Your website’s homepage is your company’s calling card. For most company websites, the homepage is the single most visited page. And since the homepage is referenced by the company’s root domain – yourcompany.com – it is often the easiest website address to promote and for visitors to remember. The homepage also sets the tone for the content on the rest of the site and serves a utilitarian function to introduce the navigation and other technical and design features.
To add to the pressure, your website homepage needs to do all of this in about a minute. So, as you set out to redesign your company’s website, let’s first bust a few myths.
Your homepage is not a sales page. It does not need to sell anything, push anyone, or make any crazy claims.
Your homepage is not complex, complicated or super long. At least it shouldn’t be.
Your homepage is not really about text. Yep, I said it. Text-heavy homepages won’t engage visitors for long. Your homepage is actually more about design… and using text strategically to get results. Save the long descriptions for your inside pages.
So, let’s take a look at what your business website’s homepage needs to do in the visitor’s first minute.
You’ve probably heard the statistics. You have three seconds or less to capture someone’s attention when they land on your homepage.
But have you thought about what that really means?
The most important part of your homepage is at the top, and it’s important that it be visually pleasing and mentally engaging. Capturing attention means concise, impactful, memorable copy combined with a graphic design element that ties it all together.
Capturing my attention only gives you three to seven additional seconds to make me feel welcome. If you do that well, then I’ll be hooked enough to scroll further and watch the video or click around to learn a little more. I’m making a judgment about your personality and the tone of your business. I’m deciding if I belong here.
Your task is to create an atmosphere in keeping with your brand voice and to clarify what you do. More specifically, what you do for me. I’m not really interested in a headline that tells me that your company makes widgets. But I’m very interested if your headline says your widgets solve my problem. I don’t need all the details just yet (because there’s not time for that), just a quick snapshot. I need to know I’m welcome and I’m in the right place. Only then might I click deeper into your website.
Once I feel welcome, you have less than a minute to engage me and inspire me to take action in some way. If you don’t get me to do something before I leave, you’ll likely never know I was there… and I might not come back.
Be very strategic about the calls to action you give on your homepage. Don’t rely exclusively on your main menu to guide me. Call out features of a few important inside pages with links that make me want to dig deeper into your site. Make the next steps simple and very clear.
Here are some best practices…
Now that we’ve cleared up a few myths about the homepage, let’s get to work! Remember, your first goal with your homepage is to capture my attention. You have three seconds or less to capture someone’s attention. So you’ll need something interesting above the fold on your page.
Your next task is to make me feel welcome and create connection. Your website is a conversation with potential clients, and their first stop is often your homepage. Think of it as making a good first impression.
Once you’ve made them feel welcome, it’s time to inspire them to take action. Just like in a conversation, you need to engage the other person. If they leave your website without doing something, they might not come back.
Answer the following questions to help you prioritize your homepage content:
If you’re considering a website redesign, contact Heinzeroth Marketing Group for a free website analysis. We’ll review your current site and discuss with you changes that can help achieve your business goals.