The homepage of your website is arguably the most important. It is often the most visited of your whole site and it’s where most people will land when they visit you online. So, it needs to be good, right?
A good homepage can make or break the user experience as your people travel through your customer journey. But don’t fear, I have a few tips to help you on the road to converting those potential customers into actual customers from your homepage. So, let’s get started.
Who are you?
First and most importantly it should be immediately obvious who you are and what you do. If this isn’t clear the potential customer is likely to bounce straight off and find the solution to their problem elsewhere. Make sure you include some text about you, what you offer and how you can help your customers in a prominent place on the homepage. This will not only help user experience but it will also help SEO too. It’s advisable to have at least 400 words on a webpage and this includes your homepage.
These first impressions count, so also make sure you have your logo clearly visible at the top of the page, key contact information visible and tap into the pain points of your customers early on.
Invite the user in
Next up is making sure that your homepage invites the user to explore your site further. If it doesn’t and they don’t find what they’re looking for, again, they will head off elsewhere. Use links further down the page to other key areas of your website, whether that’s your products or services, your blog or even the about you and your team. This again is good for user experience and SEO.
Don’t keep them waiting
Load time is another important factor for user experience and SEO. If you use images that are too large or your hosting is sluggish then it can take too long for the page to load. Optimum load time of any webpage should be between 2 to 5 seconds, but every second over 2 the bounce rate increases. So, while you should include some beautiful, eye catching imagery on your homepage, you also need to ensure that this does not negatively affect the load time.
A picture can paint a thousand words
On the subject of imagery on your homepage, many websites have carousels or sliding images at the top of the page. There have actually been studies done that show these are not effective. They actually have been shown to confuse the user and overwhelm them when they land on your page. They don’t work particularly well on mobile, which is a preferred choice of device for many and they also push your valuable content further down the page which isn’t great to make that first impression and get your point across.
It’s all about trust
People buy from people, and not only that, but people they trust. So social proof your homepage with testimonials from other customers to show you can be, and are trusted by many other customers. Your homepage is a great place to put testimonials and shout about what you offer, so a scrolling selection somewhere on the page is a good idea.
Make it clear
Finally, don’t be afraid to use a strong call to action too. You’re putting lots of effort and information on your homepage, so encourage people to take the plunge and buy from you or at least find out more about what you have to offer.
So, make sure your homepage is as strong as it can be with these tips above and if you have any questions at all don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m always here to help and happy to have a free, no obligation chat to help with your marketing.
