When you land on someone’s website what are you looking for?
- Is it an impressive blue-sky statement?
- Is it ‘Welcome to our website’?
- Is it a series of slides with pictures?
- Is it a technical description?
- Is it any sentence starting with ‘We …’?
- Is it something that tells you that this website is going to solve your problem?
Now apply your answers to your own website.
On your home page an image is important as most of us engage quicker when there’s some visual images, rather than just text. But the key to hooking in your website visitor is a powerful message that tells them they are in the right place.
This can be a challenge if you offer a range of services or products, but it’s not impossible. So, for instance:
The answers to the questions you want to ask
Not
We have a comprehensive range of services
People are not interested in what you do – they are interested in what they get.
They don’t want to know what your future vision is, they want to know if you’ve got what they’re looking for.
Your website visitor is looking for information and they don’t want to work through a complicated process to get it. Your job is to make the journey as streamlined as possible.
Remember that the visitor may not be the end user – it may be that an assistant or purchasing department has been tasked with resourcing what’s required. That means that technical language may fall short of getting your message across.
The problem for most of us is that we are proud of what we do – rightly so – but that doesn’t help your website visitor decide if it’s worth spending time on your website. The fact that you’ve been in business for 42 years or that you are a family business should be saved for the About page – not the first message people see on your home page.
Images should underpin the core message – not be ‘eye candy’. People who see your image should think ‘yes, I can see what that’s about’, not ‘what is that picture for?’
A good recipe for a home page is:
Brand banner – with contact info top right (so people don’t have to search)
Image that tells the visitor something about your business
A powerful headline – embedded over the image, so it’s ‘above the fold’ – that addresses either pain or gain for the visitor.
A short (2-3 short paragraphs) introduction, with more reader-focused information.
Clickable boxes to your key services or product sections with a clear call to action on each one.
Then any/all of these components:
- The opening to your About page with a link to the page
- Links to your latest blogs
- Links to any featured products/offers
- Testimonials (but if these scroll automatically, ensure that they stay in place long enough for people to read each one).
Make life easy for your visitor and you’ll keep them long enough to make that key decision to buy, ask for more information or pick up the phone and talk to you.
“Resistance is created through a lack of clarity”
Chip & Dan Heath
