How To Improve Your Homepage

Your website is your virtual place of business. Just like your regular place of business, your website needs to be neat, clean, attractive, inviting, and professional. Here are some easy, low-cost ways to improve your homepage. It’s actually easier than you think.

Freshen The Content Regularly

Schedule a monthly reminder to check your website and update the content on the homepage. This will stop you from having seasonal content sticking around too long, such as your Black Friday deals still showing in the New Year. If you have downloadable PDFs, such as menus, that need updating, SodaPDF Online lets you convert pdf to docx.

Make Sure It Has A Call To Action

What is the top action that you want visitors to your website to take? Here are three examples of calls to action:

• Sign up for your email list. When people sign up for your email list, you create an ongoing connection that lets you market to them. Most email marketing software offers an easy way to insert a signup box to your homepage. 
• Shop in your e-commerce store. If you sell products online, embed pictures of some products on your homepage to encourage buyers to click through, and add a prominent ‘Shop Now’ button. 
• Fill out a lead form. If you sell services rather than products, encourage visitors to fill out a lead form. These capture contact information so you can follow up with them. 

Add Contact Information Prominently

Look at your homepage objectively. Are you making your visitors look for or guess how to reach you? 

Many small businesses add contact information in the header and or footer of every page. At the least, you should include an email address and a phone number. If customers can visit your location, add your address too. If you want to have a separate contact page, make sure it has a large and prominent link. 

Add Images Or Video

Is your home page text heavy? Images help to break up large blocks of text and look more inviting to visitors. Include at least one photograph that shows your business, team, or products. If nobody in-house is a decent photographer, invest in some professional photography. In most areas, you can hire someone for a reasonable price. 

Videos are good too. Create a how-to video or one that demonstrates your products, or of you welcoming visitors. Load this video onto YouTube or another video platform, then embed the code onto your site. 

Update Your Design To Current Standards

A website that was designed a few years ago will look very dated compared to one designed more recently. Outdated web design gives the impression that your business isn’t up to date either. Update the whole website if you can, but if time and money are tight, at least redesign your homepage to give a better first impression. Update other pages later on as time and money allow. 

Ask your web developer to give the homepage a facelift. If you manage your website yourself, buy a low-cost template to make sure you have something that will work and look good.