Building A Website – 4 Keys To An Effective Homepage

May, 16 2016

You might have heard the phrase, “first impressions are lasting impressions.” This is true for businesses as well as their websites. Your homepage should look professional to promote trust. When a potential customer visits your website, they should be able to immediately identify the products and services you offer. Many websites lack in providing their users with clear information about their products and offerings. If you follow these four tips for an effective homepage, you will be on your way to generating more potential customers from your existing traffic.

1. Relevant Images

Never underestimate the power of relevant images. Many people are visual-oriented - i.e., they tend to attract more towards visuals like pictures, graphics and colors - and gain more information by seeing rather than reading. Too much text on a page can send the user away because lines of text don’t just look boring – they are boring. Happy smiling people or world-class photos of your products and services can bring more life to your website and make visitors want to reach out to you.

2. Contact Info

Placing your contact information like telephone number, email and physical address in the top right corner of your homepage is always appreciated by users. That top corner always catches the eye first, and most users are looking for contact information on websites. We've seen many times that simply adding a phone number to a website in a prominent location will increase calls from customers.

3. Navigation Links

User-friendly navigation is an art in itself and plays a key role in an effective homepage. Links to contact us, business hours, testimonials, return and other policies, and FAQ pages should always be easy to find on the home page. Your navigation should easily lead prospects into your sales funnel.

4. Sign-Up Section

Place your sign-up section amongst the tabs in the top right portion of your web page to encourage your visitors to get involved! Depending on your offer, the sign-up could be a request for more information, an option to schedule services, or the option to buy now. Good call-to-actions help to give users a next step to take and will help to decrease your bounce rate. We'll talk more about the effective use of call-to-action elements in upcoming articles in this series.