Search engine optimization is a frequently discussed aspect of marketing. But what about homepage design: Can how a page is structured be used to increase interest in the site?
To take advantage of this, some people favor moving the call to action to a more prominent place to improve the chances of winning a sale. Others feel you should include engaging content like videos, while making sure not to clutter the page with too much information at once.
But what works best? We asked 12 members from YEC to share the design elements you can incorporate into your site’s homepage in order to increase customer traffic.
1. Make Your Site Mobile Friendly
A lot of websites are still mostly designed for desktop. A mobile version of your site is important because Google prioritizes mobile-friendly sites above non-mobile friendly ones. Even just creating a responsive, dynamically served, or separate URL for your mobile homepage is a start to avoid site bounces and losing mobile site traffic.
2. Generate and Keep Visitor Interest
Through image and text, make sure your design funnels the user to key supporting pages that evolve the conversation about your brand or product. More then ever before for SEO traffic, search engines are giving high importance to metrics of user engagement like bounce rate and average time on site. You need a design that creates not only immediate but also sustained interest.
– Travis Nagle, Stem and Viesso
3. Make Your Call to Action Clear
Whether it is to contact you, purchase a product or schedule a service, make it very easy for someone to find your call to action button. It should exist on the top half of your website and be big enough for everyone to see.
– Lyndsi Stafford, eLuminate Marketing
4. Tout Your Unique Selling Points
First, ask your customers why they buy from you and not from the competition. This will tell you what your unique selling proposition is. Then, make this the No. 1 element on your homepage. A customer should land on your page and be able to answer where they are, what they can do there and why they should do it. Your unique selling proposition will quickly answer this question and improve conversion rates.
– Diego Orjuela, Cables & Sensors
5. Add Live Chat
Live chat is an absolute necessity for websites that provide products or services. Having a live chat box across your website builds a sense of comfort for visitors because they know any questions can be answered immediately. The real-time advantage of live chat is that it keeps the customer engaged and not bouncing to seek answers. This increased engagement is better for conversions.
6. Put Video on the Homepage
Put video on your homepage to get and keep people there. This is the most engaging content and could then influence these visitors to explore other parts of your website. Video content can also provide search engine ranking assistance, as more people are seeking out this type of content.
– Murray Newlands, Sighted
7. Provide Connections to Social Media
Our social media accounts are where we get more sales through the testimonials that we post there. It is very important that our website showcases these posts in order to make sales on our site and increase traffic as well.
– Daisy Jing, Banish
8. Keep Visitors Engaged
In so many words, don’t be boring. Provide interesting and fun items that keep visitors hanging around. The more they hang around, the more they will find links that provide the information or products they want to use.
– Brandon Stapper, 858 Graphics
9. Fine-Tune Your SEO Page Title
The most important element for increasing customer traffic online is the SEO page title that appears in browser windows and search engine results pages. If a homepage title is “Home” or simply “Company Name” in the browser window, then there is an opportunity to include your target keyword in the page title to attract more customer traffic online.
10. Use Long-Tail Keywords
Prospects are searching long-tail keywords, phrases containing several words that ask a question they need answered. Focus on the questions your prospects are searching for, and target your content to respond to and answer those questions. And if they don’t find the answer right away on your homepage, they’re likely to click away somewhere else. You have to immediately capture interest.
– Nicole Munoz, Start Ranking Now
11. Make Products Easy to Find
From personal experience, customers like to find the product they’re looking for easily and without too much hassle. On my e-commerce website, I have what’s called a custom search and filter functionality, which helps customers find what they’re looking for with ease. This type of element is important because a customer’s experience on your site will make them buy from you or go somewhere else.
– Patrick Barnhill, Specialist ID, Inc.
12. Tell Visitors What You Do
It’s such a simple idea, but one that gets forgotten about often: Tell your viewers what it is that you do. Remain direct, succinct and use language that they’ll digest immediately. Oftentimes, marketing copy can become overly verbose and ambiguous, and ironically forgets its message. If you’re the best at organizing conferences, say it directly — you’ll garner more traffic and conversions.
– Blair Thomas, First American Merchant
Quick Tips to Improve Your Website or Blog Homepage
Now that you’ve had a chance to read through some expert tips on how to improve your homepage, it’s time to implement these changes into your own site. Also, if you enjoyed this expert round up, I highly recommend you check out another one on BloggingTips.com which asks 83 online marketing experts the question “How Do I Start a Successful Blog?“. If you don’t already have a website or blog of your own, follow my guide to get started with one today.