Do you ever think about what makes some websites stand out while most of them are never noticed?

It’s easy to have a website, but it’s more difficult than ever to get noticed.

It all starts with designing your “Home page” the right way.

Your home page creates the first impression about your business.

Here are few key things to avoid at all costs:

• Unprofessional homemade amateurish look and feel – Your goals is to have a professional image, so don’t expect a friend, your nephew, or the kid down the street to create the professional website you want. Going the cheap route will cost you a lot of money.
• Talk about yourself – People care more about how you can help them. Stop boasting about how great you are. Talk about how you are helping your customers make more money or spend less.
• Lack of testimonials – Your home page must include at least one testimonial. Nothing builds credibility faster than good things your customers say about your business. Link from your home page testimonial to your “Testimonials page.”
• Hiding your phone number – The best place for your phone number is in the “Header” area. The easier people can find your phone number the more likely will they call you.

 

• Hiding your address – Your address is one of the most important credibility builders. Include it in the “Footer” area of your website.
• Stock photos – If there is a way use real photos of your business, products, and people. It is easy to get real photos related to your business.
• Music – Unless you are a band, leave it off. Music on a website annoy most people. It is one of the fastest ways to drive people away from your site.
• Too much text – People have very little patience online. Edit your text until you only have what’s absolutely necessary to build credibility. Too much text is overwhelming and it will hurt your conversion rate.

Must haves to include in your website Home page

Responsive/Mobile friendly profession design.

Responsive website design (RWD) helps your website respond to the size of any mobile device. “Why do I care?” you might say. According to Techcentral, the average person looks at their mobile device 150 times a day. You don’t want a responsive site because it is cool, you want one because it will help you get more business. Old websites that work poorly with mobile devices drive people away.

If your company website doesn’t have RWD, you are losing out on the millions of people that search for businesses using their mobile devices.

Here is an example of a responsive website on a regular size screen:

 Here is an example of the same responsive website on a smartphone screen – as you can see it adjusts to the small screen size:

 

Your customers care. Close to 70% of Americans now use their mobile devices to look at your website. Older websites make reading, browsing, and buying difficult, resulting in lower sales and conversion rates.

Just because you don’t have an ecommerce site, you still need a responsive site. People have a lot less patience when it comes to viewing sites on mobile.

A recent Google study found that 79% of people who don’t like what they find on one site will go back and search for another site. If you adopt responsive before your competitors, you have a major advantage.

Responsive design also helps you with your SEO efforts. Google declared that they favor responsive websites in search rankings. Non-responsive websites will increase your bounce rate. High bounce rate causes dropped search rankings.

Phone number in “Header” area.

It’s not enough to list your phone number on your “Contact” page. Make it easy for people to find and people will more likely call you.

As you can see on the heat map below, people tend to view the top of web pages.

 

 Your physical address in your “Footer” area.

Showing your physical address is a great credibility builder.

 

 Testimonials.

You simply can’t have too many testimonials. Testimonials sell more than your best salesperson. Your prospects want to know what others say about your business. They trust your customers more than they trust you.

Ask for testimonials. At the end of each project reach out to your customer and ask what they thought about the service they have received. You can post written, video, or audio testimonials on your site.

Who are you and why are you trustworthy? Your site is less about selling and more about building trust.

There are several to build trust:

• Make it personal. Show the photos of real people. Introduce yourself. Have personal message.
• Tell stories. People love stories because they can relate to them. Instead of listing facts, features and benefits. Tell stories about your business and how your company helps its customers.
• Use encryption. It makes sense to use https instead of http for every page of your website.
• Show professional association memberships, awards, and other accomplishments.
• Display how long you have been in business. (This might be less effective if you are a new business.)

Build your email list.

Please don’t ask people to submit their emails so you can send them your newsletter.

Nobody wants to get your newsletters.

Give people a really good reason to give you their emails. Give value.

Provide them with a special report. Offer a book. Give away free consultation. Whatever it is, please make sure it is valuable to people. Your newsletter isn’t.

Call to action.

• What do you want your site visitors to do?
• Do you want them to call you?
• Do you want them to give you their email address?
• What action do you want them to take?

Here are some sample calls to action:

• May I send you a free (book, report, study)?
• Submit your email to receive a free personalized report.
• Call now to receive a complimentary consultation.