Sample — Homepage teardown
Homepage conversion teardown
Reviewed by a human against the live public homepage — and the pricing and about pages it sends you to. No traffic figures. No invented conversion rates.
Verdict
Workbooks has a real offer for a mid-market buyer tired of Salesforce-style cost and complexity — then spends the homepage arguing that point as a campaign, not closing it as a sale. Price, already published at £32 per user per month, is missing. Primary demo and video buttons are hash links. A four-step quiz sits in front of the only named customer proof. The page is busy, not broken. Qualified CRM enquiries are leaking because the visitor has to work out what to do after the joke has landed.
Five issues
Three messages in the first five seconds — none of them a job to be done
Browser title: “Powerful CRM Software With Expert Implementation”. H1: “No-Bullsh*t CRM software for midsize businesses”. Meta: “If you want a positive relationship with a CRM vendor, we’re here for you.” Hero line: “Wave goodbye to hidden cost and complexity. Say hello to the No-BS CRM, now powered by AI.” Four promises before anyone is told what changes on Monday.
Their own quotes are from people leaving Salesforce (Rotary, rate increases) or shortlisting against Salesforce and Microsoft (Russell Finex). Those buyers have a job: replace a painful CRM without a two-year programme. “Positive relationship with a vendor” does not map onto that decision. Some will go to a homepage that states the job in one line.
One sentence in the title, H1 and meta. Draft: “The mid-market CRM that replaces Salesforce complexity — from £32 per user / month, live in 28 days.” Keep No-BS as flavour under that. Drop “now powered by AI” from the hero unless you can name one action a sales manager will use in week one.
Seven next steps — and the important ones go nowhere useful
Header: Sign In, Try for free, chat. Hero: Book a demo, Watch video. Then: pricing calculator, Tour the product, free workshop, calculator again, “See what Workbooks does”. Mid-page: a four-step “CRM bull-ometer” quiz. Footer: interactive demo, Request a demo.
“Book a demo”, “Request a demo”, “Watch video”, “Tour the product” and “Start interactive demo” are all href="#". Demo opens a modal. Video opens WorkbooksBullsh-t_NSFW_1678x1080_H264.mp4 — a campaign film, not a product walkthrough. Tour opens Navattic. No fallback URL if the script fails or the modal is blocked.
A demo-ready visitor and a tire-kicker get the same fork. Sales inherits calculator starts, quiz completions, workshop regs and modal abandons instead of a clean “talk to us” signal. The secondary hero CTA spends attention on a brand stunt (the file name flags NSFW) rather than the product.
Two first-screen actions, both real links: “Book a 20-minute demo” → a contact or booking URL; “See pricing” → /crm-packages-pricing/. Trial can stay in the header. Move tour, workshop and quiz off the first screen. Give every modal a working href. Replace the hero film with a short product or customer clip, or remove it.
“No hidden cost” is the brand — the homepage hides the cost
The page repeats “No overpricing”, “Tired of complex CRM pricing?” and “Get a personalized quote without speaking to any salespeople.” There is no pound figure on the homepage. Calculator links go to /workbooks-calculator/. One click on, /crm-packages-pricing/ already prints CRM from £32 per user per month, Business from £67, then a grid of +£7 / +£16 extensions.
The anti-Salesforce buyer is shopping on transparency. If the number is a click away, a share never take it — they treat the calculator as a gate. Competitors listed in their own menu (HubSpot, Pipedrive, Zoho) put a price on or next to the homepage. The campaign sets a test the page then fails.
Print the published floor on the homepage: “From £32 per user / month, billed annually. Mix-and-match licences.” Keep the calculator for configured quotes. If extensions are the real cost risk, say so: core is £32; add-ons are optional and listed.
The proof that would close the deal sits under a quiz
First trust mark: “Voted #1 CRM software for midsize businesses for 2024 by TechRadarPro”, 5/5 — reviewed 29 August 2026. G2 later: “High Performer in the US, UK and EMEA”, no score, no review count. The useful proof — Rotary (Salesforce price hikes), Coeliac UK (won a departmental test), Russell Finex (shortlisted against Salesforce and Microsoft) — sits after the four-step quiz. About already says customers stay over 10 years on average. That line is not on the homepage. The 28-day JumpStart line is, in a mid-page card.
A CRM switch is a career-risk purchase. A 2024 award in late 2026 reads as leftover furniture. G2 without a number is wallpaper. The three named quotes are specific and strong — and many visitors will not reach them.
First screen: Rotary, Coeliac UK, Russell Finex, plus “Customers stay more than 10 years on average.” G2 as a current score and review count, or drop it. Retire the 2024 #1 until it is current. Do not invent a percentage you cannot show.
A campaign and a product catalogue fighting for the same scroll
Mega-menu: Products, Why choose the No-BS CRM, Features, Services, Implementation (SelfStart / Jump Start / Shared Success), By Need, By Industry, By Competitor (seven vendors). Mid-page quiz, then a list of eighteen competitor sins under “What is bullsh*t CRM?”. Footer still points Media and Publishing at /products/crm-for-media-and-publishing-old/ (HTTP 200 when checked). About exists at both /about-us/ and /about/.
The first-time visitor has to classify themselves — role, industry, current CRM, implementation style — before they are sold. The copy talks about other vendors more than it shows this product. Leftover -old URLs and split About paths are small, but mid-market buyers read an unedited estate as implementation risk.
Nav for a first visit: Product, Pricing, Customers, Resources, Book a demo. Keep competitor and industry pages; do not promote all of them from the first click. Move the quiz and red-flag list onto a campaign URL. Redirect the -old path. Pick one About URL and 301 the other.
If they only do three things this month
- Rewrite the first screen around the job, the price, and one demo link. H1 + £32 floor + “live in 28 days” + Book a demo as a real URL. AI, video, tour and workshop drop below or off.
- Cut the action set to two. Demo and pricing. Trial can stay in the header. Calculator, quiz, workshop and Navattic tour are not homepage-primary. Every remaining modal needs a working fallback
href. - Move proof above the campaign. Rotary / Coeliac UK / Russell Finex and the 10-year retention line into the first viewport. Take the 2024 TechRadar lockup down until it is current.
Those three do not need a redesign. They need editing, a price line, and a working demo URL.
This sample vs a paid teardown
| What you get | Sample | Paid teardown |
|---|---|---|
| Live homepage review, five issues, a concrete fix for each | Yes | Yes |
| Three changes if you only do three this month | Yes | Yes |
| Human review of what is actually on the page | Yes | Yes |
| Glance at two competitors’ homepages (same category, public pages only) | No | Yes |
| Suggested homepage outline — section-by-section, ready to brief an editor | No | Yes |
| 15-minute walkthrough of the live page (Loom-style) | No | Yes |
This sample is the standard of the written work. It is not a product in the shop. The shop product closest to this standard is the £29 Homepage Note — verdict, the leak, three fixes.