Impactful Homepage: How to Create & Tips

Your website’s homepage is perhaps the last chance of catching the attention of your visitors and keep them there. You must have gone a long way to persuade them to click; now it’s time for them to stay there and spend time. Today, we will see the tips for an impactful homepage.

But, would you stay to see a doctor if the waiting room is creepy and nasty? The answer is probably no, and even if you do, the experience you would have with the doctor would be influenced.

A great portion of your website’s visitors will click on your website for your homepage. This does not mean that people are only clicking for your homepage, but people know that they can guess what is expecting them based on what is on your website.

Your website’s homepage will be one of the most important marketing tools of yours since you would not want to disappoint people in the last steps of your goal.

Luckily, you are not desperate. There are many methods that would increase the attention of those who are visiting your website and actually make them want to spend time and consume your content. We created a detailed guide for building an effective homepage that would do the tricks for you.

Without further ado, let’s get started!

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The Fundamentals of an Impactful Homepage

If you want to improve your homepage game, you need to start with the fundamentals of building a homepage.

If the building blocks of your website are not efficient, even if you make everything else perfect, there still be some stuff missing. If you want to create a good homepage as a whole, you need to start off with the design.

You will notice how much of an impact changing your website’s design for the better will make for you.

And, we noticed (long ago) that successful website homepages have several elements in common, which will be described in the following headings.

Easy Navigation

A homepage should be giving what visitors need: an easy navigation process. If your visitors feel overwhelmed and struggle to find what they are looking for, what is the point of providing them a homepage?

Thus, for an impactful homepage, well-designed navigation with a clean layout is a must. Even though it might stay a little bit implicit in noticing, your website navigation influences conversion rates, bounce rates, and sales of your business.

In fact, Google proposed a rule of thumb for those who want to optimize their navigation. It says that your visitors must be able to get to a specific page on your website within three clicks. Even though this might not be possible for every single page, at least the most important ones should be fitting into this rule of thumb.

Logo

The way you place your logo on your website can and will influence the homepage experience you are offering to your visitors. Logos are powerful tools that can easily communicate your company’s or business’ message, and they will be a part of the experience.

You can’t just place your logo at a random place on your website and expect the good stuff to come to you. You should consider balancing all the other components on your homepage and if it’s blocking or making it difficult to see other content on the website.

Search Capabilities

We mentioned the significance of easy navigation for people to find what they are looking for. Well, it gets only better with search functionality. If you have an e-commerce site, search functionality might be the most crucial component of your homepage.

Suppose that you visited a website that has tons of content on it. Would it be plausible to scan every single content to find what you need? The answer is no, so you should give people the power of searching for what they need from your website.

The Objectives of an Impactful Homepage

In addition to convincing people to dig deeper on your website and benefit from it as much as possible, your homepage should be somehow leading what their action will be. Do you want them to sign a competition? Do you want them to purchase your product? Or do you want them just to read what you have? Or do you want a combination of different things?

It is no secret that search intent is a crucial aspect of the SEO success of your website. However, it goes beyond the content. Your homepage gives the message of objectives for it to be impactful.

User Objectives

It would be the best option to talk about user and business objectives separately when it comes to objectives. No matter what, you should keep in mind that both objectives are important, and if they overlap, that is more than okay.

As mentioned earlier, your homepage will be a component of the overall user experience you are offering to your visitors. Making things easier regarding the user objective is crucial because how else can they have a good experience?

Suppose that you visit an e-commerce website to purchase something. However, you cannot seem to find the page where you make the purchase and buy the item; the payment process seems impossible to complete. How could you be expected to complete this payment when your objectives are not considered by the website developer?

The solution is even simpler than the problem itself. You just need to define a specific and easy route to follow for your visitors. In fact, you might want to add a little infographic to describe to people the steps they need to take for the best user experience. At the end of the day, we cannot expect everyone to know how to deal with things in online settings, but it is in our hands to make everything easier and accessible.

Business Objectives

Making the experience better for the users is one thing, but making the profit out of those processes is another, but they can be common!

As a business, there is nothing more natural than the desire to make more profit. And your website homepage can help you a lot with your business objectives.

You want to make more profit, right? Then, considering your business profits on your website homepage will help you.

You can implement business objectives to your homepage in many ways. You might want to place your best-selling products on your homepage to increase the chances of people making purchases or use other digital marketing tools on your homepage for better results.

Show The Purpose in the Homepage Design

Communicating your purpose in every possible channel is essential for succeeding regardless of your goals. If your visitors can understand your message easily, it means that you are doing things right and getting closer to raise your brand awareness.

The main thing that convinces people to do things is the desire that comes from them. You can fill everywhere with why they should choose you, but as long as they do not truly want what you sell, they will not get it regardless of how good it is.

So, how can you make someone want what you are marketing? The answer is hidden in brand awareness. If you can associate what you do with meaning, then you are creating a purpose, which is what customers want.

At this point, your website’s homepage can come in very handy. Since you need to make an excellent first impression, your website’s homepage should be able to communicate this message of yours as easily and efficiently as possible, without even your customers noticing. The way you create your homepage will always say something to your visitors, and using this to your benefit is in your hands.

Language

Language is a big part of communicating your message with your customers. It is true that the design and other components of your website are supposed to attract attention to make people read what you have to offer, so you would not want to miss out on using this for the ultimate good for your website.

There are several things that can be made to optimize the use of language for your homepage. Of course, your strategy can and should depend on what you want to communicate. Do you want to be viewed as warm and friendly or cool and professional?

After you decide on your goals and target audience, you can get to start to build your homepage content. Most customers and audiences enjoy engaging and exciting content, so you might want to work on those elements to maximize success.

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It is also crucial to be open and clear about what you do. Flipping the words can kick back since people want to see a whole picture of your website as they click on your website. You might want to include short summaries and descriptions of what is waiting for them on your website, as well as supporting them with pictures.

Remember, you still want to make people curious and dive deeper into your website. Giving them everything they need to have on your homepage is probably a bad idea, and it is not sustainable.

The Fold

The fold is a term used to describe the visible part of a website in which people see as soon as they open the page. You might want to detect what your fold looks like on your website and work on that part especially.

Of course, your whole homepage should be wonderful and efficient. However, if your fold is not unique and attractive, people will most likely bounce back. You would not want your customers to have difficulties while trying to find the information they are looking for.

At this point, the most plausible thing to do can be to give the message you want to communicate straight up in the fold. This way, you will make sure that every person who clicks on your website can see the message. If you would like to, you can optimize your fold by including images and appealing headings.

Just make sure that you are not exaggerating stuff and creep people out with your fold’s crowd and color imbalances. It still needs to be in balance with the rest of your website, with a little more attention.

Visuals

Even though visuals and imagery might sound like a technical issue that should take place on the basics, it is so much more than that. Like the language you use, visuals are an intense way of communication, and they will help you deliver your message.

Whether if you are using stock photos or getting professional photoshoots, you should consider your message and how do you want to implement it on your homepage. The use of visuals tends to be relatively less than written messages, so you should be very selective.

Remember, visuals are not all about the pictures you will put on your homepage. You can benefit from infographics if you want to strengthen your message through different devices. The design of the infographics still needs to be aligned with your message.

If your written text says one thing and your visuals tell another, it means that there is a serious problem. Homepages are supposed to be clarifying, not confusing. You should do whatever you need to do to have a strong and stable message that would attract people to your website.

Additionally, you can use icons and other visual designs on your homepage to attract attention and deliver your message more entertainingly. However, you should be careful since over-using visuals might be a bad idea in most cases.

While creating your homepage, your motto must be quality over quantity. Tons of different visuals that do not have meaning will not be beneficial for you, but the ones that are high of quality and meaningful will.

Micro-copy

Micro-copy is the name for navigation labels and headings. For example, the line at the top of homepages that says “home/about/products/contact/blog” is an example of micro-copy, and they play a crucial role on your homepage.

Navigation labels should exactly define what the visitor will lead to once they get to press that button. We mentioned the three-clicks rule, and just because you want to follow this rule, you should not put every single part of your website to the micro-copy part.

Instead, you might want to have subcategories of those micro-copies for better navigation. However, the most important parts of your website should take place there.

What can you do to have a better homepage?

Every homepage is unique on its own, depending on the message and use. We have talked about many components of the homepage and the details of them to create an impactful one.

However, the digital world is a complicated world, and there are always more things.

So, here are some other extra tips for creating an impactful homepage.

Work on color theory

Every designer knows the significance of color theory and the psychology behind colors.

There is a big decision-making process in your visitors’ minds as they visit your homepage.

So, you would want to use this to the best benefit for you. With some research, you can find the best colors and designs for your message. The colors and the design you use will tell people a lot, and you would not want to be mistaken for something else while your message is different.

Explore More: What are the colors telling to graphic designers?

Choosing colors that work well together would help you to create an aesthetically pleasing homepage and a better look for your customers. Do not go crazy with colors, and try to include every different shade you can find.

Instead, you might want to experiment with colors and see what is working for your website.

Update your homepage frequently

We said it once, and we will say it again,

The digital world is never steady. There is always a place for improvement and new trends.

So, it is not over once you created your homepage. It might look great and all, but you should be updating it frequently. Your products might be sold out, the content you put out on your homepage might be old, and there might be a major change after you put content on your homepage.

People do not like seeing the same stuff over and over again. It is not that you should be changing every single component of your homepage frequently. Absolutely not. There is stuff that is needed to be stable, such as the message you want to deliver and what you do.

Your visitors want to know the page they are visiting is up-to-date and fresh. There are millions of old content on the internet, and people are seeking out fresh stuff.

Use call-to-action

As we mentioned several times earlier, the whole deal with the homepage is to inform people about your website and persuade them to dive deeper into it.

When it comes to creating a desire to do something in people, there are no better ways than using call-to-action. Call to action, or CAT is a well-known marketing strategy that most business probably uses because it is working. Even though some businesses prefer not to use it, it is well known that CAT is a valid strategy.

So, why don’t you use it on your page to get an immediate response from your visitors? We know that engaging content is one way of having an impactful homepage, and CATs are wonderful in terms of being engaging.

You can ask your visitors to do so even though it is just reading more of content, purchasing a product or service, or subscribing to the mail list. The answer is always no if you do not ask, right? Well, not in this case, but asking definitely increases the chances!

Using at least two CATs on your homepage will allow your visitors to make the first commitment on your website, whether if it’s just leaving a comment, subscribing, or registering.

Every next activity they will do will be easier because they completed the first commitment.

Social Proof

Building trust between your website and your visitors is one of the best things you can do for your business, and social proof is the easiest way of building trust.

Of course, you can describe how reliable and good your products are all day long. However, it would not be as impactful as someone else saying how good and reliable your products are.

If you can, include social proof on your homepage. It can be a testimony, comment, or quote said by your real customers. It is important to include real names and surnames of the person to increase reliability.

Adding pictures to your social proof would increase the reliability even more, and people would tend to purchase from your website.

A good homepage is one of the most essential elements of any given website. If you do not have an impactful homepage, that could be your reason for not improving and seeing results. The following are some of the most frequently asked questions about website homepages that might help you.

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