About a week ago, we discussed how you can make the most out of your blog. Through a combination of social integration, appealing topics, and engaging conversation, a blog can easily be a strong traffic generator and personality for the company. So how can you make the most out of your home page, possibly the strongest representation of your business online? The home page also is very likely for ranking for your most important keywords. Let’s explore some of these improvements:
1) A strong call to action is often going to be one of the most important components of your home page. This means having a clear phone number often located in the upper right corner, a contact form somewhere above the fold (sometimes tied in with one of your freemiums) or even a chat option like Woopra to assist visitors with what they are looking for.
2) Sliders and full-size images are great for showcasing your products and examples of your services. Your home page should be engaging but not necessarily overwhelming. Having a few high-quality pictures for visitors to see right off the bat sets a good tone.
3) Having a navigation that easily gets people around is essential for not only your home page, but for the rest of your site.
One level of navigation is great, but a second tier is good too (see above) for one dropdown. Once the navigation gets to the point where it expands out to the right, you may want to re-evaluate how difficult you’re making it for the user to get to where they want.
4) Testimonials are a great way to project positivity to visitors right away about your business. Whether it is included in an image on the slider, a sidebar, or right in the body, getting great comments going can benefit the rest of the user experience.
5) Remember what you have going above the fold (everything you see before you start scrolling down). Make sure all of your most important info is here, which is arguably for both users and search engines. Don’t make people search for what you do or what you sell.
6) From an SEO standpoint, your home page is going to target your core keywords. Keep in mind to not over-optimize here. Let your other pages get more granular with specific keywords. There are many different approaches to the amount of copy that should be on the home page. We’ve seen 600 words work, and 100 words work. If your homepage isn’t ranking for its main keywords with less copy, revise it with more.
7) When linking to your website, making the URL direct to the homepage instead of a contact form, about us, or services page could work out better as far as SEO goes and conversion if you follow some of the top points we’ve discussed.
8) Don’t forget to include social icons! It is more important than ever to guide people along to check your social presence. You can put this somewhere near the top right part of your navigation or in your footer.
9) If you have a nice video, embed it on the homepage! Make sure it is one that gives a nice overview of what your business is all about. I would suggest not autoplaying the video – let them play if it they want. It is important to avoid intrusiveness (for example, websites where someone walks onto the screen and starts talking to you).
10) Blogs are great for writing about promotions and social is great for letting people in your networks see them, but your homepage should always have a section with a strong call to action letting unique visitors see what you’re running.
Following these ten steps can improve your home page dramatically from an SEO and a user standpoint. Major aesthetic changes may still be necessary if your whole site is outdated. If you’d like us to check out your website for free and make further suggestions, call our experts at Market My Market today!