10 Super critical elements every website home page must have.
Posted on 8th September 2022 at 11:42
So how does your website home page score?
We all know how important your company website is these days, it’s normally the first-place people will go when they are looking to learn more about your business, engage with you, purchase a service or a product, book a meeting, find your location, or find your contact details to mention a few.
Depending on their web search most of your visitors will land on your home page first and if it’s not ticking these critical boxes then there’s a very good chance, you’ll be losing vital opportunities to engage with new business opportunity’s before you have even had a chance to speak to them. So, let’s dive in, how does your website score? Do you have…
1) A Major Headline
Does your home page tell your viewers (within 3 seconds) how you can help them? Take a look now, what’s the very first thing they see / read on a desktop, tablet and a mobile?
2) A well written Sub Headline
Your Sub Headline should offer a brief description of what you do and can offer. Don’t go overboard with this as people are time short and may not be willing to read paragraphs of text.
Focus your headline on what you can offer the client and how you can help solve their problem, this is not the place to tell them your entire company history since 1847. Keep your copy lightweight, easy to read and try to speak the language of your customers.
3) Primary Call to Actions
The whole point of your website home page is to firstly engage and then to lead the viewer to take an action, it’s like your front door. This could be asking them to simply click a telephone symbol to connect with you via telephone, it could be a button to allow them to learn more about a specific service or it could be a small form to request a call back or to join a mailing list.
We need to make sure we have covered as many bases as possible as different people prefer different call to actions depending on their requirements and the situation. For example, if I was looking for an emergency locksmith (I was locked out of my house) then I would expect to see a very big “CALL US HERE” call to action as soon as I land on the website. I probably wouldn't’t be interested in joining a mailing list in this situation.
4) Choose your website images very carefully
Remember most people are visual so make sure your images are super high quality, are relevant to what you offer and are suited to your brand. Being presented with a pixilated low-quality image is only going to turn people off and may cause them to click away from your website without proceeding any further. I really like a fading image banner on a home page with max 5 images with different key messages over the top as this gives you the opportunity to capture your viewers interest and present more of what you offer within a small space.
5) Your Benefits
As we know it’s very important to describe what you do but it’s also important to express why what you do matters. Views want to know the benefits of engaging with you and you need to get this message across as clearly and precisely as possible on your home page.
6) Social Proof
Social proof is a powerful indicator of trust and a great way to do this is to include a couple of recent testimonials from existing clients on your home page. Linking these testimonials to case studies with a call to action enforces even more credibility but make sure the case study page you are sending them to also has a call to action and does not end up as a dead end.
7) Keep your navigation super simple
As we mentioned the main role of your website home page is to firstly engage and then to guide your viewer to the next stage (with a call to action) so with this in mind we need to make sure that your website navigation is super simple. Check your navigating headings stand out at the top of your website and include a search box if possible. Also check your websites navigation on tablets and mobile telephones as well as laptops and desktops to make sure you have all the boxes ticked with easy to use navigation.
8) Video
A professional introduction video is a great addition to a website home page as it gives your views another form of media to engage with. Keep it short to the point and remember to prompt a call to action at the end of the video.
9) Keep the important information “above the fold”
This simply means to make sure that your key messages are not hidden way down the page and potentially out of sight when people land on your website home page. With this in mind check how your website looks on a mobile telephone, is the important content above the fold and is there some information that could be negated on smaller screens to reduce page length?
10) Load speed
OK so this point is more a general website subject but it’s an important one to consider if we are trying to make our website home page work better for us. There could be many reasons why your website is not leading quickly and some of these may be out of your control but by doing everything you can to increase your websites performance will only help with engagement. Speak to your website designer about page speed or run a test yourself via this link: https://pagespeed.web.dev/
We hope these tips were useful, if you would like us to review your website please feel free to fill in the form below and we will come back to you in due course.
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