Home Page
purpose
Did you know you have 3 seconds from when a viewer lands on your website to showcase what your business has to offer? Needless to say the home page on your website has a major role when it comes to keeping someone on your page. Let’s go through the core purposes of the home page:
- Establish Your Brand – it must clearly identify who you are and define what sets you apart from other brands. If visitors can’t identify what it is you do within seconds, they won’t stick around long.
- Establish Your Value – this is the best place to nail your value proposition so prospects choose to stay on your website. Think of it as building initial trust, communicating obvious value, and provide immediate solutions.
- Establish Your Offers – it should showcase the full range of what is on offer in a summary which allows visitors to easily identify you are aligned to their needs, but encourages them to dig deeper into the rest of the site and find specific sales pages which will ultimately convert them into customers.
- Provide Direction – the primary goal is to not just make the visitor feel welcome or provide information or navigation about what can be found on the site so that they know where to look. It should be purpose build so that you are telling the viewer exactly where to go based on their problem and needs which should marry up to your offer funnel. Most homepages use primary and secondary calls-to-action to direct visitors to the next logical step.
- Capture Leads – including at least one lead magnet with valuable resources on your home page can help you get the attention and contact information of a website visitors before they leave your site, which then allows you to move them into your sales funnel where you can nurture them into customers.
OBJECTIVE
When it comes to laying out the content on your home page there is a particular structure we want to follow.
Keep in mind that this is the first page people see when they reach your website and start their experience with you. Think of it as their first impression. Your homepage should compel visitors to dig deeper into your website and move them further down the page so that you have the opportunity to connect with them and make a real impact during that important 3 second window.
A big mistake people make is to treat their home page like a CV / resume. Talking only about who they are and what they do and thinking that selling themselves is enough. It isnt.
The primary objective of your website home page is to speak to the viewer. We want the content to be focused on THEM not you. Every part of the way we structure the home page needs to be tailored to the problem, needs and solutions of the viewer.
This is why we needed to complete the previous reflection stages so that you have a very clear idea about who your ideal cusomter is so that you can create your website strategically around who you want your viewer to be.
Understanding this difference will help you significantly when it comes to writing the copy for your pages.
Instead of your site being…
“hey I’m X, I have X experience, I have X offers / products, you should click here to buy them from me.”
It becomes…
“hey Y, I recognise you’re struggling with Y problems, and I have the solution with offer Y, click here so I can help you achieve Y results.” See the difference simple positioning can make?
Process
In addition to the general structure of your pages, with the home page we also need to include:
- Offer Summary – an overview of how people can work with you or what your offers are curated in “collections” for your customers that marry up to your offers. Think of it as grouping similar topics together (i.e. I help you improve core areas of your life 1. “self-improvement”, 2. “relationships” and 3. “goal setting”) or, laying it out in steps (i.e. step 1 = “improve yourself”, step 2 = “improve your relationships”, step 3 = “design your future”). These topics / sections will then point to your specific landing / sales pages which provide more info on each specific offer and has separate CTAs or links to buy there (instead of a buy now link on the home page).
- Brief “About” Section
– some people who land on your website will not know anything about you or your brand so we want to provide a brief summary that gives the audience a snapshot of your purpose / mission / brand personality, with a link to learn more if they want to (points to your about page). For this section, think about a concise paragraph of what you do and makes you different to every other brand because that is your real selling point. Your full “story” can go on the about page so this section is more to capture attention and giving people a reason to care about you more than your competition.
Remember that the structure and layout shout be easy to follow – YOU are directing people where to go & how to feel.
Key Features To Include On Your Home Page