss or product manager on something they want to do. In my experience, 99% of the time it's because they don't bother to check if the person they are speaking to is even aware of the problem to which they pitch a solution.

It's not malice or intentional, it's lack of skill. If your website fails to get you business because it doesn't explain what you are offering to a customer, that's a fuckup not some high minded managerial maneuver.

This is product management 101 (or product marketing 101). I in no way mean that as a criticism -- this article is fantastic and it's amazing how many sites get it wrong. On many of the sites the writer is criticizing, you can almost feel the tension between the marketing and product departments, even for well-established software.

Two tangents: 1. I wish this article contained examples of sites that do it great vs. sites that doo it terribly. It looks like that might be part of this writer's paid plan (or paid workshop), but it's unclear if this will be delivered in an easy-to-use table or delivered like shrapnel in multiple newsletters.

2. Probably not the scope of this article, but someone needs to do a deep dive on how opaque the pricing is on almost every site. "Contact Us" is not helpful. I get that the range of prices for enterprises is a massive spectrum, but maybe provide that spectrum without reveling which companies are on those plans.

I was very skeptical at this article given how they dropped a link to a workshop after their first point. It actually goes on to be fairly comprehensive after that.

Literally saw the workshop link and closed the tab, might have to give it another read

As a copywriter who works with lots of tech companies, I’ll say this is a very useful guide to doing it right, although I’d add SEO is worth paying attention to at the beginning. Make some effort to find out relevant terms people are searching for and integrate them into your copy (but don’t get overly obsessed by it to the point your unique messaging and branding goes out the window).

I've been hearing this a lot as I work on a new project. Any particular recommendation of a SEO "cookbook" that can be learned in an hr or two?

Is SEO a really vast field? I am trying to focus on basic keyword insertion and meta tags as long as they make sense to the work I am doing. A bit wary of things I may be missing.

This is a comprehensive guide to the basics. https://moz.com/beginners-guide-to-seo

Is it just me or is the "massive hero + social proof" convention feeling tired out?

I would personally keep everything mentioned but leave out the social proof (I do B2C). Instead I prefer to add more screenshots or possibly small videos

What does this mean?

Hero is a big imagine banner across the page with a quick slogan.

Social proof are the testimonies where companies or people are listed with quips like "X was the best solution I've ever used."

The combination is very popular for landing pages and GP is tiring of them, like people tired of generic Bootstrap sites: http://www.dagusa.com/

That site is hilarious!

I wanted to come say the same thing. It feels like the only people peddling the social proof section are theme designers and website services.

Who reads that section? How often is it real vs stock images.

A somewhat exception I noticed on Spindrift (I guess I do read them sometimes..) https://drinkspindrift.com/products/lemon-sparkling-water

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