Website Home Page

What makes an effective Home Page?

The home page is the most important page of your website. It is the one page that all your visitors will view. A poor home page can destroy any chance of achieving your website objectives as a visitor will bail out within a few seconds. A good home page is the blueprint for every successful website.

Your homepage should establish the key elements necessary to close a sale or to generate an enquiry.

If your website is focused on a single product/service, then you should launch straight into your main sales copy on the home page.

But if your website contains a number of products or services, then you need to write some copy for your home page that encourages your visitors to click into the pages that contain more details of those products or services.

Visitor Conversion.

The Six Steps to Visitor Conversion:

1. Do I trust you?

2. Do I believe you?

3. Do you understand my needs?

4. What’s in it for me?

5. What do you want from me?

6. Is it worth it?

Whenever you structure a home page for a website that has multiple products or services you need to be aware of the following critical elements:
Establish Your Trust & Credibility by using the right-hand column of your website.

Some of the key items for establishing trust are:
• Testimonials
• References
• Partners & Affiliates (borrowed credibility)
• Guarantees
• Awards
• Case Studies
• Evidence of a physical presence
• Privacy and other legal policies
• Professional design and error-free content (more credibility).
Pick one or two items and feature them in the right-hand column.

How important is a Great Headline?

A great headline grabs the visitor and draws them into your site. On multiple products or services sites, headlines that focus on the USP are best. Hit them right up front with the biggest and best benefit that you have – your USP!

You may also want to include an opening hook to support your headline and to ensure that you have really ‘hooked’ the visitor into your site. The same principles for headlines and opening hooks apply here as they do for long sales copy.

Sharp Specials!
Use your home page to hit your visitors between the eyes with a sharp special. Include one or two really sharp specials. Remember that the first order is always the hardest, and the same for the first item in the shopping cart. If you can get one of your really sharp specials into the shopping cart then chances are the customer will buy a number of other products, especially if you have strong cross-sells and up-sells.

Don’t forget to write the copy for your products or services that are ‘on special’. This is one of the most overlooked ‘basics’ with a website that features multiple products or services. If you follow the above guidelines when writing your home page, you are well on the way to having a successful website. Contact me here if you need help in writing an effective Home Page.

Based on an article by David Kelly, CEO of Zeald.com