If you aren’t getting as many visitors to your website, maybe it has to do with how the home page is designed. This is the first thing people see, and it can make or break any website. You need to take steps to make sure that users are enjoying their experience while visiting your home page. Here are seven ways that you can improve that user experience.
1. Follow Established Patterns
People like consistency and they don’t like change. Change means that they have to learn new things, and this is not always something that everyone wants to do when visiting a website. Keep UI patterns consistent. Try to keep things so they make sense, and use the UI patterns not only consistently, but appropriately. For mobile, don’t try to replicate other UI patterns, as each platform has its own characteristics. 4 Rivers Smokehouse has done it smoothly.
2. Call to Action
Make sure that you have a site-wide call to action right in your header. This is going to stand out to visitors, while not being right in the way or covering anything that they are trying to read. Having a call to action on the header is also a great way to ensure that it is on every single page of your website. There is no way that it is going to be missed by readers, and they are going to be more interested because it is not right in their faces. 1st Formations has created a successful call to action on their home page.
3. Get Rid of Clutter
The more junk on a home page, the less likely people are going to be to bother reading anything on it because they will just be overwhelmed. Make sure the information you offer is presented in a way that is easy to understand. Eliminate the clutter, which can include too many elements, wordiness, a disorganized page, etc. The old saying is true, less is definitely more. The less you have on a page, the easier it is for visitors to focus on what you are promoting. Check how Gadget Salvation did it on their “Sell iPhone” page.
4. Free Services Box
Everyone loves to get something for free, and they are going to be more interested in your site if they are able to get free stuff. So, make sure that you include a free services box on your home page. This box must not cover up other information that visitors want to see, and it should not be added to a clutter that people are going to ignore.
5. Use Your Blog
People are bound to have questions, and you need to answer all of them. But, don’t do this on your home page, because it is just going to lead to that clutter we already talked about. Instead, direct readers to your blog, where they will be able to find the answers to all of their questions. This also helps you to keep things organized and stay focused on what people are asking. Perfect example of a blog that sells is REI Blog.
6. Fix Browser Issues
There are loads of browser-specific issues that you may end up needing to fix. For instance, it might be that visitors aren’t able to click on the call to action. Or, you aren’t seeing lead generation from the correct fields. Or, the navigation menu might not include all of the selections. These are all things that you need to fix in order to improve the visitor experience. There are many online tools like Fixyourbrowser that can help.
7. Fix Typos
Nothing is going to make you look more unprofessional than having grammatical errors, typos, etc. on your website, especially the home page. It only takes a few minutes to go in and fix these things, and you would be well-advised to do so as soon as you notice any errors. When you have a lot of these errors, it can really hurt your credibility, and it will end up costing you money in the long run.