Every page on your website is important, but nothing tops the importance of your website home page. If your site were an actual brick-and-mortar shop, the website home page would be its reception area. It is where customers first gather, and what they see there will become a huge factor in their decision to stay on the site, or leave it.
What should your website home page have to make visitors decide to stick around? All things considered, what it all boils down to is how comfortable they would be about staying and exploring the entire website. Therefore, it goes without saying, that you need to do everything you can to give them that level of comfort, or they will leave.
How to write your website home page
Assure them they’ve come to the right place
Call it what you want. It’s a header, or a slider as website creators call it these days. Your website home page should always have a main graphic that will give visitors the assurance that they’ve come to the right place. Anywhere near this space is where you place headlines, which are essentially the very first things that your visitors will ever read on your site. Keep in mind that those headlines should be catchy and clearly communicate that you fully understand what they need. Avoid sounding generic, like saying “Welcome to our Website”.
Introduce the site clearly and concisely
It is essential that the website home page has a clear and concise introduction about what it’s all about. However, you need to keep the introduction focused more on serving the needs of the visitor himself and not about you or your company. If possible, do not use your introduction to brag about your company or rattle off some tepid stats.
Give readers proof you’re legit
If there’s something your readers want most, it’s proof that your company is not a scam, and therefore safe to do business with. If there are client testimonials, client logos, reviews and awards tucked under your belt, don’t be too shy about featuring them prominently on your website home page. It would also be perfectly fine to boast about having tens of thousands of subscribers to your blog, newsletter, or social media page, if you have one.
Get to the point
Always assume that your visitor has a very short attention span, as most people surfing the Internet actually have. With such attention spans, they will certainly appreciate it if the copy on the website home page is clear and straight to the point. If you can, edit whatever copy you have on the website home page and leave only the words that actually matter to getting your point across.
Home page navigation should be easy
If you have to make your visitors work hard just to know where they need to go, then you’re not doing a very good job. For always, home page navigation should be easy for anyone who drops by your website home page. Fail to do that, and they would leave if it takes a lot of effort just to find the content they need or want. Your navigation bar should be simple and easy to understand. If there are pages that you specifically want the visitor to check out, feature them prominently, complete with clear directions or calls-to-action.
Don’t overdo the SEO on your website home page
Keywords are the backbone of any effective SEO strategy, but don’t let your visitor know that, especially on the home page. Avoid using or emphasizing keywords more than you have to. After all, on a website home page, you are clearly addressing a person, not a search engine.
Be conversational
Write the website home page copy as if you’re actually talking to the visitors. There’s nothing people hate more than techno-babble or big words that will only make them feel like you’re talking down to them. Writing in a conversational tone always works when you’re doing online marketing copy.
Allow for scanners
You’ve done loads of website home page surfing yourself which means you know that most Internet users just scan the page to help them decide if the site is worth any further exploration. To serve these scanners, make the sections you want to feature to visitors work well even without lengthy prose that would explain them. If anything, your text should be sparse. No visitor likes reading through a wall of text.
Home page navigation should be easy, your blog should be easy to find
Assuming that your website has a blog, make sure your visitors can find it rather easily. After all, it is where you engage your customers and potential customers and build relationships with them. In fact, you should even encourage your visitors to visit your blog. One good way of doing that is featuring your most recent or most popular blog posts on the website home page.
Offer free stuff
Your blog, ebooks, newsletters, webinars are resources that you can offer to visitors for free and make them stick around in the process. Just make sure that you give them practical and compelling reasons why they must subscribe to these free resources, not some generic plea about a “free ebook” or “free subscription to our blog”.
Always keep in mind that your website home page is the first impression that your visitors get of your business. With the know how on how to write your website home page, you can make sure that first impression will not only be a good one, but also a lasting one.