What goes where and why. Page types, their strategic purposes, hero structure, and homepage as positioning documentation. Draws from the Fletch PMM framework and the startup website messaging guide. Assumes familiarity with positioning-and-strategy.md – particularly market maturity, the category decision, and the two diagnostic questions.
A startup website is not one thing. It's a collection of pages, each with a distinct purpose in the go-to-market. Not all pages are equal priority, and the order of investment matters.
Three page types do the heaviest acquisition work. They're entrance paths – each connects a prospect's situation to the product's core capability. A prospect landing on any of these should think: "this is built exactly for me and my situation."
| Page | Purpose | Lead with | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home Page | Introduce the core product and the problem it solves | The most compelling capability and use case | Get the prospect to take the first step (sign up, book demo, explore sub-pages) |
| Persona Pages | Show who the product helps and how | The most compelling capability for a specific target ICP | Make a specific type of buyer feel seen and understood |
| Use Case Pages | Show how a specific user will use the product | The main capability that addresses the use case and how it works | Connect a known task or workflow to the product |
Key principle: The conversation with a prospect has already started before they reach the site – via outbound email, ad, content, or referral. Their mindset on arrival is shaped by that prior context. These pages must bridge from what brought them to what the product does.
Examples of companies doing this well: Calendly (homepage clarity on what the product is), Asana (persona pages that speak to specific roles), Zapier (use case pages for every integration scenario).
These pages matter, but only after the primary pages have done their job. A prospect explores secondary pages when the entrance pages earned enough interest.
| Page | Purpose | Lead with | Goal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Product Page | Showcase features and how they work | How the product works, highlighting best features | Let prospects see everything the product can do |
| Pricing Page | Lay out the value exchange | Clear description of what each tier gets | Convince the right buyers they're getting the right package |
| About Page | Express beliefs and vision | The company's big vision (usually differs from the investor pitch) | Convince investors, employees, and values-driven buyers |
| Resource Pages | Deep guides into the product | The most fundamental onboarding guides | Get users to value faster |
Examples: Slack (product page as a feature index), Airtable (pricing page with clear personalization for buyer type), Canva (about page that's clear on mission), Notion (resource pages with enormous depth).
How prospects arrive dictates which pages matter most:
Outbound-heavy GTM: Persona and use case pages carry more weight. The prospect received a cold email or LinkedIn message about a specific problem. They land on the site looking for confirmation that this product addresses their specific situation. A generic homepage won't do this – a persona or use case page that matches the outreach message will.
Inbound/content-led GTM: Homepage and resource pages matter more. The prospect found the company through a blog post, podcast, or conference. They're exploring broadly. The homepage needs to quickly orient them on what the product is.
Product-led GTM: Resource pages and the product page carry more weight. The prospect may already be in the product (free tier, trial). They need depth, not pitch.
Startups should invest extra emphasis on the first three page types and use learnings from those to fuel creation of the rest.
The homepage matters for reasons beyond conversion. Two in particular:
1. It forces alignment. Everyone in a company has opinions about positioning. But there's only one homepage. Homepages are battlegrounds for internal politics – and that's precisely their value. Exec teams can agree on a strategy in the abstract, but putting that strategy into the company's single homepage forces genuine agreement. If leadership can't agree on what goes on the homepage, they haven't actually agreed on the positioning strategy.
2. It's the most accessible documentation. Positioning strategies die in Google Docs, Notion pages, and PowerPoints that were emailed once and never opened again. The homepage is the one place every employee can see the strategy by typing the company URL. If employees can't find the positioning, they won't use it.
The homepage is the best place to document positioning strategy – and the clearest, most public form it takes.
A common experience: hear about a buzzy brand on LinkedIn, visit their homepage to understand what they actually do, and leave without a clear answer. The homepage is full of outcomes language and impressive logos, but the "what" remains elusive.
The diagnostic: read the first scroll of the website (hero section, H1/H2 combo) and check whether it answers one of two questions for a prospect:
-
"Which of my tools does this replace?" – Anchors to a known product category. Signals mature market positioning (M3). The prospect immediately knows which mental shelf to place the product on.
-
"Which tasks in my job does this help with?" – Anchors to a familiar job-to-be-done. Signals emerging market positioning (M1/M2). The prospect connects the product to something they already do.
If the homepage answers at least one of these, THEN it can talk about value, outcomes, and differentiation. If it answers neither, prospects leave without understanding what the product is. If it tries to answer both, it's likely straddling two markets that don't overlap.
The majority of B2B software companies fail to answer "what is this?" in the first scroll. They lead with outcomes, benefits, or vision language. The actual product capabilities are buried or absent.
Software is flexible – it can be many things. That flexibility tempts founders into calling it a "platform" and leaving it there. But people don't wake up thinking "I need a software platform." They buy software for specific purposes.
Think of any large software company. There are 1-2 things associated with each:
- Salesforce = CRM
- Gong = Call recording
- Stripe = Payments
- Oracle = Databases
These companies do far more than the one thing people associate them with. Being known for one specific capability is an asset. It enables word of mouth, makes the product referable, and gives prospects a concrete starting point.
This means the homepage hero requires prioritization. The product may do 100 things. The hero gets to say 1-2 of them. Choose the capability or category that the target market would most naturally describe – and lead with that.
Two schools of thought on header length:
Short and bold: People read the whole hero section anyway, so the H1 should be a sticky tagline that gets remembered. Risk: without context of what the product actually does, the tagline gets forgotten immediately. A clever line that doesn't communicate function is a wasted line.
Long and clear: The H1 is the only line guaranteed to be read, so it should aim for clarity even if that requires more words. Risk: a long header can feel dense if not well crafted.
The Stripe example: Changed from "Financial infrastructure to grow your revenue" (vague – what does "financial infrastructure" actually mean to someone scanning?) to "Accept payments, offer financial services and build custom revenue models – from your first transaction to your billionth" (clear – immediately communicates what Stripe does).
The Fletch example: "Let's fix your confusing positioning." Leads with the exact job-to-be-done the service addresses. Clear enough to also be memorable. The H2 then carries the differentiation and process detail: "Fletch is a product marketing consultancy that has helped 500+ B2B software companies find their positioning strategy, document it in an internal deck, and share it on a rewritten homepage."
The goal: Clear AND memorable. If forced to choose, always pick clear. Clarity can be memorable on its own – when a homepage says exactly what the product does in plain language, that directness stands out.
How the H1 and H2 work together:
| Element | Role | Example (Fletch) |
|---|---|---|
| H1 | State the core value or job-to-be-done | "Let's fix your confusing positioning" |
| H2 | Add differentiation, process, or proof | "...helped 500+ B2B software companies find their positioning strategy..." |
The H1 earns attention. The H2 earns trust. Both are needed, but the H1 must carry the weight of the "what" question on its own – because many visitors won't read the H2.
Visitors want two things answered: What does this do? Why should I care?
A homepage gets to make 2-3 core points. Not every feature, not every edge case, not every persona, not every objection. The urge to prepare for every possible scenario produces a homepage that says everything and communicates nothing.
The prioritization test: For each section on the homepage, ask: does this help a first-time visitor understand what the product is and why it matters to them? If the section only matters to someone who's already bought, it belongs on a product page or resource page – not the homepage.
Common overpacking symptoms:
- Multiple hero messages competing for attention
- Feature lists that read like a product roadmap
- Trying to speak to every persona in every section
- Benefits language so broad it could describe any software company
- Case studies from wildly different industries and use cases (signals unfocused positioning)
The fix is the same as the positioning fix: narrow. Pick the ICP, pick the use case, pick the differentiator. Let the rest live on sub-pages.
The homepage doesn't exist in isolation. It's the anchor point for a positioning strategy that must flow consistently through every GTM touchpoint, adapt to the specific company's context, and evolve as the market teaches the company what works.
The homepage documents the positioning strategy. The rest of the GTM executes it. The narrative thread should be consistent across every touchpoint:
- Homepage – Establishes the positioning: what the product is, who it's for, why it's different.
- Persona/use case pages – Translates the positioning for specific audiences and scenarios.
- Outbound and ads – Carries the same core message into channels where prospects first encounter the company.
- Sales conversations – Uses the same framing and differentiation, adapted for live dialogue.
- Champion enablement – Arms the champion with the language and materials to sell internally to the buying committee.
- Business case – Co-created with the champion to close the deal.
This journey from positioning to closed deal takes 5-8 months in most B2B contexts. That timeline is why positioning strategy can't be "A/B tested in an afternoon." The feedback loop is too long for rapid experimentation. Getting the strategy right before writing the homepage is the only reliable path.
Companies like Calendly, Slack, and Notion have excellent websites. The temptation is to copy their structure. But what worked for them was built on their specific positioning, market maturity, GTM model, and brand equity. A seed-stage startup copying Notion's website structure without Notion's brand recognition and content depth will get different results.
The better approach: understand the principles behind why those websites work (clarity, page-type purpose, consistent narrative), then apply the principles to the specific company's positioning and GTM context.
Positioning strategy evolves as the company learns from the market. The homepage should evolve with it. When sales conversations reveal that a different capability resonates more strongly, or that the ICP has shifted, the homepage should reflect those changes.
This doesn't mean redesigning the homepage every quarter. It means treating the homepage as a reflection of current positioning truth, not a fixed artifact. When the strategy changes, the homepage changes.
- Answer the positioning questions first. What market, what competition, what differentiation? Homepage messaging fails when these are unclear, not when the copy is bad.
- Choose the primary page investment. Homepage + persona pages + use case pages. Priority depends on GTM model.
- Apply the 5-second test to the hero. Does it answer "which tool does this replace?" or "which tasks does this help with?" If neither, the positioning isn't clear enough.
- Lead with "what" before "why." Establish what the product is before claiming value. Prioritize 1-2 core capabilities for the hero.
- Limit the homepage to 2-3 core points. Let sub-pages carry the depth. The homepage's job is clarity and orientation.
- Maintain narrative consistency. The same positioning thread should run from homepage through persona pages, outreach, sales conversations, and champion enablement.