Start the Year Fresh with an Updated Homepage

Your homepage is the storefront of your online presence. It’s the first impression viewers will get of your company and it’s the most viewed webpage on your site. That’s why it’s so important to keep it updated, simple to understand, and easy to navigate. A great website turns curious viewers into potential leads. So what makes a great website? Here are a few opportunities where you can improve your website’s homepage.

Give Viewers a Clear Value Proposition
Before you can focus on design or navigation, you need to make it clear how your website benefits customers. These benefits are known as your value proposition. Your value proposition should answer questions like why your company/website exists, what can customers learn about on your site, and why customers should buy your products/services. The more effective you are at answering these questions, the more productive you will be at gaining leads. If a homepage is vague, customers tend to move on quickly until they find a site that clearly communicates what they offer and how they can help.

Develop Great UI and Design
Your clear value proposition will be meaningless if viewers are unable to find additional information or your online store. The purpose of a homepage is to intrigue viewers enough that they will want to explore the rest of your site. A good user interface makes navigation intuitive and allows your homepage to perform at its best.

Design is also very important. Like a good meal, presentation is just as important as how the food tastes. You can have great content and products, but if the design doesn’t look updated and nice, viewers will be hesitant to keep browsing. Not only does great design make a website more appealing, it can also improve readability, guide the user through your site, and strengthen your brand.

Promote User-Oriented Content
Content—whether it’s a blog post, video, industry news, or an eBook—is a great way to attract new viewers. It allows you to educate, help, and inspire readers. By creating content that answers questions viewers may have, it makes your content more engaging and adds to your value proposition. While you can’t place all your content on the homepage, you can display your most recent content to get readers interested and pull them further into your website.

Create a Primary Call-to-Action
Viewers visit your website for a reason. While they may not know what they’re looking for, it’s your job and your homepage’s job to help guide visitors to their next action. By providing a primary call-to-action on your homepage, visitors will be more invested in your business. It can be a simple call-to-action like signing up for a newsletter or scheduling a free consultation. It should be something that instantly benefits the visitor so that they realize the value of your business. Without a call-to-action on your homepage, visitors won’t understand what you want them to do or what their next steps should be once they’ve learned about your products/services.

Provide Social Proof
When visiting a page online, visitors want to make sure that the business they are looking at is credible and real. Adding testimonials to your homepage is a great way to automatically assure them that you are a real company and that you have happy customers. If your testimonial format includes a direct quotation and a photo of your customer, that’s even better. A good basic guideline is to include at least 3 testimonials or reviews on your homepage.

Now that you know a few ways to update your homepage, you can make it more productive for you. With a clear value proposition and a thoughtful design, your homepage will have a much better chance of attracting viewers and potential clients. If you want to update your homepage in 2016, contact Creative Juice for additional guidance.