What do I write on my website if I'm not a writer?

Write the way you talk to a customer on the phone. Say what you do, where you do it, and how someone reaches you - in plain words, no marketing voice. A good test: read a sentence out loud, and if you would never actually say it to a homeowner standing in their driveway, cut it. You are not writing an essay; you are answering the few questions a customer already has.

What should I say about myself in the About section?

Keep it short and human: who you are, how long you have done this work, that you are licensed and insured, and why you do it. People hire people, especially for work inside their home, so a few honest sentences and a real photo of you or your crew beat any corporate mission statement. If you are brand new, say what you did before - years on someone else's crew still count as experience.

How do I describe my services without sounding generic?

List each job the way a customer would say it, not the way it reads on your license: 'drain cleaning,' 'cabinet repainting,' 'gutter cleaning.' Give each one a plain one-line description. Avoid empty phrases like 'quality solutions' or 'exceeding expectations' - they say nothing and every competitor uses them. Naming the real service in real words also helps you show up when someone searches for that exact job near them.

Do I have to write my website myself?

No. With RunCabin you describe your business in a few plain answers - your trade, your city, your business name - and it drafts the whole site, wording included, so you are editing real sentences instead of facing a blank page. If a line does not sound like you, you change it just by asking, in plain English. The site is $39.99/mo with no setup fee, and your own domain, professional email, and a logo are included.

RunCabin Blog · Getting started

What do I write on my website?

July 23, 2026 · 8 min read

If your website has been stuck for weeks, it is probably not the design that stopped you. It is the blank page. You can picture the site fine - a few photos, your phone number, the services you offer. What freezes most owners is the cursor blinking in an empty box, asking them to write something. You do jobs for a living, not sentences, and "what do I even say?" is a completely reasonable place to get stuck.

This guide is about the words, not the layout. If you want the layout side - which sections and pages a site needs - we covered that in what should be on a small-business website. This one is the companion piece: once you know the boxes, here is exactly what to type into each one, in plain language, without pretending to be a marketer.

The one rule that unlocks everything: write like you talk

Here is the shortcut that makes the rest of this easy. Imagine a customer calls and asks, "So what do you do, and do you work in my area?" You would answer in one plain breath: "I'm a residential electrician, I cover Round Rock and North Austin, and I can usually come out within a couple of days." That sentence, word for word, is better website copy than anything that starts with "We proudly deliver quality solutions."

So the rule is simple: write the way you would say it out loud to a real person. Draft a line, then read it aloud. If you would never actually say it standing in someone's driveway, cut it. This one habit kills off the fake business voice that makes small sites sound both generic and slightly nervous. Customers are not grading your grammar. They are trying to figure out one thing, and it is the same thing a tradesperson on a forum once summed up perfectly: "why would I choose you to work on my house?" Every word on your site is either helping answer that or getting in the way.

Section by section: what to actually type

Let us go box by box. For each one, here is the job it does and a fill-in-the-blank you can copy and adapt.

1. The headline: what you do and where

The top of your home page is the most valuable space you own, and it is where people waste the most words. Do not open with a slogan. Say your trade and your town:

"[Trade] serving [town] and the surrounding area."

For example: "Licensed plumber serving Round Rock and North Austin." "Interior and exterior house painting in Beaverton, Oregon." That single honest line does more for a visitor - and for Google - than a paragraph of adjectives. It answers "what do you do" and "do you cover my area" in about two seconds, and naming your city and service in plain words is one of the boring things that helps you show up when someone nearby searches for your trade.

2. Services: in the words customers use, not your license

List what you do the way a customer would say it, not the way it appears on your paperwork. People search for "drain cleaning," not "hydro-jetting and rooter service"; for "cabinet repainting," not "cabinetry refinishing solutions." Write a short list with a plain one-line description each:

Drain cleaning - clogged sinks, tubs, and main lines cleared, usually same day.
Water heater repair and replacement - no hot water, leaks, or an old tank on its way out.
Faucet and fixture installs - new faucets, toilets, and garbage disposals.

That is it. A one-line description beats a wall of text, and it quietly does double duty: it tells a visitor you handle their specific job, and it gives search engines the exact terms people type. If you offer something seasonal or specialized, name it plainly - the person searching for that exact thing is your easiest customer to win.

3. The about section: sound like a person, not a company

This is the box people dread most, because it feels like bragging or feels like you have nothing to say. You do not need either. People hire people, especially for work inside their home, so a few honest sentences do the whole job:

"I'm [name], I've been [doing this work] for [number] years, and I started [business name] to [the plain reason]. I'm licensed and insured, and I do the work myself / with a small crew I trust."

If you are brand new, do not fake being big and do not apologize for being small. Say what you did before: "I spent eight years on a commercial crew before going out on my own." Years working under someone else are real experience, and stating them honestly reads as more trustworthy than vague claims. A real photo of you or your van next to those sentences beats a stock image of a stranger in a hard hat every time.

4. Why choose you: three plain reasons, not superlatives

Skip "best in town" and "unmatched quality." Everyone says those, so they register as noise. Instead, give three concrete reasons a nervous homeowner can actually believe:

Something specific you do - "We put down drop cloths and clean up every day before we leave."
Something about how you communicate - "We show up when we say we will, and you get a real person on the phone."
Something that lowers risk - "Licensed, insured, and every job comes with a written estimate up front."

Concrete beats grand. "We clean up every day" tells a homeowner more about their experience than "quality workmanship" ever could.

5. Reviews: let your customers do the writing

The best copy on your site is the copy you did not write. Ask experienced tradespeople how they got established and the same word keeps coming up: reviews. As one put it, a Google or Facebook review is "gold." Pull two or three of your best ones - ideally straight from your Google Business Profile so they are verifiable - and show them near the top with the customer's first name and town. A stranger's honest sentence answers the trust question faster than any paragraph you could write about yourself. If you do not have many reviews yet, that is its own project worth starting today; here is how local businesses get more Google reviews.

6. The call to action: tell people exactly what to do next

Do not make a ready customer guess. End your sections, and cap the page, with a plain instruction and a way to act on it:

"Call or text [number] for a free estimate, or send a few details and I'll get back to you today."

Put a tappable phone number in the header of every page, and keep any quote form short - name, phone, and a line about the job. Every extra field loses someone. And know where those inquiries go: on your own site, an inquiry is just yours - it lands in your inbox, no fee, and nobody else gets notified. That is the whole difference between owning the channel and renting shared leads from Angi or Thumbtack.

What to cut, every time

A lot of writing paralysis comes from thinking you need to fill space. You do not. These are the phrases and habits to delete on sight:

"Quality solutions," "exceeding expectations," "your satisfaction is our priority." They are true of every business and specific to none. They add length and subtract trust.
The corporate "we" when you are one person. "I" is fine, and honest. A homeowner would rather hire a real person than a vague company.
Long history and philosophy. Nobody reads a founding story before they have decided you can do the job. Earn the click first.
Walls of text. Short lines, a few bullets, plenty of space. People skim on a phone; write for skimming.
Anything you cannot back up. "Available 24/7" only if you actually answer at 2 a.m. Broken promises on a website cost you the second call.

If deleting all that leaves your site feeling short, good. A tight, honest page that answers "what, where, why you, and how do I reach you" outperforms a long one that circles the point.

A shortcut when the words still will not come

Even with a formula, plenty of owners stall - not because they cannot do it, but because paying work always comes first, and "write the website" slides down the list for another month. If that is you, the honest move is to not start from a blank page at all.

That is exactly the part RunCabin takes off your plate. You answer a few plain questions - your trade, your city, your business name - and it drafts the whole site for you, wording included: the headline, the services list written in customer language, an about section, review spots, and a quote form that drops inquiries straight into your inbox with no lead fees. Instead of facing an empty box, you are looking at a real draft and tweaking it.

And because the site is AI-editable, fixing the words is not a project either. If a line does not sound like you, you just ask - "make the about section sound more casual," "change my service area to include Cedar Park" - and it is done. No page builder, no support ticket, no waiting on a designer. Your own domain, a professional email, and a logo are included, for $39.99/mo flat, with no setup fee and no contract.

Skip the blank page entirely

Tell us your trade and your town, and we'll build a real preview with the words already written - your services, your area, a quote form to your inbox. Sixty seconds, no card.

See your free site preview →