Most website homepages are not effective at driving leads. They have high bounce rates and very little engagement from website visitors. This comes from a lack of focus on the end-user and a greater emphasis on the company. Many homepage content examples boast about how great the company is rather than providing clear benefits to the website visitor.
We developed a website homepage structure that generates higher engagement rates and more leads to solve this problem. This blog post will walk you through the basics of creating an effective homepage structure that drives more inquiries for your sales team.
Let’s start by reviewing five key elements of all homepages and tips for each.
Five Key Homepage Elements
- Homepage Content: Homepage content must be relevant to the user. Speak the language of the website end-user and focus on what is important to them. Keep it simple and avoid large blocks of text. Focus on brief blocks of content with descriptive headers, icons, images, and graphics.
- Website Design Elements: Keep the design relative to the target market. For example, an engineer might find more thorough content useful to provide further insight, but an artist might prefer a more graphic heavy approach focused on photos and icons. It is critical to design for your target audience and not the design team. Use real images when possible and avoid stock photos. Make sure your logo is modern and works well in digital mediums.
- Homepage Sections: These are the various areas making up the homepage. Keep in mind that your homepage will be viewed on mobile devices, and people will be scrolling through. Develop these sections to engage the user and move them towards a specific action. See below for more on how to get this done.
- The Navigation Structure: Navigation is critical to a homepage. Navigation should be simple, intuitive, and organized in a way understood by all users. Using standard navigation menu titles such as products, services, about, and contact can help you avoid any confusion.
- Homepage Call-to-Actions (CTAs): CTAs are strategic and can make all the difference in your lead conversion rate. Make sure to include CTAs that coincide with your visitor’s place in the buyer’s journey. Be clear and direct with your Call-To-Actions and avoid passive language such as “learn more” buttons. Allow for options and include more than one CTA on your homepage.
Homepage Layout
Let’s look closer at the homepage sections needed to get sales leads and inquiries. These are in order, starting at the top of the homepage and moving to the bottom or footer section.
Logo in Upper Lefthand Corner
Place your company logo in the upper lefthand corner of the homepage layout. Make sure you have a modern logo that works well in digital formats. Your logo must look good when small or large and be easy to read.
Slogans
A slogan is a few words that mean something to you and expresses your brand. This is different from a tagline and is usually best placed next to the logo. An example is Nike’s slogan, “Just Do It.” These are not to be used in your main banner because they are not direct or descriptive enough. Many people confuse slogans with taglines.
Tagline
The tagline should be straightforward and a clear description of your company’s offerings and value. Ten-out-of- ten people must be able to understand your tagline and know exactly what your company does. Here is a blog post we wrote a few years ago on taglines.
Navigation Menus
Navigation menus are critical to website usability. The main navigation links should be services and products, resources, about, and contact us. Keep the main navigation system on the top and avoid collapsing or disappearing menus.
Main Banner
The main banner will serve as the homepage’s primary focus area and will include images or videos (without sound). Your tagline should be in this section. While we recommend utilizing a few different images, the content (text and buttons) must remain static to avoid hard-to-read moments. Include at least two CTAs in the banner. The image or graphic in the homepage banner should relate directly to the tagline.
Benefits
Provide three to four key benefits provided by your services and/or products.
A benefit is not a product or service description, but more so the reason people buy from you. Your best customers can tell you precisely why they choose to purchase from you vs. your competitors.
To understand your benefits, ask yourself these questions. What happens when your customer’s needs are met and their problem is solved? How do you help people do their job better or improve their quality of life?
Featured Services and Products
Products and services are best placed under the benefits section. This placement will reinforce what people get from your products and services and is an excellent transition into talking about your company’s offerings. Link your products and services to interior pages with more details and include a CTA on each page.
The Plan or Process
The next section of your homepage should describe the process people go through when they buy, partner, or work with your company. What can your prospective customers expect? What are the next steps? How does your process or plan add value?
Once a prospective customer decides they want to proceed, they need to know you have a plan to meet their goals and expectations and that you will be their guide through the process.
Resources
This section of the homepage highlights your expertise with links to your blogs, articles, podcasts, webinars, eBooks, and other resources. Show website visitors you are a thought leader in this market.
Client Logos, Testimonial and Case Studies
In this section, you should feature your customers, partners, and others who have worked with your company and have had a positive experience. It’s important to focus on quality vs. quantity. If you feel that you don’t have enough testimonials for this section, an easy solution would be to have this content rotate. To add a graphic element, you can include customer logos along with the testimonials.
Call-To-Actions
Give people another opportunity to contact you with CTAs at the top, middle, and bottom of the page. These can be the same CTAs used in the main banner.
Footer Navigation
Your footer navigation should include, at a minimum, the following:
- Email Newsletter Sign-Up
- Privacy Statement
- Careers
- Company Locations
- Login or other Utilities
- Contact Info
You can also include your main navigation links again here.
Summary
Your actual website layout may vary somewhat from these recommendations and that’s perfectly ok. With this structure and layout, your homepage will become more effective at providing lead generating opportunities to your website visitors and prospective customers.
One more thing…
Here is an example of a client’s website where we implemented this layout and have already started to see excellent results:
Darkhorse Tech
https://darkhorsetech.com
If you can benefit from more leads and sales, be sure to reach out to Intuitive Websites to improve your website homepage.
