Homepage Conversion Tips
Published: June 2020
Web design tips to optimise your homepage conversions
While we recommend building campaign-specific landing pages to optimise conversions, don’t forget about the sales power of your homepage. Transform passive homepage visitors into engaged customers with these easy web design tips.
Your website homepage is your digital shopfront. Visitors arrive from all over the web – social media, Google Search, paid advertising, direct referrals, among others – so creating a tailored experience to please your whole audience isn’t easy.
Designing a successful website homepage is about keeping things simple. Choose sleek and eye-catching imagery that channels your brand, finely tune your CTAs and avoid over-stimulating your visitors. Follow this simple web design checklist to ensure your shop front is a catch-all for customers.
Stick to one direct CTA
70% of small business websites lack a CTA on their homepage – are you in that majority? It’s easy to get distracted beautifying your homepage, selecting the right imagery and portraying your brand. But, if you don’t have a clear and direct CTA, then you will undoubtedly lose sales.
There are many reasons why a visitor might land on your website, make sure to be clear about what you want them to do. We recommend focusing on one clear CTA in your web design, whether that’s a limited time offer or promoting your brand’s halo product – you can’t please everyone, but if you provide too many options (or none at all), then you risk pleasing no one at all.
Simple, but effective copywriting
Now you’ve nailed your CTA, the rest of your website copy should also pack a punch.
Write in short and clear sentences, talk directly to the customer (“you”) and avoid feature-listing in favour of highlighting the benefits. What makes your products/services different and why should they choose you? This is the foundation of great conversion copywriting.
We design and build websites with effective web design to help convert your customers. Contact us info@urbanriver.com or call us on 0191 456 6199.
Eye-catching imagery
In some ways, the imagery you choose can make or break your homepage. Research shows that visitors spend only 5.94 seconds on your website’s main homepage image. Is your current hero image strong enough to catch their attention? Does it channel your CTA’s key message or is there a clash?
Try to streamline your key image, flagship copy and CTA to channel one consistent message.
Make it easy for your visitors to convert
We’ve already talked about the importance of a strong CTA, but do your website mechanics reflect this?
Ask yourself: what do you want customers to do? If the answer is complete a contact form, then make it easy to find and don’t ask for too much information – the more the customer has to do, the less likely they are to take action.
For eCommerce websites, make sure your hero image, copy and CTA all point towards the right product page. Too many clicks will put off your customer, so spend time to optimise your customer journey – from the homepage to checkout.
Test, test and test again
Our final web design tip is Optimising your web design is not a one-time task, it’s an iterative process. Tap into Google Analytics to monitor conversions and bounce rates. Take a step further and invest in heatmap technology to delve deeper in your visitor behaviour and identify key conversion milestones on your website. Brands that put the time and effort into testing their homepage for conversions will see the benefits.
