Your business’s website should immediately grab your customers’ attention and make it clear where they need to go to learn more about your company and what you offer. A customer should never have to click through multiple pages to find an answer to a simple question like where you are located, what your hours are, how to contact you, or what specific services you offer.
If you make your homepage too hard to navigate – especially on mobile devices – customers will give up and many even turn to one of your competitors instead. At Anchor Wave, our team of Tucson web design experts specialize in digital marketing and website creation tailored to each client’s specific needs, goals, and services. We can help you transform your website to maximize engagement and bring in leads, starting at the homepage.
You may be wondering; how do they do that? Luckily for you, we’re open to share our secrets to creating powerful, usable, and effective homepages for businesses of any kind!
Secret #1: Use An Attention-Grabbing Headline
The first thing your customers will see is your homepage’s headline. It’s something we all take for granted, however we often don’t consider the power it offers. The homepage headline is where you tell your visitors what your business does and why they should choose you. That can be a lot of pressure to put on something that is only a few words long, but it is one of the most important areas on your website’s homepage.
Our secret is to use the headline to target the demographic of customers we think would be most likely to benefit from our client’s services. Imagine a dog food company, for instance, what should their headline be? Something like:
“Organic, Homemade Food for Happy, Healthy Dogs”
That tells readers a lot: what is being sold, why it is worth buying, and who it is for.
Our content team is always working to find the perfect headline for each of our clients, ensuring they not only target key demographics and include powerful keywords, but match the mission and voice of each client.
Secret #2: Write Detailed Sub-Headline
Okay, I know we just stressed the importance of a headline, but don’t worry—your headline isn’t the only place your customers will find out what you have to offer. That comes in the sub-headline, where you can include more details that gives visitors a small window into what your company has to offer.
Try to think of it this way: what is one of the biggest problems you solve for your customers? Now highlight that problem and how your product is the best solution in your sub-headline. Let’s go back to our hypothetical dog food company from earlier, their sub-headline should be something like:
“Are you concerned about what you’re feeding your pet? Our dog food is handcrafted by experts in canine nutritional health and only uses locally sourced, all-natural, organic ingredients for pet owners’ peace of mind and doggy health and wellness.”
Do you see how powerful that is? With only a headline and a slightly larger sub-headline, you can fully understand who this company is, what they stand for, what they sell, who they sell to, and why they are worth buying from? Now imagine the same for your own business! At Anchor Wave, we know the homepage can act as a first impression, which is why we always stress the importance of getting it right with all of our clients.
Secret #3: Implement Big, BOLD Calls to Action
The calls to action on your website should make it very clear and obvious what your customers can do if they want to learn more and engage with your brand. We have found that your homepage should contain two or three calls to action that invite visitors to “Learn More,” “Call Today,” “Make an Appointment,” and so on.
Online, you only have seconds to grab a potential client’s attention before they go searching elsewhere. Big, bold calls to action buttons give you a way to instantly turn them into a lead, giving them a means of engaging right here from the homepage.
While calls to action are essential for the top of your homepage, it is equally important to use closing calls to action at the bottom of the page, empowering visitors to take next steps once they have read through the whole homepage.
Secret #4: Display Real Images
An image may be worth a thousand words, but a real image is worth a thousand stock ones. We have a simple rule for homepages: don’t use stock images on them. Real images of your team, your products, or your services being used by real people in the real world are always more powerful, and help ground your business.
It has been found that most people respond to visual advertising, and having supporting images that provide more information about what you have to offer will solidify you as a real company that they can trust and that they want to engage with.
Secret #5: People Trust Logos and Social Proof
The homepage is many things, but most importantly it is a place to build confidence. When potential customers see logos and verifications they trust, along with social proof of your value, they are more likely to trust you and see you as an authority in your industry.
Logos and verifications make sense: customers want the businesses they use to be accredited, celebrated, and have proved to outside sources that they are trustworthy. Displaying any trusted logos which display qualifications, memberships, or associations with professional industries immediately builds trust with customers, and sets you apart from your less decorated competitors. But what is social proof?
Social proof is validation found through the praise of other regular people. While professional organizations can attest to a business’ value and reliability, nothing can beat the proof of fellow community members trusting and celebrating your company. Reviews and/or testimonials from real customers are some of the most powerful assets your business can use on your homepage, and should be displayed proudly. This small action builds invaluable amounts of trust, showing a commitment to servicing each and every customer’s unique needs.
Secret #6: Have Over 20 Years of Creating Amazing Homepages
Okay, this last secret is something unique to Anchor Wave, but it is one of our biggest assets. We are no stranger to the web design game (we’ve basically been in business as long as the internet itself!), and we have seen it grow and change. Because of that, we’ve built countless homepages for numerous clients, helping them grow and succeed. Although we’ve been creating websites for years, we never rest on our laurels, and are always challenging ourselves and learning the newest strategies for creating amazing, engaging, and effective websites.
In fact, our MarketingHubs abide by all of these guidelines by default. What’s a MarketingHub, you may be asking? We’re MORE than happy to tell you!! MarketingHub is the next evolution of the website, built to perfectly capture your audience where they are, adapting to the ever changing space of online marketing. Click here to learn more about the unique benefits MarketingHub can offer to your business.
Do you want to learn more about what makes us different from other Tucson, Arizona web design and digital marketing companies? Call our team of Anchor Wave web design experts today or contact us online to get started on revolutionizing your company’s website homepage and maximizing your success in the new year!!
