Your Home Page is the most important page of your website. It is the face of your company, which all your visitors will view and make a decision; either staying to find out more or bouncing, almost immediately. You only have a few seconds to get your objectives across to your viewers and an Effective Home Page will do just that. A good home page is like the blueprint to every successful website. A poor home page could destroy your site causing you to lose potential clients/users. To make sure this does not happen to you follow these guidelines in creating an Effective Home Page.
You need to give your viewers a starting point by answering a few questions they would have:
- Who are you?
- Can I trust you?
- What do you do, sell or make?
- Why are you better than the rest?
- What is in it for me?
Explain to your users who you are and what you do by creating a compelling Tagline; explaining to your users what your site/company does in a few words, short and to the point. Have a Title tag; it should contain your company name with a brief description of your site. Establish trust and credibility; through testimonials, privacy policy, references and case studies. Create an About section; group all company info here and make it easy for your users to find. List benefits and sharp specials; this will draw them in and explain why you are the best option and what is in it for them.
An Effective Home Page must:
- Establish an identity, one that is trust worthy and creditable
- Make a good first impression
- Have meaningful graphics and good content that makeyour objectives obvious
- Clear and user friendly navigation
- Site-wide search box
- Fresh content to attract returning visitors
- Provide multiple entry points
- Most important information should be located “above the fold”
- Calls to Action
- Use links and keywords
An effective home page must serve a variety of audiences that come from many different places. By following these guidelines you should create a very effective home page that directs your users to what they are looking for and wanting more information.
For more tips check out these info graphics:
– 12 Critical Elements Every Homepage Must Have by HubSpot
– The Anatomy of an Effective Home Page by Kissmetrics