Your homepage is essential for making a good first impression. Think of it as your company’s online front door. You’d think twice about buying from a store with a messy and disorganized storefront, so it stands to reason that a badly optimized homepage can drive potential customers away. To be successful online, you need an optimized homepage that informs, attracts, and encourages visitors to explore your website and trust you with their business. The following is our list of top 5 features every homepage needs to have to stand a chance against the competition.
Prominent Logo
While this may seem obvious to some, it’s shocking how many businesses don’t have their logo in a prominent position on their homepage. After all, it should be the core of your business’ branding and identity. A representation that reflects who you are, what you do, and something for consumers to recognize your business by. When it comes to logos, visitors generally expect to see a brand’s logo on the upper left side or middle of their homepage, and always make sure it’s linked to your homepage so visitors can easily go back no matter what page they’re on.
Attractive Headline
In addition to your logo, your homepage’s headline is going to be what visitors will focus on next. At this point, you have mere seconds to tell prospective customers who you are, what you do, who you do it for, and why they should care. Therefore, it’s essential that you use a powerful, clear, and concise headline that clearly describes these important aspects. There’s no need to go overboard, however, and 1-2 sentences of powerful, yet memorable text are usually all it takes to attract the right customers.
Social Proof
Social Proof is another must-have feature on your homepage. It’s one of the most powerful indicators of trust that can convince non-believers that your product or service is right for them. Moreover, social proof establishes your industry expertise and provides valuable insight into what you offer. All it takes is a few, short testimonials on your homepage and links to examples of your work (if applicable) to inspire a great first impression. To take it a step further and give your social proof more credibility, consider adding names and photos of your actual clients alongside their testimonials (with their permission of course!)
Clear, Descriptive, and Streamlined Navigation
Navigation is an essential feature on any website page, but it’s especially important on your homepage. The main purpose of your homepage is to serve as a hub to other pages on your site, meaning that you need to provide visitors with clear and easy-to-follow paths to help them get to where they want to go. In general, you’ll want to include your navigation bar and labels at the top of your homepage. Aim to keep labels simple, yet descriptive (for example, “About Us” instead of “Get to Know the Company”) and limit them to a minimum. If you have a content-heavy site, consider adding a search bar or icon to your main navigation bar.
Organized and Informational Footer
Many rightly consider a website’s footer to be as equally important as its header or main navigation bar. Once your visitor scrolls to the bottom of any of your pages, you don’t want to force them to scroll all the way back up to navigate to another page. Instead, you want them to take action. Adding contact information and social icons to your footer encourages visitors to get in touch with you or explore other ways they can engage with you. If they’re not yet ready to take action, a mini sitemap with links to important pages can encourage them to continue exploring your site. Your footer is also a great place to add legal necessities and useful links, such as your copyright information, privacy policy, cookie policy, terms of use, and a search icon.
Are You Ready to Transform your Homepage?
With decades of combined experience in a wide range of fields and industries, the team of professional web designers, developers, and marketing experts at Begin with B are here to help. If you’re looking to revamp your homepage or your entire website and start attracting customers like never before, reach out to us today at 403-536-9877 or contact us online to request a quote on any of our Calgary web design services.