The homepage is one the most important marketing tool of your website.
If your homepage doesn’t include key elements you should have your website redesigned. What’s on your homepage could make the difference between success and failure. Your homepage is the most visited page. What that means that most people who ever lay an eye on your website will never see any other page.
Your homepage is the most important page. Treat it accordingly.
Considering a website redesign? Do you want help to turn your website homepage into a real asset for your business? Contact us now.
There are key components your website homepage must have:
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- Professional design – It’s not enough that you think it looks OK. Your website homepage must look professional. Remember, you are creating a first impression with your homepage. Don’t create the wrong impression by taking the do-it-yourself approach or hiring some kid to design it for you. Hire a professional to design your website.
- Logo – Your logo must look professional. Don’t give the wrong impression about your business by having a hokey logo. Get a professional logo designed for your business.
- Images – Your images, graphics, and photos should tell the story you are trying to communicate about your business. A great graphic designer can do wonders for your homepage.
- Headline – Great headlines help with your marketing. Your headline should tell in one sentence what you do. After someone reads your homepage headline s/he should know what you do.
- Navigation – Have a clear, easy to understand navigation. The simpler you make your website navigation, the more likely will visitors spend time on your website.
- SEO – Your homepage like any other page should be optimized for the search engines. For improved SEO, make sure your page title starts with your most important keyword. To give you an example, our homepage title starts with “San Diego Web Designer.” What is your most important keyword?
- How to contact you – The goal is to have prospects contact you, so make it easy. Make sure your phone number is in the header area, so it is easy to find. Also make sure your address is listed. There should also be an easy way for people to email you from your homepage.
- Trust – What makes you trustworthy? Most people who land on your homepage for the first time are strangers. Your job is to build trust, fast.
- Differentiate – How are you better than your competition? Don’t be shy about it. Only make statements that are true. List what differentiates you from the rest. What do you do better than others?
- Teach – The majority of your visitors are not yet ready to buy. Educate them about your products and solutions. Offer tips, advice and training, to build loyalty.
- Testimonials – Testimonials are very powerful, because they tell what your past customers think of your business. Testimonials are great for building credibility.
- Email signup – I don’t mean one of those “Signup for my newsletter” boxes on the bottom of the homepage. I mean you need an aggressive email collection strategy. Email popups are very effective when coupled with something valuable like a book, special report, or access to information otherwise unavailable.
- Show your experience – A great homepage will show your visitors how you have helped your customers in the past and how you can help them.
- Calls to action – What do you want the visitor to do? Tell them what to do exactly. Do you want them to call you? Say it. Do you want them to download something useful to them? Explain how they can do that. Whatever action you want them to take, tell them.
- Features – Show the key features of your product or service.
- Proof – Show proof that customers like your work. You can also show industry affiliations. If you are a member of professional organizations, show their logos.
- Client logos – If you are a B2B business, show the logos of some of your customers. It gives you a huge credibility boost.
- Gift – Have a gift offer. It could be a white paper, ebook, study, list or special report. Offering a gift is a great lead gen feature for any website homepage.
- Social – Include links to your social accounts such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and such.
- Video – People love videos. You can have a video introduction from the founder, or a video testimonial. Use video to communicate your most important message or a call to action. Make sure the video is not set to autoplay. Autoplay can be a huge turnoff, and it will drive people away from your website.
- Awards or recognition – Be proud of your accomplishments. Show the most recent or most important ones.
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