6 features of a winning website homepage

Nov 18, 2022

Want to create a winning website homepage, but no idea where to start? If your website is the ‘shop front for your business, then your homepage is the equivalent to your shop’s virtual front door. Your website homepage is responsible for drawing in the majority of your website’s traffic so it needs to a lot of the heavy lifting work.

If you’re rethinking a website rebuild or even a refresh, your homepage is a good place to start. Let’s dig in and see how you can do this for your business with these 6 features of a winning website homepage.

Hero section

Your hero section is what your website visitors will see when they land on your homepage. It only takes your website visitors 2.6 seconds to make their first conscious impression of your site and 94% of first impressions are made based on a website’s design and visuals. This really is the most valuable bit of real estate on your site, so make it count! The content of this section is equally important as the visuals to engage your website visitors and drive them to take the next step towards your website goal. Before embarking on a website design or refresh, it’s so important to consider what the main goal or goals are for your website. What do you want your visitors to do? FYI they won’t guess! You need to tell them. 

Your homepage hero section is the part of your homepage above the fold. This means the section that is immediately visible before any scrolling. In this section you should have an attention grabbing headline, a description of what you do and who you do it for and a call to action that considers your website goal. Is it for them to shop on your website, get in touch or maybe sign up for something. All this should be easy for your website visitors to do without trawling through information before you make it clear what you want them to do. Take a look at some more detailed tips I have on creating your homepage hero section here.

Compelling, fun and interesting copy

As with the rest of your website, your homepage copy is much more important than you might think it is. Your website is the place to set the tone and to tell your dream customers why they should hire you or buy from you and not the next business. When I work on website audits for my clients, I often see sites with very little or no copy at all. This is a problem for a number of reasons and might be the result of a couple of things too. So many business owners tell me they couldn’t think what to write, so they didn’t write anything, or the idea of having any words on their site escaped them completely because their website template didn’t allow for it.

Your homepage copy is a good place to start and to set out how your tone of voice will sound across the rest of your site. I recommend that you work with a copywriter or at the very least, have a copywriter take a look at your copy to help you make the most out of it. They will give you pointers on how your website copy can be written strategically, SEO optimized and work hard to convert your website visitors into customers, and that’s what we want, right?! Find out more about working on your website copy here.

 

An introduction to you

Stop hiding! While it’s important to have an about page on your website, it’s equally important you tell your website visitors to go to it. Having a section on your homepage that introduces you and/or your team will help to humanise your brand and entice them into learning more about who the faces are behind the business. Actually it’s very common for website visitors to go to an about page before they make the decision to buy, proving that people buy from people and want to know who you are. And, let’s be honest, we are nosy and that’s one of the main reasons we want to know more. 

 

Your about page is the perfect opportunity to rather than just talk about yourself, to tell your website visitors why you are the one to solve their problem. It should actually be seen as another ‘sales page’ and is a great way of getting people to relate to you and at the same time, repel the people who don’t. Make sure your homepage features a section introducing you and then a call to action to take them to your about page.

 

Benefits list

Why should your website visitors work with you or buy from you? Tell them! It’s important to mention, not only what you do but why what you do matters to them. Your website visitors want to know what the benefits are of buying from you and that’s the thing that will make them stay on your website and be keen to find out more.

 

Start by listing out the benefits of working with you and then create a section on your site devoted to these. A winning benefits section will be clear and easy to read with headings and text that is written in the language of your ideal client. 

Client love

Social proof, testimonials, reviews, whatever you want to call this bit, it’s so important to have the words of those who already know, like and trust you and have worked with you on your site. This includes on the homepage where it’s a good opportunity to introduce the kind words you have from your customers. You could have a short quote from one of your clients here and have a call to action leading into other testimonials on another page of your site. However you do this, make sure the social proof is there for all to see on your homepage.

 

Navigation section

This goes for your homepage as much as all the other pages on your site. The navigation plan for your website is so important in taking your website visitors towards that goal it is you have, whether it’s getting sales or more leads. Make sure your website visitors never come to a dead end. What I mean by this is if they get all the way to the bottom of a page on your site, are they told what to do next?? If your website visitors don’t have something to do, they’re likely to get distracted and lose interest and ultimately leave your site altogether. 

 

Have a section on your homepage that takes them somewhere next bearing your goals in mind. Give them options here too. Do they want to learn more about your services, about you, or get in touch. Lead them to those pages and ultimately to those actions from your homepage so they don’t get lost. If your main goal is for your website visitors to get in touch with you, make sure they can easily do that with clear calls to action and drive them there rather than leaving them lost and having to hunt through your site for a way to contact you.

 

It goes without saying your website should also, of course, feature images that reflect your brand, the work you do or the product/ service you deliver. The homepage of your site is the first glimpse your customer will get of your business and before they make up their mind to become a customer, so make sure it counts. 

 

And if you want more help with creating a winning website get in touch and find out more about how I can help you.

 

About the designer...

Hi! I’m Katie. Helping busy business owners create bold online brands and stand-out, non-boring websites is my jam. I’m passionate about giving once-upon-a-time-website DIYers, ambitious entrepreneurs and founders back the time to focus on doing the things they love the most in their businesses, giving them clarity in their online presence and the confidence to grow big!

Through this blog and on social media I share my advice and best practices with  business owners on how to build strong brands that will start attracting their dream customers and website that work by focusing on strategy and business goals.

When I’m not working with inspiring business owners or designing wedding cakes, you’ll probably find me dreaming of what my next meal will be, the best fruit garnishes for a gin and tonic or where we’ll travel to on our next adventure.

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