Why your homepage should pass the five-second test
If someone lands on your homepage and can't tell what you do within five seconds, they leave. Here's how to pass the only test that really matters.
Here's an uncomfortable exercise. Show your homepage to someone who's never seen it, for five seconds, then hide it. Ask them: what does this business do, and what were you meant to do next? If they can't answer, you've got a problem — and it's almost certainly costing you customers.
Why five seconds?
Because that's roughly how long a real person gives an unfamiliar website before deciding whether to stay. They're on a phone, half-distracted, with four other tabs open. They are not going to study your homepage like a poem. They glance, they judge, and they go.
The three questions every homepage must answer
A visitor is silently asking three things: What is this? Is it for me? What do I do next? Your homepage should answer all three above the fold, in plain language, before anyone has to scroll or think.
Quick gut-check for your own homepage
Can a stranger say what you sell in one sentence?
If not, your headline is doing brand poetry when it should be doing plain English.
Is the main action obvious?
Book, call, buy — whatever it is, it should be the most obvious thing on the page, not hidden three folds down.
Does it work at a glance on a phone?
Most people see you on mobile first. If the test fails on a phone, it fails.
The most common way to fail
A big, beautiful photo, a vague slogan like Crafting moments that matter, and no clue what's actually on offer. It looks lovely. It says nothing. The fix is almost always words: say what you do, plainly, at the top.
If somebody lands on your website and still can't tell what you do, the design has failed — however nice it looks.
None of this needs a redesign. Most homepages pass the five-second test after nothing more than an honest rewrite of the top of the page. Start there.
homepage copywriting first impressions