So, you have decided to set up your very own business website… Long overdue but welcome to the community!
And, the first step towards building a successful website is designing a great home page.
Now, you may ask what is a great homepage?
A great homepage is one that attracts traffic—lots of traffic; educates visitors—comprehensively, and invites conversions—seamlessly.
Aha!
But what makes a homepage a “great” homepage?
Hiring an expensive web designer and a SEO specialist—Not! But rather some critical elements that you need to integrate within your website’s homepage.
What are these elements?
Below is a list of crucial elements to include in your website’s homepage, which by no means is exhaustive but results driven nevertheless.
1. A Precise Easy to Understand Value Proposition
In simple words, what you have to offer and how your customers can benefit from it. That’s where your website’s headings and subheadings come into frame. You need to make sure that your value proposition is communicated effectively and more importantly —instantly.
Here is an example that I would like to share with you – The Dropbox’s homepage.
When you arrive at the homepage, the first heading you see:
“Put your creative energy to work, with Dropbox”
And you immediately get an idea that the solution is something that allows you to be more efficient and productive at work. You then read the subheading and you get a clearer picture. As you scroll down, you find other headlines followed by their respective sub-headlines and you are able to understand the value proposition effectively and instantly.
2. Calls-To-Action
Calls-to-action or CTAs, allow your website visitors to engage with your website content, compelling them to dig deeper into your offerings.
There are two types of calls-to-action: a) primary calls-to-action and, b) secondary calls-to-action.
Primary CTAs fast track your website visitors down the deeper levels of sales funnel. For example, prompting your customers to buy, to contact you, to subscribe for a free trial etc. These should be present above the fold of your website homepage. Including two to three primary CTAs should suffice.
Secondary CTAs are for those website visitors who are not interested in your business’s primary objective and would rather take their time to get to know you better before taking an action. Some examples include downloading a guide, comparing two or more of your products, checking out latest news, articles or blogposts etc. Secondary CTAs should be placed down the fold.
3. A Convenient Navigation Option
Your website has a lot to tell and lot to share with your customers. But every customer is only interested in what they want to hear. Since your homepage is the first point of interaction for your website visitors, you would want it to furnish the information that they are searching for. For that, you need to provide a navigation option on your website homepage. Like the one, that you see at the top right corner of your screens.
4. Client Testimonials
First-time visitors need convincing to purchase your product or service—they are not going to become your customers immediately. Where your website content serves to gradually nurture them down the sales funnel, including social proof of your credibility in the form of client testimonials, can speed the process. Include images of your customers if possible—it would help to create a stronger impression.
5. Contact Information
And finally, don’t forget to include contact information on your homepage. This is best placed at the bottom of your website’s homepage. It should have a phone number, your mailing address and your email address.
Looking for more such helpful web design tips to optimize your business website for success?
My blog resources can help you. I, Manal Haddad, have over 25 years of experience in business consultancy and development having worked with some of the top business organizations around the world. Whatever I have learnt, I try to word it into blog for digital marketers like you. Read, learn, enjoy and share the knowledge!
