Design a Great Homepage with these Tips
When it comes to your website, no other page is as important as your homepage. Most of the time, it's the first thing people see when visiting your website. It might also be the hardest page to design because the goal is always clear: engage users quickly and keep them from leaving. Here are a few tips on how your homepage can help keep visitors on your website.
Identity and Branding
The first thing users should see when visiting your website is your identity. Your logo is important for branding purposes, but telling users what you do with a strong (and short) headline and sub-headline plays just as big of a role. You should also use clear visuals to support your words.
CTAs (Call To Action) and Links
Help lead users from your homepage to your content pages in a clear manner. Use styles of buttons that stand out and text that's obvious and compelling.
High Quality Images
Images are a visual representation of who you are, what you do and what product/service you provide, so you want these visuals to be high resolution and high quality. High quality images show your legitimacy in your industry.
Optimize
Don't make visitors wait while your homepage loads. Make sure your images, videos and other assets are all optimized to create a faster and more pleasurable experience. It helps with SEO, too. Learn more about why you should optimize your images.
Mobile
We all know by now that the mobile phone has become the numero uno device for viewing websites. Mobile devices obviously have a lot less real estate than desktop computers so it's even more important and more difficult to engage your users from the get-go. Make your message more concise and your CTAs clearer. Consider the mobile version of your homepage a completely separate entity than the desktop version and it will be much easier to develop the right content.
A few other things…
Who You Are
Depending on your industry, your users may want to learn about the people behind the product. While conversions are the number one priority, it could be important to tell your story or show your culture, especially if you're a small business. Ask yourself if it offers any value for users to peak behind the curtain. If so, tease “who you are” from your homepage so users have the option to read more about you if they are interested.
Social Media Links
If social media plays a big part of your marketing plan, make sure you have easily accessible links to those pages. Consider your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn pages as extensions of your website. Since you don't necessarily want users to leave your website, links to these pages don't need to be front and center, however they should be easy enough to access.
Contact
If you do a good job engaging your user on your homepage, they might want to contact you right away, so make sure your contact information/form is easily accessible and easy to understand. We've all visited websites for the sole purpose of finding a business phone number or email address, so also keep that in mind when designing your homepage.
It may seem like a lengthy list, but keeping all of these homepage tips in mind will help users stay on your website. As a result, you'll have a better chance of increasing your conversion rate. If you want to dig a bit further into not only creating a great homepage but a great website as well, don't hesitate to contact us.
