How to Write About Your Work on Your Website

Most practitioner websites answer the wrong question.

The visitor who arrives at a website is asking one question: is this for me? They want to know, as quickly as possible, whether the practitioner’s work is relevant to their situation, their pattern, their specific version of the problem they are trying to resolve.

Most practitioner websites answer a different question: who is this practitioner? They lead with biography, credentials, training, and the practitioner’s personal journey. This information may eventually be relevant — but it is not what the visitor is asking first.

A website that starts with the visitor’s situation and answers the “is this for me?” question quickly and specifically does the job a website is supposed to do. A website that starts with the practitioner’s story and gets around to the visitor’s situation eventually asks the visitor to wait — and most visitors do not wait.

The structure that works

The opening of a practitioner website should describe the before state of the visitor the work is designed for. Not the practitioner’s journey to developing the work. The visitor’s current situation.

“If you’re a practitioner who does meaningful work with clients but finds yourself chronically undercharging — and can’t quite figure out why the pattern persists — you’re in the right place.” That is a before state. A visitor who is living in that before state recognizes themselves immediately. A visitor who is not in that situation knows immediately that this is not for them.

After the before state, describe the after state: what has changed for the visitors who go through the work. Not your method for producing that change — the change itself. “Most practitioners who work with me move from pricing from anxiety to pricing from a genuine understanding of what the work produces. The shift tends to show up in how they respond when a prospective client asks about price — the uncertainty is gone from the conversation.”

Using outcome language in website copy: website copy follows the same logic as any value communication. Features (session formats, credentials, methods) belong in the secondary sections of the site — the “about” page, the FAQ, the details section. The opening is for the visitor’s before state and the after state the work produces.

What the about page is actually for

The about page has a specific job that is different from the opening of the site. By the time a visitor reaches the about page, they have already recognized themselves in the before state and found the after state compelling. They are now asking a different question: why you?

The about page answers the why-you question. This is where the practitioner’s story becomes relevant — not because the visitor is interested in the practitioner’s journey per se, but because the practitioner’s story (if told well) explains why this particular practitioner is well-positioned to help someone in this particular before state.

A practitioner who navigated the specific before state themselves, and found their way to the after state through the work they now do, has a story that answers the why-you question naturally. A practitioner who arrived at the work through a different path needs to find the answer to why-you that is true for them.

The description format that works on a website: the before state, after state, and timeframe format translates directly to website copy. The before state opens the homepage. The after state follows. The timeframe anchors the expectation of how quickly change typically occurs. Together, these three elements give a visitor enough to make a genuine assessment of relevance.

The specificity question

Vague website copy is usually the result of the practitioner trying to reach everyone. “I help people transform their relationship with success” could apply to almost anyone — which means it applies precisely to no one.

A more specific before state reaches fewer visitors but converts a higher proportion of them, because the visitors who recognize themselves in the specific description are exactly the people the work is designed for. They are not guessing whether the work might apply to them. They know.

Why specific website copy converts better: the visitor who recognizes themselves in a specific before state does not need to be persuaded. They are already convinced of relevance. They move directly to the practical questions: how does this work, what does it cost, and how do I start?

The credentials question

Credentials and training belong on a website — but not in the opening. They answer a specific question (is this person qualified?) that usually comes after relevance has already been established.

A visitor who is not yet sure whether the work is relevant does not care about credentials. A visitor who has recognized themselves in the before state and found the after state compelling is now ready to evaluate whether the practitioner is someone they trust to guide them. Credentials are relevant at that stage, not before.

How niche clarity improves website copy: a clear niche makes the opening of a website significantly easier to write, because the before state is specific enough to describe precisely. A generalist practitioner faces a harder writing challenge — their before state must stay broad enough to apply to many different people, which means it applies precisely to none of them.

The test for website copy

A simple test: read your website opening as if you were the visitor the site is designed for. Within the first thirty seconds of reading, can you answer the question “is this for me?” with a clear yes or no?

If the answer is unclear after thirty seconds, the opening is not yet doing its job.

Keeping website copy from becoming a sales page: the orientation that separates authentic value communication from a sales pitch applies to website copy. Is the copy designed to persuade visitors to make a decision they might not otherwise make? Or is it designed to help the right visitors recognize themselves and decide genuinely? The second produces the website copy that works — and does not produce the uncomfortable sales-page feeling that drives visitors away.

The Abundance GPS Skool community helps practitioners develop website copy that communicates value clearly and attracts the clients who most need the work. Join us here.