Your homepage is the first thing that visitors will see when they visit your website. Within the first glance, they will use several different factors to determine if they want to continue using your site and learn more about your business. It is important to optimize your homepage with visual and verbal content that will not only boost your ranking among SERPs, but also hold the attention of your audience to increase the chances of completing a conversion.
Importance of Making a Good First Impression
Optimizing your website is important for building your audience, increasing traffic to your website, and to ultimately complete as many conversions as possible. Utilizing meta descriptions and page titles crafted from popular keywords and search terms related to your business will help with the overall ranking of your website and pushing it to the top of a search engine results page. This will increase the likelihood of a potential customer clicking on your website, but you must create a lasting first impression to keep their interest.
Eye-Catching Headlines & Hero Images
Headlines, also known as header tags, are used by the visitor of a website to identify the content and whether or not it is what they were originally looking for. Headlines should be engaging titles that create a sense of interest and urgency to learn more. Read our blog for more information on optimizing your header tags. Hero images are the main banner image shown usually at the top of a website’s homepage. Also known as a header image, these images are used as visual representation of a company’s products or services. Using attention grabbing headlines and banners can inform the visitor of what the company is about at a quick glance.
Getting the Right Ratio of Media to Copy
When designing your homepage, it is important to keep in mind the ratio of photos, videos, and other visual elements you are using compared to the amount of copy. Even though your goal is to include a lot of detail in your homepage, you do not want it to become cluttered and difficult to navigate, or too simple and lacking important details. Using photos and media as an anchor to another page, such as galleries or menus, is a helpful method to decrease clutter.
Reviews & Testimonials
Consumers want to know that when they are choosing a company to perform a service for them, that they are choosing someone who is trustworthy, reliable, and professional. By including reviews and testimonials of past customers, you can showcase the quality of your services and customer care. It is also a great idea to include any awards or accolades you have received to further increase your reliability.
Cohesive Site Navigation
As its name suggests, your homepage should be used as the main source of navigation to the other pages on your website. You want your homepage to act as a gateway to more information by briefly summarizing your company and the services you offer, but giving the more specific details in your other pages. Using features such as menus, headers, footers, and search bars can allow for easier access to the other areas of your site. When filling in the menu titles, you want them to be simple and easy to find, increasing their accessibility from your homepage, as well as any SERP.
Including Internal Links
To further increase your site accessibility, internal links are a great addition to your homepage. In digital marketing, internal links are mainly used to create backlinks to your website, increasing your ranking. They can also be utilized for easy site navigation, by allowing users to jump to another page by simply clicking on the anchor text. Product photos, pictures of recent projects, and other forms of media can also be used as an anchor. A picture is worth a thousand words, so you can quickly capture the audience’s interest, and allow them to click on it for more information.
Contact Us for More Information on Optimizing Your Website
Boston Web Marketing offers expert website design and development services for both B2B and B2C companies for those looking to improve their current website or launch something brand new. For more information, visit our website, or call us at 857-526-0096.