Creating an effective home page
Sure, sites like Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest can be a lot of fun. But are you neglecting your own website? What about your home page? Whether you like it or not, many people will judge the professionalism of your organization based on the professionalism of your website!
While Google and blogging for SEO mean that people may find your website through a number of ways, for many small and medium businesses, the home page continues to be one of the most visited pages on their site!
Home page statistics
I took a quasi-random sampling of sites we manage and saw these results for all of 2018:
- On 90% of the sites, the home page had more traffic than any other pages.
- 33.4% of total website traffic on all sites was people visiting the home page.
- 10% of the sites had more than half their traffic to the home page.
- Just two sites had less than 10% of their traffic to the home page. One of them had a strong focus on blogging for SEO, and the other had a giveaway go viral during 2018.
It’s important to be strategic with your home page!
Making a better home page
One of the keys to an effective, strategic home page is pretty straight-forward: keep it simple.
A cluttered home page turns potential clients and customers off! Keeping your home page simple can be harder to do than you might think!
It’s highly likely that you have multiple goals for your website. But really, your home page should focus on two things:
- Let the website visitor know who you are and what you do from a high level.
- Entice the visitor to explore the website further.
If you’re trying to do more than that with your home page it may be too cluttered.
Psychology of web design
Do keep in mind that people are wired differently. Some people want to quickly know if you offer a particular service or not. Others want all the details behind that service. Some people will want to know the people who work at your company, while others may care about which organizations you’re affiliated with.
One great model for an appealing home page with less clutter is the DISC Model. Dr. William Marston—also the creator of Wonder Woman—came up with the basics of the model in the 1920s. There are four different categories, and each person falls somewhere on a scale for each category or style:
- D – Dominant
- I – Influence
- S – Steadiness
- C – Conscientiousness (Or Compliance)
Many companies utilize DISC, and sometimes slightly different words are used for the acronym. But if your home page appeals to all four types of people with very little excess, you should be good.
Home page improvement plan
Want a way over-simplified guide to fixing your website’s home page? Great! There are just two steps.
Step 1 – Remove the clutter.
Take everything off that doesn’t absolutely need to be on there. Ideally you will be left with your logo, company name, navigation to other pages on your site, a very brief description of what you do, one call to action, and contact information.
Step 2 – Create targeted content.
Now you’ll need to add the minimal amount of content to appeal to each DISC category. If it isn’t able to entice a specific DISC style to further explore your website, does it really need to be there?
If you think your home page is too cluttered, it’s time to overhaul it to be more strategic and effective.
Website resources
Okay, so you’re ready to focus on your website, but want some resources to guide you. Well, you’re in luck! We’ve built and managed websites since 2003, so we have some resources available to help you make the most of your website.
First, here are a few articles we’ve written:
- Do you need a website if you have a Facebook Page?
- Is it time to redesign your website?
- Need design inspiration for your website?
- Best practices for your homepage video
- Quit hiding your contact information!
Maybe it’s time to redesign your website, but you don’t know what to look for in a web design company. In that case, grab a copy of our free ebook that guides you through the process.
While improving your website, you may decide it’s running too slow. A fast website is not just important for impatient people—that includes most people—but Google considers it when ranking your site as well.
In an episode of PixelTV from a few years back, Holly Kosec shared a couple of tools you can use to optimize your images and speed up your website.
Finally, did I mention we’ve been helping people with their websites since 2003? If you need a new website, website management, or just want to see how we can help, we would be happy to talk!