The homepage of a website is the virtual front door to your business. It’s the first impression people often get.
If people don’t like the front door’s look, they will be unlikely to venture inside. Even if visitors to your site land on a different page, they will invariably wind up visiting the home page at some point. So, the design and content of a homepage are crucial.
But what should be on the homepage of a business website? How can you distill the essence of what your business is about into one single webpage? Each business’s website will be different, of course.
Even so, there are some essential elements that every business home page should contain. Here are ten items that every business website homepage needs.
1. Strong Branding
Your branding is part of what sets your business apart from the competition. So, make sure that your company name and logo is clearly visible on your homepage, and design the whole of your website using your corporate color scheme which is an important marketing principle from real estate websites to restaurants and e-comm. As mentioned in the introduction, your homepage is the virtual equivalent of your business’s front door. So, don’t leave visitors wondering which company is behind the door.
2. Headline and Intro
Visitors need to know that they have landed on the right site within only a few seconds. So, your homepage needs a headline that briefly describes what your business does. The headline should only be a few words. Underneath this eye-catching headline, you may want to have a brief but powerful content-rich explanation of what your business is all about. When composing your homepage headline, think about what will tempt people to explore the site further. However, don’t lose sight of the fact that you only have a few seconds to get your message across.
3. Benefits
So, your branding has distinguished your homepage from your competition and your headline has made it clear what your business does. Now it is time to tell visitors why your business is the best with a brief description of your company’s benefits, or your company’s value proposition. In this section, it will be best if you keep the language simple. Bullet-point your product or service’s benefits and link to more detailed explanations on other pages if needed.
4. Visuals
It will be far easier for visitors to get an idea of what your business does from images rather than text. Visuals also make a web page more appealing to the eye. So, don’t add visuals to your homepage as an afterthought. Use pictures and videos that demonstrate the benefits of your products or services, rather than stock images. If your homepage is your front door, then the visuals you use on the page are your store window.
5. White Space
Don’t be afraid to leave some space between the various elements on your homepage, and keep the text brief, easy to read, and to the point. A cluttered, text-filled home page will take too long to read, so visitors will skip it and visit another site instead. Use your homepage to highlight the headlines of your business. If your headlines are enticing, visitors will follow your internal links to learn more.
6. Eye-catching but Simple Design
The design of a business website needs to be eye-catching and consistent with the brand. However, it would be best to avoid the temptation to go overboard with animation and special effects. People do not want to hang around, waiting for a technically creative introduction sequence to end. Visitors want to get the information they came looking for fast. So, aim for a unique, eye-catching design, but keep things relatively straightforward on the home page.
7. Calls to Action
The purpose of any business website is to generate sales. And the best way to get sales and leads is to ask for them with calls to action. Calls to action (CTAs) need to stand out from the rest of the page. They must be concise and tell the user what they will gain by following the link. Depending on the type of business, homepage calls to action could request a quotation, buy a product, or visit an online store. The CTAs on your homepage are signposts telling visitors what they should do next.
8. Navigation
Navigation on a business website needs to be easy to follow. It must be easy to move between the various pages of the site, and there must be a clear path back to the homepage. It is best to keep the menus uncrowded and straightforward. Try not to place too many options under one menu heading and avoid having menus that cascade through multiple levels. It can also be useful to have a search box on the homepage. Keeping it easy to stay on your website and find the content and answers you are looking for is an important factor for your onsite user statistic metrics.
9. Social Proof
It’s all well and good telling visitors to your website why they should buy from you. But, then you would say that your product or service is the best on the market, wouldn’t you? If you want to leave visitors to your site to be in no doubt that they should be buying from your business, you will need the third-party validation of social proof. You can add extra power to your home page message with few customer testimonials or product reviews. Most people look for social proof to confirm their thoughts on products before they make a purchase.
10. Contact Information
Finally, you will need to make it easy for people to contact your business. So, provide contact boxes and or phone numbers on your homepage or an easy-to-locate link to a contact page. It is also advisable to include your physical address along with the other contact information. Contact details are not only to make it easier for customers and prospects to contact you. Contact details also help to build trust and demonstrate that you have nothing to hide.
Conclusion
The crucial thing to take away from the above is to create your business website homepage as the front door and storefront on your website. Your homepage will need to identify your brand and explain what it is that you do. You will need to make it easy for visitors to take the next steps towards making a purchase. Get the essential elements of a homepage in place. Then, more visitors will take the time to explore your website further.
