Of all pages on your website, your homepage is the most important.
- Your home page serves as the main entry for your entire website.
- It acts as the “face” of your digital presence.
- It also drives visitors to view the rest of your website.
If you have a tacky, confusing, or poorly-designed homepage, it could steer viewers to click the back button on their browser in a matter of seconds.
Why Your Website Home Page is Important
Like the rest of your website, your homepage’s objective is to successfully market your brand and convert visitors into leads and, eventually, into customers. In short, your homepage should answer your visitor’s questions and encourage them to explore the rest of your website.
While your homepage will be viewed by many, it’s important to keep the points mentioned below in mind for the rest of your website. If your other website pages are SEO-optimized like your blog posts, visitors will enter your site through those pages and decide to browse through your website based on the page they land on. That being said, this post is for not just your homepage, but your entire website.
Here are the necessary components a successful homepage needs to have to properly drive visitors to learn more about your business.
1. A Clear Value Proposition
This should be defined before you build your website, and it needs to be stated at the top of your homepage. This isn’t something you should guess at, but rather, it should come directly from your messaging strategy.
Think of this like a tagline that immediately makes it clear how your business helps people.
This proposition should answer questions such as:
- What products or services do you offer?
- What should the visitor do on this website?
- What questions does this website answer?
- What’s different about your business within your industry and why should your visitors choose to do business with you?
By answering these questions in your value proposition, visitors will want to learn more about your business as a whole by viewing the rest of your website.
2. Build Tension
Every business solves some problem. Your product or service addresses something your audience can’t fix themselves, or that they’d rather trust to a professional like you.
- Plumbers fix the problem of leaky pipes and clogged toilets.
- Lawyers fix the problem of lawsuits or tricky contracts.
- Accountants fix the problem of taxes or confusing balance sheets.
- Marketers fix the problem of not being able to reach your customers.
Build a sense of urgency by reminding them of the problem you solve. Explain why the issues you solve are worth fixing for them. Demonstrate what’s at stake if they ignore the problem or choose someone who doesn’t understand how to fix it.
3. Provide a Solution
Once you’ve established the problem that your audience faces, you’ll want to show how your product or service is a clear answer to the problem. Explain why what you offer is something people like them need.
Ideally, this section also links out to a separate page for your services or a shop with your products. This section is simply meant to be an introduction to your solution and an invitation to dive deeper into the rest of your website.
4. Present Your Credibility
If you hope to guide your audience to a solution to their problems, you need to build trust. You can do this by explaining your credibility and building empathy. There are a few different ways you can establish your unique credentials:
- How many years you’ve been in business
- How many collective years of experience your team has
- How many customers you’ve served or projects you’ve completed
- What credentials or licenses you’ve earned
- What recognizable brands you’ve worked with
- Which industry awards you’ve won
- What customer retention rate do you have
Not all of these will be relevant to your company, but hopefully there are a few opportunities for you to demonstrate why you’re a good fit for your audience. You know the good work you’re capable of—but you need the statistics and credentials to help prove it to potential clients.
5. Explain How You’re Unique
Whether you realize it or not, you’re not the only brand that can help your audience. Every business has competitors, even if it’s not other companies in your market. Sometimes an alternative to working with you is doing the work themselves or ignoring the problem altogether.
To convince them of your unique value, you’ll have to explain how you’re different. This doesn’t mean listing out your competitors by name, but you can still consider them when making your list. Pick a few of the features that make you stand apart and focus on those.
6. Call Them to Action
While CTAs (calls to action) are needed throughout your whole website, they are very necessary on the homepage. Make sure to place the most important CTA above the fold on the homepage (meaning it needs to be seen without scrolling down the page).
Don’t offer too many calls to action on your home page. Offering too many options decreases the likelihood that any will be chosen. Think of one or two things you want your audience to do directly on your home page. That could include:
- Shop our product
- Contact us
- Schedule a meeting
- Give us a call
- Book a demo
- Start your free trial
- Start your project
- Make a donation
Ensure that the call to action is clear, compelling, and (well) actionable. All of the content within your home page is driving people towards this single action. Whether or not people convert is a demonstration of how effective your home page is.
Get More Help With Web Home Page Design
This list is only the beginning. There’s a lot of work that has to be done between understanding this and implementing it on your website.
Do you still need help with creating a website home page that helps your business grow? We’ve created this free downloadable resource to guide you through the steps of creating a memorable home page.
If you don’t want to do it all yourself, GreenMellen has years of experience with writing, designing, and developing unbelievable business website homepages. Contact us today to learn how we can help you!
