Over the years of creating purposeful and profitable websites, I have found a few simple tricks that have become crucial to my personal design process. Whether you are investing your time into creating your own website or investing your money into hiring a professional, I want to help you ensure the success of your investment by sharing my top 5 website homepage tips.
1) A Clear Tagline
When someone visits your website, they should be able to immediately understand what it is that your businesses offers. When a visitor cannot instinctively understand what it is that your company offers upon first arriving to your homepage, you are going out of your way to make things difficult for them and significantly increasing the chances that they will opt to leave instead of hunt down the answers to their questions.
Your tagline should be a short, easy-to-understand, in large text, near the top of the screen. It can be tempting to try and write something cute, clever, or thought provoking in this statement, however in this case, simplicity is key.
If you are having trouble deciding what exactly to say consider your answers to these three questions:
How do I help people resolve an external problem?
How do I help people resolve an internal problem?
How do I help people resolve a philosophical problem?
2) Create a Direct Call to Action
Once you have clearly stated what it is that you do, next it’s time to make sure that your visitor knows exactly how to get it. The two most important spots to include your call to action include: below your tagline and in the top right hand corner of your site.
When someone visits your website, they typically will scan the screen in a Z pattern. By including your call to action in the top right hand corner and below your tagline towards the top of the page, you repetitively tell your visitor the next actionable step they need to take to solve their problem.
If you are having trouble deciding what your call to action should be, consider what it is that you really want someone to do once they visit your website? Do you want them to call you? To schedule an appointment online? To purchase your product? Tell them specifically what they need to do through your call to action.
3) Images of Success
The images on your website are crucial to helping your visitors understand what you offer and have the potential to make or break your credibility. Even if the words on your homepage are exquisitely written, your visitors are going to view and make an assumption about your business based on the images before they read your words.
When deciding what types of images to include, consider how they are going to support your tagline. Images of your products or the positive results of your services are great options. The biggest goal of your homepage images is to show your visitor what success looks like when they engage with your business.
Whether it’s training or breeding services that result in blue ribbons and championships at shows, healthy and happy horses as the result of a high quality nutrition program, or the VIP experience that exhibitors and guests will experience at your event, showing it through images is the quickest way to communicate to your visitors that your tagline is trustworthy.
4) Showcase What You Do
Now that your visitors have an understanding of the problems that you solve and the action they need to take to get started, you need to show them specifically what you offer. Whether it’s products or services, this section of your homepage is dedicated to showcasing what it is that you actually sell. From physical products to services, this section allows your visitors to become more acquainted with their options.
The level of detail and complexity of this section should be kept to a minimal. Remember, your visitor is still just getting to know you and your business. By keeping the verbiage simple and avoiding industry lingo or overwhelming detail, your visitors can make a quicker decision about what product or service that you offer is best for them.
5) Make it Cohesive
In an effort to utilize your website to showcase your brand as a whole, it is so important that the experience that your visitor has on your website is cohesive with the entirety of your business. Your website is one of the few places where a visitor gives you the power to formulate their entire experience as they interact with your brand. Details such as the colors you use, the fonts styles and sizes, the style of imagery and layout, and the words that you choose should be familiar to your visitors whether they are on your website, social media accounts, in your storefront, or talking to you in person. As you develop and implement this cohesive style, your visitors will begin to build a higher level of trust with your business, that in turn generates higher profitability.
Ready to implement these tips for a more purposeful and profitable website? Get in touch! I would love to hear more about your website goals and work with you to create a strategy to achieve them.