What Do You Need On Your Website’s Homepage?

If your website was a magazine, the homepage would be the cover. It gives you a taste of what’s inside and it gives you reasons to want to keep exploring. Many of your website visitors won’t make it past the homepage if it’s not optimized to keep them around and guide them towards action. Here are 6 things every business needs on their website’s homepage:

Logo

Having a professionally designed logo at the top of your homepage makes your company look official and helps reinforce your brand. It also helps visitors remember you if they don’t convert right away. If a prospect looks at several company’s websites during their search for a specific product or service, there’s a good chance they’ll come back to the website with the most memorable branding when they’re ready to buy. Check out our article “The Difference Between a Good Logo and a Bad Logo” for tips on how to make yours memorable and effective.

Contact Info

Your full contact information (phone number, address, social media accounts) should be clearly visible at the top and bottom of your homepage. You should also have a contact form that prospects can fill out so that you can get back to them.

Informational Content

You don’t want to go into the specifics of your products/services on your homepage, but there should be written content that gives visitors a clear idea of what kind of business they are looking at. Your content should tell visitors that they are in the right place and it should differentiate you from competitors. Think about why your current customers keep doing business with you rather than with your competitors and articulate those reasons on your homepage.

Visual Content

High-quality photos and graphics are a must-have for any business’ website homepage. If it all possible, shy away from stock images and use real professional photos of your business, your team, your products, etc. The homepage is a great place for an introduction video, which is something that more and more businesses are doing because it engages website visitors and gets them through the more detailed informational content without making them read.

Lead Magnet

There are plenty of people who will visit your website and legitimately consider buying, but won’t pull the trigger right away. You don’t want to let them slip through the cracks without collecting their contact information. A lead magnet is a piece of content that is gated, meaning it requires users to give you their email address or phone number before they can access the contact. You give it away for free, but it’s valuable enough that people will give you their contact info in exchange for it. Think phone consultations, guides, ebooks, reports, etc.

Call to Action

Don’t expect visitors to do what you want them to without being asked. CTA’s (calls-to-action) are places on your homepage that instruct the user what to do next. Whether you want your visitors to call, fill out a form, come to your store/office, follow you on Twitter, take advantage of your discount promo code, or some other action, your homepage should tell them to do exactly that.

Use these tips to make sure that when visitors first get to your website, they see a homepage that makes your business look good and makes them want to know more. If you’re in need of web design services, Plum Direct Marketing can help you incorporate these elements onto your website! Give us a call at 1-800-992-9663 to speak with one of our marketing advisors and find out what we can do for you.