5 Essential Tips for Creating the Best Homepage for Your Business
Living in an age where the Internet is a major part of our everyday lives, it is highly likely that the very first experience someone has with your business will be through your website. With first impressions counting for so much, and people’s attention spans online being notoriously short, it is crucial to do everything you can to ensure that your website is not turning people away. The homepage will be the very first thing they see in most cases, so you will want to dedicate all of the time and effort you can to ensure that it is as flawless as possible. A good homepage will not only hold on to the attention of potential customers; it will also give people something to remember you by. Your goal should not simply be to drive as much traffic to your website as possible. Instead, it should be about targeting the right audience and increasing your conversion rate. Even if you do have thousands of visitors stopping by every day, it means nothing in terms of revenue if your conversion rate is poor. Paying customers is what you should be aiming for; not just website traffic.
1 – Fast Loading Times
In times of lightning-fast broadband connections and multimedia-heavy content, there is no place for poorly performing websites, and the majority of people will turn away within seconds if your homepage takes too long to load. You should thoroughly test your website on a wide variety of different browsers and platforms. It should load quickly on smartphones as well, since mobile users already account for the majority of Internet traffic. Avoid going overboard with bandwidth-heavy content, and make certain that you choose a fast and reliable hosting company with minimal downtime.
2 – Clear Branding
Consider for a moment what primarily defines a company and makes people remember it. It is the image your company conveys. At its most basic level, this is the logo or emblem which you use to represent it. Your company logo and slogan should appear at the top of your homepage in such a way that it is likely to be the very first thing that people see. However, branding your website is rather more complex than this. You should also maintain a consistent style, layout and colour scheme so that people can easily recognize your website every time.
3 – Easy Navigation
Any entrepreneur wants their business website to look great, and they also want it to look unique. While these are very important elements of Web design, it is essential not to place them above ease of use. First and foremost, a website should be easy to navigate for any new visitors. Avoid using unconventional navigational features, even if they do look great at a first glance. Stick to the normal rules of design, and use colours, themes and content to personalize your site rather than unnecessarily complicated or confusing design features. Poor navigation will turn people away fast.
4 – The Importance of Colour
You have a great deal of creative potential when it comes to designing the colour scheme of your website, but there are some important rules to abide by. Avoid choosing colours which contrast sharply and are likely to strain the eyes or distract your visitors. Used correctly, colours can help to attract attention to important on-page elements. You should also adopt a consistent colour scheme throughout your website, and this should be one which represents both your brand and the type of industry which your company is involved in. Do not neglect typography either.
5 – Content Is King
Last, but certainly not least, it is content which is the true driving force of the online world. The importance of content is even greater these days, since quality and uniqueness now far outweigh quantity both in terms of providing your visitors with what they want and improving your rank with the search engines. The content on your home page should generally be media-rich, provided that it does not slow down your site. Important homepage elements include things like special promotions, new product updates and highlights of important news stories or new content posts.
