Is Your Home Page Functional?

Your home page is the doorway to your website. It is the first page that every visitor sees when they arrive at your site. If your home page is not functional, visitors will not go beyond this page into the rest of your site. It is the most important page and gets more visitors than any other pages on your site.

What should you do to make your home page functional?

If you want to maximize sales, develop a home page with a great look but make sure it downloads quickly as well. If the home page takes a long time to download, the visitor might leave the website. Once the page downloads, its important what the visitor sees.

Here are 10 questions to ask to improve the functionality of your home page:

1. Does your home page look professional?

Your visitor forms her first impression of your home page in the first 10 seconds. Does your home page look professional or does it look like it's designed by the kid next door?

2. Does your home page tell people what your site is about?

The home page should immediately tell visitors what your site is about and why she should be on your site and not on your competitor's site.

3. Is your home page focused on your visitor or on you?

Your website may solve all your needs but not your visitor's needs. Make sure your home page is created from the visitor's point of view.

4. Does your home page engage your visitors with good copy and inspire them to go deeper into your website?

Engage your visitors with good copy that gets their attention and make them want to read more. Give them benefits. Remove needless words and make the copy conversational and customer-focused.

5. Does your home page have a tagline that tells people what the company does?

Taglines are a good way to get your message across. A tagline conveys the most important benefit of your product or service. It should say something vital about why you are different and why the world should care.

6. Does your home page have an attention-grabbing headline?

People will read your headline first and if it gets their attention, they are likely to read further. If you don't have an attention-grabbing headline, all the work you put into the rest of your site will be wasted because people won't be reading it. It is important to spend a lot time and effort into creating great headlines. Your headline is what persuades your prospect to read the rest of the web page.

7. Does your home page have a clear goal?

Very often, website owners have several goals that results in a site that is not clearly focused. The goal of the website should be clear on the home page. Look at your home page and ask yourself is the content working hard enough to achieve the goal of the page?

8. Does your home page answer your visitor's question "Can I find what I need on this page?"

If your home page is on purpose, it will immediately make your visitor think "Yes, I can find what I need on this page." This meets their expectations and you've got their interest. They are then ready to read more. Your job at this point is to help the visitor accomplish his task as easily and quickly as possible.

9. Do you have a call to action on your home page?

Asking a visitor to take action is called "Call to action." This may be a sign up form for your newsletter or a "contact us" button which tells the visitor to take the next step. Having a call to action will increase the likelihood of conversions on your home page.

10. Does the page inspire trust and build rapport?

Trust is important. If you can't establish trust, your visitor will not return to your website. If visitors trust you, they are more liable to feel confident and make a purchase.

Studies indicate that the smallest of changes on a website can result in dramatic improvements in sales conversion rates. Sometimes, just changing a word or adding a call to action can result in a huge improvement! Don't just assume that your website is as good as it can be. Keep on tweaking it constantly and measure the results.

At InterDream Designs, we are always focused on producing results for our customers' Websites.  We understand that a website represents an important part of your business, perhaps ALL of your business, and are always current with the latest research findings. Contact us now at nina@interdream-designs.com and find out how you can improve your website, and your sales conversions. 

- Nina Menezes

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