Want to grab someone’s attention with your website? You don’t have much time. Studies show it takes as little as .05 seconds for a visitor to form an opinion of your site. From there, it’s about 7 seconds before someone decides to stay or leave. First impressions matter a lot in the website world, and if you’re looking to make a good first impression, it all starts with the homepage.
After all, the homepage receives more than 50% of all website traffic on average.
The question is…
What Makes an Effective Homepage?
There’s a lot that goes into making a good homepage. It should convey almost everything a visitor needs to know about you: who you help, how you help them, and why you’re trustworthy. And yes, it should generally be in that order.
That doesn’t mean you can just overwhelm them with huge paragraphs of text. First and foremost, you need to make your site look presentable.
Design
94% of your first impressions relate to your visual design. If your site is ugly, people will assume you are low quality or untrustworthy, and they will head elsewhere. Unless you’re Craigslist. Craigslist gets away with being unattractive because they’ve been around forever, everyone knows what they do, and they do it well. You, on the other hand, are probably a business that the visitor has never heard of. That means your homepage needs to look good.
Design can be subjective, but there are a few things most well-designed homepages have:
- Good spacing
- High-quality imagery
- Large, attention-grabbing text
- Cohesive colors/branding
- Easy-to-see buttons (CTAs)
And it better be responsive. That means it scales to different device screens: phones, tablets, small laptops, large monitors, and everything in between. In 2023, this should be a given, but I still stumble across websites that break on certain devices and browser sizes.
One final note: while images are good, sliders are overrated. Most statistics show that few users ever go past the first slide. Sliders can also hurt usability and affect loading times. Overly long loading times can actually affect your search engine rankings. They also provide a bad user experience, which brings us to the next point.
User Experience
Once the initial .05 seconds have passed, a visitor will try to figure out if you’re what they’re looking for. This is where the user experience (UX) comes into play. UX can mean a lot of things, but two of the biggest factors are general layout and navigation (menus, links, etc.). A visitor needs to be able to move across your homepage and access the rest of the site with ease.
Bad navigation and poor layout cause over a third of people to leave websites. When a user lands on a website, they have a general idea of what they’re looking for. If they’re not able to immediately find a path that leads to whatever that is, they will move on to another site.
Having a menu that’s visible, easy to read, and logically organized is a good start. Don’t have too many options in the primary menu. Instead, place subpages within dropdown menus. Good UX is about finding a balance of providing options and information without overwhelming the visitor.
It’s also critical that the homepage itself provides a good user experience. This means it’s easy to skim through and get the big picture. Sections should be clearly defined and properly spaced out. Again, it’s about balance. You want to provide a healthy amount of content. You don’t want to throw an encyclopedia worth of text at your visitor’s eyes.
Speaking of text…
Targeted Messaging
One of the most critical (yet sadly overlooked) areas of an effective homepage is the messaging. Nearly half of people leave a website because there is a lack of a message. Have you ever ended up on the homepage of a website for the first time and struggled to figure out what they actually do and whether they can help you? It doesn’t matter how nice the site looks; it’s a frustrating experience.
By visiting your homepage, a user should be able to understand what you do, how you do it, and why you’re different. Most importantly, a user should be able to almost immediately determine whether or not you can meet their specific needs.
For too many websites the top priority becomes telling visitors how amazing their brand is. Instead, they should be devoting their energy on speaking to their ideal user and that user’s pain points. From there, through quality UX and design, the user should be guided along a journey that leads them to a desired outcome.
Simply stated, UX and design are important. But if you want an effective homepage, you need effective messaging directed at your target demographic.
Evaluating Your Homepage
It may seem like a lot, but don’t let it overwhelm you. The nice thing about websites is that they can continually evolve over time. You don’t have to get everything right on the first try. If you’re questioning the effectiveness of your homepage, take a moment to evaluate it.
But don’t look at it from your point of view. Instead, imagine your ideal customer. If you have multiple groups you’re targeting, start with the most important group. Think about where they are, and what they’re looking for. Imagine the needs they have and the frustrations they face.
Feel like you’re in character? Alright. Now, take a look at your homepage, and ask yourself the following questions:
- Does this appeal to me visually?
- Does it immediately speak to my needs?
- Do I understand what they offer?
- Do I understand their process?
- Do I have a reason to trust this brand?
- How do I get started?
- What can I do if I’m not ready to commit yet?
If your homepage properly addresses all of these questions, then congrats! Your homepage should be fairly effective. If you’re struggling in a few of these areas, then you’ll want to make some adjustments. It can’t be understated how critical the homepage is to most websites. It can either be the portal to the rest of your website, or it can be a wall that prevents people from exploring further.
Getting Help with Your Homepage
Still struggling with crafting an effective message and layout for your homepage? It’s okay. You’re probably not an experienced content strategist or UX specialist. Lucky for you, we are. This Blank Page provides customizable website content strategy services for brands and businesses of all sizes.
We start by sitting down with you (virtually or in person) and determining who we’re trying to reach. From there, we focus on what makes you the best option to help them on their journey. With that information, we can craft a homepage that will resonate with your target audience and convert them into leads/customers/followers/etc.
It’s not just mindless marketing. It’s storytelling. Everyone loves a good story. Together, we can create a better story for your brand.
