The H1 can wait

When I write a SaaS homepage, I start with the smaller sections and leave the H1 until those are in place.

That first line gets endless debate because everybody can have an opinion about six words without having to understand the product. A visitor gives it maybe two seconds. It needs to make sense, but it is not going to carry the buying decision by itself.

I’d work out the rest of the page first. What is the product, where does it fit, what can a buyer see or try, and what would make them trust the answer? The smaller sections have to walk them through that in an order that makes sense. If they don’t, a clever H1 is a fancy hat on a confused page.

Once the page has a shape, the H1 becomes a smaller job. Say what the product is in language a buyer will recognise, then spend the saved afternoon on a section that explains why anyone should care.