Today I'd like to go over the 5 Home Page Must-Haves for your website. After years of designing websites for hundreds of clients, I've learned that a strong Home Page is absolutely priceless.
Do you ever wonder how long the average user stays on a website? The answer is sad, but true: not very long.
“You have 2 seconds to tell me what you do, 2 seconds to make it relevant to me, and 2 seconds to keep me interested. Repeat process until I leave your page.“
So let's make sure that we have a Home Page that will convince our visitors to stick around and learn more about what we offer and how to work with us.
#1: Mission Statement
Nothing is more important than telling your website visitors who you are and what you do. You would be surprised at how many websites do not have any sort of statement or clear text that summarizes its purpose. This statement should be short, concise, and appear above the fold on your website Home Page (the top part of the page that is seen before scrolling down).
#2: Strong Call to Action
The next most important thing to have on your Home Page is a strong Call to Action. The easiest and most effective way to do this is by adding a button or two right above the fold near your statement. You'll want to make sure that your visitors can easily find the next action you want them to take.
#3: Easy to find navigation
There's nothing more frustrating than visiting a website and not being able to easily get from page to page. By having an easy to find menu or navigation, you will be ensuring that your visitors to stay a while to explore more than just the Home Page.
#4: Email Subscribe Form
I can't stress how important it is to have an email list for your business. You'll want to start growing this list as soon as possible, and to do that you will need an enticing subscribe form on your Home Page. I say enticing because it has be something that is valuable and exciting in order to persuade visitors to get on your email list. If you're just getting started, check out my Flodesk tutorial to quickly add an email signup form to your Home Page.
#5: Captivating Images & Text
Since you only have a few second to capture your visitor's attention, the best way to do this is through beautiful imagery and compelling text ( often referred to as ‘copy'). If you aren't sure where to start, I have some recommendations for finding photos. When it comes to the text on your Home Page, remember to keep it simple! No one has time to read paragraphs and paragraphs of text, and they will either skim through or skip over them completely if it's too overwhelming. Make good use of your headlines!
I hope you'll find these 5 Home Page Must-Haves helpful! If you've enjoyed this list, you should go ahead and download the full Home Page Checklist from the Free Resource Library.
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