For any website, the homepage is the most important page of the website. It’s the first thing people see when they arrive on your website. The homepage can make or break the impression of your potential customer about your business.
Web surfers come to your site for a specific reason. They are looking for particular information, and they think you can answer.
Your content should be written with your website visitors in mind. You need to write the contents of your site in a way that they will find it easy to understand. However, readers are also impatient, they are willing to move to another website if they are not able to find the answers to their questions quickly.
So when you design your website, you must ensure your home page provides an accurate image of your business. It is necessary to ask yourself a question "Does your homepage give the right answers to your customer?"
Precise and accurate information is key to the success of website sales.
Here are few questions every website home page should answer, else your website is doomed.
1. Who Are You?
When for the first time someone lands on your website homepage, this is a primary question your homepage should answer. You can do this with your brand logo & tagline, it should be the first thing they see. The logo should create the’ right image in your customer's mind, and also give a hint about a solution that you offer
Example: In the Budo site, we added our logo and tagline to Header image itself and large enough that nobody will miss it.
2. What Do You Do?
The first thing customers do, when they come to your website is that they will try to determine whether they are in the right place or not. They need to know if your product or service can solve their problem. Answering this goes beyond just having your logo in the corner or your brand name prominently displayed.
Example: On Budo site, we added what we can do and what problem we are solving by mentioning it even above our logo! The messaging of your website needs to make it abundantly clear what you do.
3. Is It For Me?
Once you’ve got the first two questions right, the next step is to provide some more information about your product or service but in a concise and clear manner. Because, every visitor to your website is trying to figure out whether the product or service they’re looking at is useful to them or not, and they do this in shortest possible time.
Example: In our website, we created a simple information block with three columns (Key Features, Advantages and Who can use?) with bulleted points for each.
4. What Differentiate You From Others?
What is it that differentiates you from your competition? Customers are always looking for something unique in product & services. There should be some strong reason for them to buy it from you. You can explain your differentiators through the number of ways such as product or service explanatory video, comparison charts, case studies, etc.
Example: We used CMS Budo explanatory video on our website.
Click To See Video
5. What Should I Do Next?
At this stage, your customer is almost ready to go with your product or service. But some of them may need some more information or some social proof. You can now offer them the option to buy or learn more about your product or services. Provide some social proof such as user testimonials, information about your association, and certification.
Example : On our website, we decided to offer a customer to read more about Budo features and then the option to sign up to create a professional website.
6. Support & Contacts
I need help, I have queries, where should I contact? Some customers need assistance at the time of purchase; others need to know your post-sale support policy and how they can reach you. Providing your support policy information and contact information boosts customer confidence and helps them in their purchase decision.
Example: Here is our promise about support for Budo. And we have separate web pages for FAQ and Knowledge Base.
So now that you know those 6 question, you must answer on your website homepage to be a successful site, here is something more and IMPORTANT for the homepage and beyond...
Rember less is more, empty space is full.
Top priority should be clarity than filling the page with unnecessary content. This is so important, no matter even if your page feels empty. Clarity of content reduces the stress on your visitors.
The extensive study shows that the website visitors scan content and don't read it. If you put too much on a page, it will be skipped over rather than read. Your client will miss your most important point, and you will lose your client.
Clarity, accuracy and simplicity create useful websites.
The goal of your site should be to provide the reader with his answers as quickly as possible.
Are you ready now?
Go and create your website with this information to build an effective website that sales! And if you have a site, revisit and see if your homepage is answering these question.
Budo is extremely easy to use website builder design an effective website for individuals and business.
Sign up for Budo to build your website!