Your home page shouldn’t say anything about you.
What?
It should instead focus entirely on the benefits your customer will get if they buy from you.
What it should do though is show them what you can do.
Have I gone mad?
Not yet.
Show them what you do
When someone lands on your website, it must instantly show them what you do (so they know they’re in the right place) and then show them why they can’t possibly live without it.
Compare your home page to a department store.
All its goods are set out in various departments to make it easy for you to find what you’re looking for. Your home page should do the same; it is the place that directs your visitor to the section of your website they need.
Before you start writing, ask yourself what your objectives are. Do you want your visitors to?
- Buy something?
- Sign up for a newsletter/report?
- Fill out a contact form?
Let’s take a look at a few of the essential elements that should appear on your home page.
- The content
Forget stuffy corporate, jargon-filled marketing nonsense; your writing must talk directly to the reader (i.e. conversationally in the second person). It must be evident from the start what you do and, more importantly, what you can do for your customers. In other words, it must show your audience how you are going to make their life better.
- Trust
How do you create that trust?
The simple answer is by being transparent – show your full contact details (email, postal address and telephone), have a photo of you, so they know whom they are dealing with and show testimonials/case studies from past clients.
- Calls to action
Despite what you think, calls to action are vital to make sure your visitor is taken to the area of your site that is relevant to their needs.
You can have more than one, and you don’t have to leave them until the end of your web page. Just make sure you don’t bombard the reader with CTAs (they may get confused) and make sure they’re clear and to the point. This earlier post gives you some useful pointers about how to use calls to action successfully.
- Clear navigation
Although your content will contain calls to action that will take your readers further into your site, it’s also important to have clear navigation at the top of your home page (and all your pages) so users can quickly get to other pages within your site.
- Links
Your links are the transport infrastructure of your website, so it’s essential to test them to make sure they work. Broken links won’t do anything for your reputation and may lose potential clients.
Just don’t overdo them. If your home page is littered with links, your readers will get confused about where they should be heading and may well decide to head off an find a less perplexing website.
These should be seen as the essential elements you need to create a good impression. The most important thing is to show immediately the benefits you offer and that you’re happy to talk (i.e. prominent contact details).