Having a strong website is essential for your business.
Each page needs to be thoughtfully designed for an optimized UX (user experience), and ultimately, you want your website to work for you for years down the road to be able to convert interested visitors into future clients.
What is the first thing people will see when they enter your website?
Your Homepage!
In fact, it’s the most visited page on your website (duh!) so it needs to MAKE A STATEMENT, and it needs to within a matter of SECONDS.
They say you only have 5 seconds to interest your website visitor before they click that little x in the top right corner. Well my friends, in this article, I am going to teach you how you can do this in less than that!
Your homepage is such a powerhouse in so many different ways. It immediately sets the mood and tone of your business, can instantly connect your ideal client with you, it serves as a lead generation tool and is the backbone of a successful sales funnel.
So let’s kick it off and jump into how to build an incredible homepage for your business… that converts!
How To Immediately Capture Interest To Make People Stay On Your Website
1. Know the purpose of your website.
It’s important to ask yourself what you are trying to achieve on your website, and why you have a website.
Many people overlook this step of the website planning process and jump right into designing and developing, then they end up with a cluster of so many different marketing initiatives on their website with no clear direction.
Ask yourself, what is the main reason why you have a website… is it:
- To sell products or services.
- To build an email list and get subscribers.
- To teach your community about what you do.
- To share your work, blog or case studies.
Once you’ve clarified what your purpose is, whatever you would like to add onto your website, ask yourself each time if it contributes to the overall goal of your website, and ensure it does! Reverse engineer the process!
2. Map out your homepage design.
Strategically mapping out your homepage is one of the best things to do to ensure you have a strong impact on your visitors. We like to think of our homepages we design as a puzzle, each piece of it contributes to one overall goal and big picture of who your business is and what you stand for.
Step 1: Ensure you have an intro headline.
The first most important part of your homepage is what your visitors see immediately, your headline.
Many people include a big beautiful image, or a slideshow of images, and then website visitors need to scroll down to find out actually what the business is all about.
Don’t do this!
Writing a powerful headline is your chance to capture visitors attention immediately, build credibility and inform your visitors what you are all about!
Your website visitors need to know within SECONDS what your business is all about. Visitors should not have to search on your website or click on your About page to find out what your business does.
A great example of a business that we love who does this well is The Girls Trip right when you enter their website, you know they are all about “Changing the Way Women Travel”, and the photo that they use (which is totally on brand!) along with their tagline entices the audience to explore more!
Another example (see below) on one of our own designs, we ensure visitors know that Vita and Frank is a business that’s all about “Conscious Clothing” which immediately has visitors interested in learning more about how Vita and Frank is an ethical clothing company.
Pro-Tip: We recommend having a short and sweet headline that is larger in size and stands out. Try and keep all your headlines the same typeface and size for consistency.
Step 2: Include your elevator pitch.
Your headline is just a taste of what your business is all about. But now it’s time to put that elevator pitch you’ve been working so hard to perfect to use!
We suggest opening up the homepage content of your website with a strong “About” section that tells everyone what your business is all about and why you do what you do!
Tell your visitors what problems you will solve for them!
Keep this section short and sweet, you can save all the details and your story for your “About” page. Below this section, think about a strong CTA (call to action) to drive traffic to other pages.
Perhaps viewers may want to learn more about your company and who the masterminds behind it are? And now, here’s your opportunity to drive traffic to your “About” page.
Step 3: Include funnels.
Funnels are a key part of a homepage to help drive traffic to other pages. You want your visitors to be interested in what you have to offer on your website, and you want to entice them to explore more of your website.
Remind yourself of the purpose of your website then create funnels that help contribute to that purpose!
For example, let’s say you are a Lifestyle Blogger, and the main purpose of your Blog is to educate your community and share the things you love.
Let’s say you have the best holiday eggnog recipe and it just so happens to be Christmas in a few weeks. Why not add a funnel of the direct blog post, which will then consist of an engaging article and links to multiple other blog posts?
Pro-Tip: Try and ensure your funnels are timely, catchy and on brand. To have timely funnels, we suggest switching up your funnels based on the season you are in, or current trend in your industry.
You want to increase your visitor retention rate, so by ensuring your funnels are timely, it’ll help to draw people back to your website because they know the content will be different the next time around.
Another way to decide on what to include in your funnels is to include something for the person who knows what they want and perhaps something for someone who doesn’t.
In the below example, you can see that immediately below the About Section, we have included funnels to different areas of the website. The Shop Now section serves as a section for those who maybe don’t know what they want, and perhaps want to browse the website further, potentially leading to a sale, whereas the section below is more for visitors who know they want to become a Member and can easily do that through a clickable CTA.
Pro Tip: You’ll notice the imagery within the mock-up website below all has a consistent colour tone and mood. This is a gamechanger for a website. We suggest sticking with one photographer, or one filter only for your web imagery to ensure your website sets the right mood and tone through and that your images are all consistent.
Step 4: Ensure you have social funnels.
If you have great social media presence on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc, that you invest so much time into on a daily basis, why not share access to these funnels on your homepage?
In the below example, and on many websites we build, we always love to include a direct social funnel to Instagram and in our footer or header navigation, include social funnels to all other social sites.
Because Instagram is image focused, this can add to the overall aesthetic of your homepage! The social funnel touchpoint can drive more traffic to your Instagram, build your following, and in turn, help keep your community engaged!
Step 5: Build your email list.
Building an email list is SO important for your business. It is one of the most effective ways to build a community and a loyal following of customers and potential clients.
Unlike social media, email lists are in-fact your own personal community of loyal followings. With all the algorithm changes on Instagram and Facebook, there’s no guarantee that your followers on social media will always see your content… and hey, who knows what could happen to your list of followers in the future?
By ensuring you have your own mailing list, YOU are in control of all your communications to this list through email marketing campaign platforms such as ConvertKit (to name the best one).
We strongly suggest including a newsletter subscribe form on the homepage of your website, whether it’d be placed in your footer, or within its own section, by sending just one email out to your community, you can increase your sales significantly, because your communicating with people who actually signed up to stay in the know about your business!
- My girl Jenna Kutcher has such a great podcast and blog on the “5 ways to supercharge your email list growth” that you cannot miss. Check it out here!
Step 6: Include your contact information.
We recommend including your contact information within the footer section of your homepage. Although we will jump into the elements of a strong footer in the next step, the contact information deserves its own category, because it’s THAT important.
Your contact info does not only belong on your contact page. If you are location based, we recommend including it in your footer for multiple reasons:
- Your footer appears on every page of your website, so you have that touchpoint and direct call to action to be easily reached on every page and your visitors don’t have to go digging through pages to try and get in touch with you. You wouldn’t want to lose a customer to a competitor just because you made it hard for them to get in touch with you in the first place, right?
- Search Engine Optimization – Having your physical address within your footer can positively impact your SEO. Website footers are a prime place for major search engines to pull information from to positively impact your search rankings. Because your address will appear on each page of your website, you can imagine the impact!
- Because your homepage has such powerful information about your business… your visitors may not even need to dig into other website pages, and may want to get in touch with you RIGHT away! Without having any contact info directly on your homepage, you could miss out on great lead opportunities.
Step 7: Ensure you have a strong footer.
Oftentimes, we overlook the importance of a website footer. Believe it or not, your footer is one of the most important sections of your website, because it has such a strong impact with multiple touch points, and… it shows up on every page!
Because your footer shows up on every single website page, it positively impacts your businesses SEO. Search engines can see the footer section and content of your website over and over again, which in turn enhances your ranking on Google and other search engines.
A footer is also a great place to have access to pages that you wouldn’t necessarily place in your website navigation… This is where businesses usually have links to pages such as their “Privacy Policy” or “FAQs” for example.
Overall, when planning out your website homepage, whether it’d be on your own or with a web designer, by following the above recommended steps we guarantee your homepage will blow away your audience and help to convert potential customers into loyal and engaged customers.
Need help mapping out your own homepage? We’d be happy to assist you! Reach out to us here to book a completely commitment FREE consultation to learn how you can re-design your homepage to convert!
Hailey is the creator and girlboss behind Heart and the Hustle, a graphic and web design & development agency that works with small businesses to build strong brand identities and powerful websites. With many years in the Marketing Industry both Corporate and Freelancing, Hailey knows and understands the key strategies that help a business win, especially when it comes to branding.