When someone lands on your website, you’ve got around five seconds to give them a reason to pay attention. And that’s where the five-second test comes into play.

Take a look at your website and ask yourself how long it will take your visit to figure out:

• What you offer
• Whether or not it’s for them
• How it benefits them

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You should be able to articulate all of this information through:

• A one-sentence tagline
• A short, descriptive paragraph

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You can do this by:

• Writing in a “you-focused” way (i.e. using the word “you” rather than ambiguous terms like “they” as a means to make the reader feel like you’re talking directly to them)
• Using ultra-specific verbiage (i.e. “flexible, cost-effective private offices, dedicated desks, coworking, and meeting rooms for creative solopreneurs” rather than “coworking for businesses of all sizes”)
• Tying your services to benefits (i.e. “purpose-built spaces designed to support your productivity, foster a professional community, and help you streamline your workday”)

You’ll have to tailor this based on the specifics of your space, and it’ll probably take you a ton of iterations to get right.

In fact, this is one of the most challenging and time-consuming pieces of every website I write for my clients.

But if your website passes the five-second test, you’re already two steps ahead of a lot of the coworking space websites out there.