We recently published an article, likening website pricing to the process of building and maintaining a house. In keeping with this analogy, your homepage (known as a landing page) could also be likened to the visual front yard of your company.

If you’ve ever been out house hunting, you would understand the appeal of a well-maintained front view: it immediately invites you to want to see beyond the front door. Similarly, you’d probably drive straight past a property that looked unkempt and run-down.

Did you know: If your website’s homepage falls within the latter category, people will abandon it in less than 3 seconds?

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Serial renovators and nostalgic dreamers aside, which one would you prefer?

But it’s not only about visual appeal, it’s also about content, function and solutions. So, what does a perfect home(page) look like, and more importantly, what should it achieve?

The homepage hussle

As with the front view of a beautiful home that normally has a lot ‘to say’ about the rest of the property, so your homepage should summarise your business offering in one swift ‘drive-by’.

Visitors should immediately be able to answer three questions when first arriving at your homepage:

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WHO you are, WHAT you do and WHERE you offer it

If you’ve ever had a hard time finding the street name or house number of an address you’ve never been to, you’d understand the uncertainty of whether you are knocking at the correct front door.

Make sure that the headline and sub-headline of your website immediately clarifies your core business offering and also clarifies  whether your offering is available locally, nationally or world-wide.

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The WELCOME mat

Once your visitors are sure that they have indeed arrived at the correct front door, they need to take the next step: into your living room (i.e. explore the rest of your offering).

Clear CTA’s (calls to action) is essential to ‘showing your visitors around’. Your primary call-to-action should be like your front door: appearing above the fold (immediately visible, before a user needs to scroll down to view the rest of the page).

The GRAND TOUR: showing your guests around

Your page visitors are likely to arrive on your homepage for a specific reason (already knowing what they are there for). Clear homepage navigation can be likened to good hosts, guiding their guests to other important areas of their home (like showing them where to hang their coats, or where to find the restroom).

Make sure your site navigation is clearly visible at the top of your homepage and clearly guides visitors to other areas of your website.

Once visitors have scrolled down below the fold (the area that is not immediately visible once you have landed on the homepage), secondary CTA’s (calls to action) also need to point them in the logical next direction.

Extending the invite: How to the ensure your visitors want to RETURN

The homes of hospitable hosts are usually abuzz with activity and guests coming and going.

And so, your website should answer the question: Why should your guests want to visit your site again or refer others to it?

For this reason, your homepage should preferably showcase an offer to be included on your regular guest list.

Examples include:

• An invitation to join your community of regular visitors (newsletter subscription, link to your blog page and social media links);
• Or a special discounted offer or value-add for first-time or return visitors

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From our home to yours

Welcome to Pathfind Media, where we specialise in building and maintaining beautiful and functional websites, and love guiding our clients on their way to websites that look and feel like home.

For this article, we’ve showcased the homepage of our client, Tan Leather Goods.