Homepage Heavy Lifting - The Questions Your Homepage Has to Answer
Photo by Anush Gorak from Pexels
What is a homepage?
Your homepage is the main page of your website! OK, you probably knew that…
Someone who wants to learn more about you and your business will start with your homepage.
Your website homepage has to do a lot of heavy lifting to help your visitors quickly find what they need. AND it has to do that while building trust and credibility.
What should a homepage do?
Here’s the deal: you don’t know WHY someone is coming to your website!
You don’t know WHAT information they’re looking for or WHERE they are coming from! Think of all the places you have your website URL. Like these:
Business card
Google My Business
Social media
Review Sites
Associations
Articles/guest blogs
Here’s a few questions your homepage should answer for a visitor:
Who are you? What does your business do?
Who does your business help (who’s your target customer)?
How do you create value for customers?
What kinds of services do you offer (or products)?
What benefits do your customers receive?
Who are your customers (social proof/testimonials)?
What should your visitor do next (what path should they take to learn more)?
How many words should your homepage have?
A little bit of research from some online experts tells us…
It depends! More than 100 words but less than 1,000…?
According to SEO Blog, “Don’t be afraid to add more words, if those words add value. That’s the key in a nutshell; take as much space as you need to provide the maximum value possible to your users.”
Quicksprout’s infographic says, “Make the page as long as it needs to be. It requires as much copy as is necessary to help people complete the task at hand.”
Here’s what Neil Patel says, “Don’t try to use more words just for the sake of hitting a higher word count. Just do whatever makes the most sense.”
Homepage structure
Here are a few fun links if you’re interested in what kinds of things to put on your homepage:
Crazy Egg favorite homepage examples
WordStream analysis of 50 homepages
OK, before you go down the Internet rabbit hole…
Build trust on your website
A smart place to start is to think about what your customer might be feeling when they land on your homepage.
Then, meet your visitor where they are.
People are looking for answers, for help, for solutions. Maybe they’re struggling, or they’re feeling overwhelmed. Use your website to acknowledge those pains.
Everyone has big dreams (I call them aspirations). How do you help make dreams come true?
More time to spend with family, friends, or to do hobbies or hike or travel!
Happiness, joy, being worry-free to do the things they love.
More money to fix up their house or buy a new home!
There’s a lot of ways to connect with your visitors!
When someone feels like they’re understood, trust begins.
A simple homepage template
Looking to get started on your homepage structure? Download this simple template to get started! And check out the All-In-One Website Guide for more information on what a COMPLETE website project includes.