Essential Things You Should Put on Your Homepage

Your website needs to be functional and effective. Your homepage is usually the first thing that people see, accounting for 50% of the total page views of your site. While you can feature whatever you want on your homepage, it is essential to plan and design it based on what your target audience wants. In your web design Brisbane , put things on your homepage that will prompt people to want more.

Headline

A vital element in a web design is the homepage headline. You can place your headline below, above, or within your hero shot. The hero shot refers to the main image, which is the most prominent, the largest, and the critical element on your homepage. Make sure to place your headline prominently.

Here are some points to help with your headline:

• Be clear. The last thing you want is to get your visitors confused and clicking the back button. No visitor should have to figure out what your website is and what it has to offer. 

• Remember the click-through continuity. The headline on your homepage should give continuity to the message and medium that lead people there. It means restating your key idea or keywords in your headline.

• Write your headline with your reader in mind. Consider the question of a user “What’s in it for me?”

Introduction

Your homepage is the place to start a conversation with a visitor. For this, make your introductory copy informative, friendly, and beneficial. It is also an excellent place to include internal links and keywords.

Your homepage copy has a big role to play in how successful your web design will be, so your introduction must be compelling. Keep these things in mind:

Be concise

Provoke action

Use a short, unique copy

Communicate value immediately

Pique visitors’ interest

Show some personality

Logo

Your logo is the first thing your visitor should see. The best placement of a logo is usually on the top left. With that, avoid doing these things with your logo:

• Animate your logo presentation of your logo. There is no need to do this, as it can only cause problems with the user experience.

• Stuff it with unnecessary visual elements. What your logo needs is ample negative space to make it stand out immediately.

• Enlarge your logo. You may have a great logo, but making it quite bigger will not increase the impression it makes on people.

• Get creative with logo placement. Note that top-left is a common hot spot on the page according to heat map testing tools.

Site Menu

Build a menu that features the most important web pages of your site, enabling your visitors to navigate to the sections that interest them quickly. Some points to consider:

• Less is more. Overloading your menu with items will only confuse and overwhelm visitors. Subsequent pages in your web design can provide other navigational elements.

• Be descriptive. Create menu items that are simple, brief, and descriptive. Doing this will also optimize your website and serve your viewers better.

• Decide if hamburgers are ideal. The hamburger icon is three horizontal lines that work as a site menu on mobile devices. It is also gaining popularity in desktop platforms, but research reveals that the hamburger can cut discoverability in half by hiding the navigation of a site.

Blog

When you direct visitors who are exploring your homepage to your blog, this helps improve engagement and gain subscribers. Use the following techniques to take advantage of the opportunities a blog can give you:

• Feature your blog. Many owners opt for their homepages to be blogs first and then websites second. In such a case, most of the homepage real estate display posts in reverse chronological order. While it is not always the best approach for every business, it works for many.

• Use a grid of posts. Your homepage can feature links to recent posts or popular posts as a list or grid.

• Launch into a story. Display one or more recent posts with their headline, a description, or featured image. After that, add “Read more.”

Keywords

Keywords give your homepage a juice or search engine optimization. You do not budget dedicated space by adding keywords, but you should budget planning time to pick your keywords and work them into your web design.

Make sure to optimize your homepage for search by placing keywords:

In your headline

Within the page’s copy

In the meta description

In your menu items

Behind your images

Lead Magnet

One effective way to generate leads from your homepage is to add a lead magnet or an offer.  It acts as an incentive that entices readers to become potential buyers by offering a resource in exchange for their email address or contact information.

Typically, lead magnets offer visitors downloadable digital content like a PDF checklist, an ebook, training course, or whitepaper. But they can also be an opt-in offer for a video, coupon, or an email course. Your lead magnet must be valuable, well-designed, align with your business, and offer instant gratification.

You can feature your lead magnet as:

A pop-up

A window in a sidebar

A part of the footer

A display ad 

A row on the homepage

A form built into the hero shot

Subscription

Today, invitations to subscribe to email updates or newsletters come in every available style, including headers, scroll or exit-induced windows, popups, fly-ins, footers, and more. However, your homepage is another place to entice your visitors to subscribe to your content. It may appear in your web design as a sidebar, a row, in the hero shot, or the footer. 

If one of your priorities is to build an email list, then consider these ideas:

Add a CTA that includes a subscription form

Embed a subscription form on your homepage

Create a CTA that opens a landing page designed to collect subscriber opt-ins

Call to Action

It is likely that your homepage has many CTAs. You can make one CTA that is visually prominent by adding a button into your hero shot or creating a distinctive cue that leads to it right away. 

Create effective calls-to-action by following these points:

• Begin your CTA with action words. People should read it like a command.

• Run some tests to optimize conversion rates. The placement, shape, colour, and size of your CTA can impact conversion.

• Consider the first-person voice. Usually, first-person CTAs deliver greater results, for example, “Count me in.”

Footer

The footer of your homepage is like a standard feature all across your web design. It is important that you think carefully about what elements it includes. Common inclusions in your footer are:

Social media icons and widgets

Galleries

Maps and/or locations

Badges

Email signup form

Blog post digests

Contact information

A final call to action

Search Function

If your site has many web pages, it makes sense to offer a search function on your homepage. The search function is a shortcut for your visitors, allowing them to conveniently and quickly discover content without the need to navigate. Make your search mechanism easy to find by placing it somewhere in the top-right area of your web design, either atop your sidebar or in the header of your homepage.