The homepage is the most important part of a website. It effectively acts as your shop window. Customers that visit your website will decide in just a few seconds whether they will stay on the website. This means the information you display will ultimately be the deciding factor when it comes to your success.
With the above in mind, several features should be included on your homepage to grab your customer’s attention. These features can help to motivate your customer to investigate your site further, increasing conversion rates.
1. Clear Customer Benefits
Grab your customer’s attention immediately by clearly highlighting the key benefits of your product or service. The customer should at first glance be able to see what your company provides.
Keep your descriptions brief and clear from complicated jargon. You want your customers to sit up and take notice.
Features should be included along with an outline of how each one will benefit your customer. This should clearly display what your customers can get and plenty of reasons for why they should get it.
2. A Big Visual Impact
Webpages full of text will not motivate your customers to stay on your website. Customers will only see large blocks of text as a hassle to read, so it’s essential to present them with interesting content.
Make sure your customer is wowed by a visually appealing homepage. Include headings and sub-headings to break up text and make the format and style interesting.
Most importantly, use images. Images attract attention immediately, and if your images look great, your customer will want to know more.
3. Easy Site Navigation
Once you’ve grabbed your customer’s interest on your homepage, it should be clear for them to navigate around your site.
Customers don’t want to have to search to find more information about the items they are interested in. They want to be able to find it straight away.
Your navigation bar should be easy to understand, even for a first time visitor. Make sure you use simple language and remember to use only the words that are necessary. One word is usually sufficient for each category, for example “home”, “products” or “contact”.
4. Compelling Calls-to-Action
Motivate customers to interact by including simple, but effective call to action buttons. These should tell your customer what advantage their action would give them, and stand out on the page.
You can include options to encourage your customer to sign up for email newsletters, start a free trial, or find out more information. The most effective type of call-to-actions include a contact forms, allowing you to generate customer information to contact the customer directly.
If you can persuade your customer to click through, you have already gained their interest. Consider both the design of the button itself and the background of the page. Bright colours on a neutral background will draw your customer’s eye, and your customers will be more likely to act on the prompt.
5. Social Media Links
Social media is an important part of e-commerce. Including social media links for your customers to interact with your brand will enable you to extend your reach to contacts within their network.
Customers following your social media page will be more likely to return and those who share your page will spread the word about your company to their contacts, giving you the opportunity to attract new customers.
Just make sure that you only include links to active pages.
Does your homepage need a revamp?
If your homepage could do with an upgrade, contact our e-commerce experts for advice by call the team on 0161 452 7146.