How to create a killer home page

The home page is arguably the most important page on your site. It’s your virtual shop window. Your welcome mat. It tells visitors what you’re about and what you can offer. It needs to be compelling and engaging and tempt visitors to travel deeper through your site.Whether you’ve just commissioned a new website design for your business or have an existing site that’s due a refresh, here are a few tips, tricks and suggestions to create the best home page you possibly can…

1. Speed it up Before you can even move on to perfecting the design and messaging of your home page, you must ensure that your page loading time is as fast as it can possibly be. Data shows that bounce rate spikes with every additional second a page takes to load, especially on mobile devices so getting the tech right to ensure super fast loading is an imperative first step. Don’t miss this out or the work you go into creating a wonderful design and word perfect messaging will be for nought. 2. Create messaging that reflects your audience A killer home page caters to its audience. You need this portal to your site to convey trust, encourage further exploration and showcase how you can help. Your messaging should speak to your audience. For that, you need to know who your customer is and what they are looking for from you. Spell out concisely and creatively the problem you can solve for them to create an instant connection. 3. Don’t skimp on imagery Good strong creative is incredibly important on any page but this is especially true of your home page. Don’t skimp on the imagery – and don’t rush to grab any stock image that looks like it may fit the bill. Your choice of image and creative is an important one. Humans are very visual creatures so there is lot to consider. Invest in the best quality imagery you can afford, make sure it reflects your messaging – and consider it a part of your messaging too. 4. Clear headings and navigation Good SEO practise should be woven through your site of course but you also need to ensure that it’s especially well represented on your home page. Part and parcel of welcoming your visitors and creating a home page that really works is to ensure that your audience can navigate with ease. Provide clear headers, make navigation intuitive, have calls to action and include trust signals as appropriate, such as your TrustPilot badge, testimonials or reviews.