7 Tips for Designing a Home Page that Builds Value and Maximizes Conversion Goals

On average, you have roughly seven seconds to get your message across before the end user abandons your website for one of your competitors' sites. We have created simple guidelines for what should-and, more important, should not-be featured on your homepage, so that you can build value, credibility and convert traffic into revenue.

1) Create a Powerful Homepage Message.

Your homepage message should be a targeted, benefit-oriented statement that outlines what you can do for the potential customer, or addresses their specific needs and wants. In order to properly draft an intriguing homepage message, you will need to identify the inherent benefit to your potential customer base. No one wants to hear that you are "the best"; customers want to hear why your product/service is different and what it means to them. Put more simply, customers are asking, "What can you do for me?" Answer them.

2) Focus on Clarity.

These days, with so many people searching online for Custom Website design products and services, your homepage should clearly identify who you are, what you offer, your core competitive benefits, and your supporting message-all in a clean and easy-to-navigate user interface. Use animation, video, interactive widgets, and graphics to help illustrate what services or products you provide, and how these benefit the customer. Additionally your message should make it clear that your customers' goals can be fulfilled. However, the homepage should be a "no-fluff" zone. A good rule of thumb for the homepage is "less is more." Make it easy for the user to understand what you do. Too much verbiage, images, animation, loud colors, blinking graphics, etc. will only confuse the user. White space, good. Clutter, bad!

3) Make Effective Use of "Secondary Messaging".

After you have presented your primary homepage message, you will need to incorporate secondary messaging and conversion goals on the homepage. This includes any additional messages, offerings, critical information, etc. Secondary messaging should also incite the user to take certain steps-that is, it should be a call to action. These calls to action could direct the user to e-mail the company for additional information, phone the sales rep, download a white paper, view a presentation or webinar, read a recent success story, etc.

4) Integrate "Flash" and Interactive 3.0 Technologies to Enhance Customer Experience

Flash animation, content boxes, slide bars, tabs, Ajax tools, etc. are important parts of your homepage. To help illustrate your company's core competitive benefits, these tools help customers visualize how you can meet their needs and requirements. Most people are visually oriented, so your interactive features will quickly convey and emphasize your message while allowing the user to interact as they choose. This is the essence of "Web 2.0/3.0"). Interactive features also allows your site to use less space to get across valuable content, by allowing the user to click on and see content on demand. (But otherwise hidden)

5) Drive Toward a Specific Call to Action.

You have already heard a little bit about calls to action, but it is such an important strategy that we have also dedicated a specific section to it. Failure to convert online potential customers into sales leads is mostly attributable to homepages that lack primary and secondary calls to action on homepage. A call to action can be as simple as a link that states, "Contact us for more information" (A poor choice- boring!) or "Tell us more about your needs and we will schedule a conference call." Statistics have proven that if you can guide web users along your sales process, you will convert more of them into customers. The more intriguing an benefit oriented your call to action is, the more conversion you will get.

6) Know Your Audience, and Know the Audience Within Your Audience.

OK, so maybe you don't know who Carl Jung is, but chances are, you either have taken or soon will take a Myers-Briggs personality test. Most people can clearly state whether they are an introvert or an extrovert; your website should cater to these and other personality types. Develop your website not only for an audience that requires what you can provide, but also for disparate personalities within that audience. Some people prefer to pick up the phone to find out more information about your products or services. Some may prefer to e-mail you instead. Others may want to schedule a meeting. Your website should cater to as many of these personality types as possible, or else you will lose conversions. Make it easy for the web user to contact you... using whatever method they choose.

7) Make Your Homepage Easy to Navigate.

You must lay out your website with easy-to-navigate options and buttons. If you are a service-based company, then make sure you have a button on your top navigation that clearly communicates this. According to Forrester's "Web Site Review Scorecard" (Link to appropriate page) your navigation should assure categories and sub categories names are mutually exclusive, and that main categories easily expose their subcategories. If you sell more than one service, then enable a pull-down menu showing options for your customers. Allow them to select the page that they want to research-without having to click first to discover if they chose the right category to lead them to their desired goal.

The Bottom Line

Make it easy for a prospect to find out more about Web Design Company , products and/or services. Create a homepage that takes the guesswork out of it by guiding web users through the process, from understanding the message to taking action. Statistics have shown that the more clicks it takes for potential customers to find what they seek, the higher the rate at which they will abandon the website. These guidelines will not only create a positive website experience for the end user, but will also convert visitors into customers.

Give your website the much-needed attention it deserves. Your website should be your company's most effective marketing tool.