Creating a Great Homepage

If you’re in the process of getting a website designed, the most important element is your homepage. It’s your first impression to prospective online customers. The design and functionality of your homepage is very important to whether people are going to stay on your website or not. There are a few things that are important for you to incorporate into your homepage that will enhance the users’ experience.

  1. Make your homepage easy to navigate.

Create clear categories and include concise, pertinent information. Don’t overwhelm the viewer with a ton of content on the homepage, but rather keep it simple and easy to read. Highlight the site’s main features and make headlines your focal points – include key words and phrases that describe your products and services. The prospective customer should have a clear idea of what your offer just by seeing the homepage. This information should be located on the page so that the customer can read it without having to scroll – this is called “above the fold”. Looking at the Fusion Group USA homepage, the navigation bar is easy to identify, simply categorized, and functioning. There is no confusion as to what our site includes. Plus, we include a statement that tells you right off the bat that we’re an advertising agency, “We Build Brands that Build Business.” Clear, simple, and bold.

  1. Make your design simple and stay true to your brand identity.

Don’t use too much color but do not stick with a totally neutral color scheme either – you don’t want to overwhelm or underwhelm the prospective customer. Stay within your established color scheme (if you have one) and font selections to stay consistent with your brand. Using a large, eye-catching photo that defines your company and what you do on the homepage establishes your identity and draw their attention. You can also use a video to catch people’s attention, like the Fusion Group USA homepage banner.

  1. Make your homepage user and search engine friendly.

Having high quality, keyword-rich, easy to read content is key to ranking with search engines. When search engines are crawling your homepage they should find relevant, original content that is deemed valuable to the customer. This way when a prospective customer is searching online for products or services that you provide, your website will come to their attention.

  1. Establish credibility.

You want the first sense that a prospective customer gets when visiting your homepage to be trust. Your site should give a sense of credibility and let the viewer know that you are a legitimate and trusted business in your community. Making sure you display your contact information in addition to adding any certifications, badges, and affiliations to your homepage is a great way to establish your business as trustworthy. Link your page to your social media, including any review sites that you are listed on like Yelp, Angie’s List, or TripAdvisor to allow people to read what others have to say. Staying on top of your online reviews and making sure that you are responding to customer reviews regularly, both positive and negative, will give prospective customers a feeling that you value their business.

  1. Add a call to action to your homepage.

Adding a call to action button or message to your homepage is a great way to drive people to action. After presenting them with a catchy headline and description of what your business does, give them the chance to sign up for a newsletter, contact you for more information, or shop your online store. You can do this in the form of a message at the middle or end of the page, or add a button that will direct them to another page on the site. For instance, on the Fusion Group USA homepage there is a Contact Us button that links to the Contact Us form. Once people see our navigation bar, scrolling banner, and call to action to “Learn More” the button prompts them to fill out the contact form in order to receive more information about our business.

Building a great homepage is the first step in creating a successful website. Your homepage is your first impression, and you want to make the best impression you can. As discussed in other blog posts, trying to design and develop a website yourself (especially if you have no website building experience) could end up costing you’re a lot of time, money, and energy. Hiring a website design agency, like Fusion Group USA could save you a lot of hassle and end in great looking, professional, functional website that incorporates all of these ideas. Our skilled web designers and developers create fresh business website everyday – we have the knowledge and experience to create you a site that is sure to beat the competition. Call today, or use our Contact Us form, for more information!

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