The first thing that your visitors will see is your homepage. It’s where they’ll get their first impression of your business and you’ll get the first opportunity where you can express and show your brand. That’s why it should not just be pleasing to the eyes, but simple, engaging, and clearly state the message of your brand.
Your homepage design is like a sales pitch, so you need to think like a customer. It should not be about you, what you prefer, or whether you think a specific element or effect is cool. Getting carried away on design elements like scrolling or parallax is easy, but make sure you’re willing to consider your audience in terms of design. It may be exciting to incorporate your homepage with the latest trends in web design, but you need to ensure they are suitable for both your potential customers and brand.
It’s not challenging to build an amazing homepage. However, you need to consider some things before getting started. With that in mind, here are a few essential do’s and don’ts to keep in mind for your homepage design.
1. Make It Clean, Simple, And Easy To Navigate
It’s vital to keep the layout of your homepage clutter-free. Packing it in with all the information which you think your visitors will find relevant is not a great way to tell them what they need to know. A busy page with too many images and information will overwhelm your audience. Making your homepage simple to navigate, well thought-out, and organized will exude professionalism.
Do: Make your homepage look professional with a simple, easy to navigate, and clean layout. Place useful information and content like contact details somewhere your visitors can see them right away.
Don’t: Confuse your visitors with a cluttered homepage and lose them in the process. Avoid excessive texts, images, videos, clip art, ads, banners, etc.
2. Use High-Quality Images
Using high-res images on your site and maintaining the best quality of its content is crucial. There are millions of websites today, and that means yours is a tiny fish swimming in a massive sea. We all know that images can make everything easier and better to read. Readers like seeing visual images over huge blocks of texts, and they also relate better to photos rather than words. Moreover, images enable your audience to know more about you and your website.
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Do: Use photos with high resolution. Not only will your homepage look professional with quality photos, but your visitors will most likely explore other pages on your website.
Don’t: Get overboard and add every single photo you have. They may be amazing images, but your page will have more impact with a few powerful and solid pics.
3. Choose A Color Scheme That Fits Your Brand
This simple element is often overlooked, but it’s essential for setting not just the tone of your homepage but your entire website as well. The colors you choose will have the ability to create a positive visual impact on your visitors and will make them want to stay on your site longer. So, make sure to pick a color combination suitable to your brand.
Do: Use a consistent color palette that will strengthen your brand.
Don’t: Use a lot of colors. Avoid applying colors to the wrong places.
4. Use The Appropriate Background
Your homepage background will provide your visitors with a first impression of your site. That’s what will encourage them to keep browsing or go to your competition. The best background should work well with your color scheme and set your site’s tone without distracting readers from its content. It’s a design element that will always be visible but it should not stand out.
Do: Choose a background that can grab the attention of your audience and keep them wanting to know more about you and your business.
Don’t: Underestimate the power of a stunning homepage background. Use it to your advantage so that your audience will leave with a good impression of your brand or business.
5. Optimize Homepage CTA
Using a call to actions or CTAs on your homepage is optional, but they are one of the most important elements for creating a landing page that converts. So if you’ll utilize them, make sure you do it right. These buttons are your gateways to your site’s products, special offers, other pages, other sites, and a whole lot more. Make them so that it’s tempting for your visitors to click and take action.
Do: Create a strong CTA with clear and short wordings. Keep it below four words as much as possible.
Don’t: Let it go unseen and create a self-defeating button that competes with the other elements on your homepage. The whole concept of CTAs is to get the attention of your audience and to make them take action.
6. Frequently Update With High-Quality And Relevant Content
Content has always been an effective way to grow audience engagement, drive sales, and to develop brand presence. Your homepage should contain snippets of your content, intriguing enough to make them click the link for the entire article. The entire detail should be on your site’s other pages, so adding your full bio on your homepage will not make sense if you have an entirely separate page for it. Also, your readers will surely snooze if you’ll get carried away and write paragraphs that are overly detailed.
Do: Create fresh and new content all the time to let your visitors know that your website up-to-date and a reliable source of relevant information.
Don’t: Overdo it by writing novel-type content. No one wants to spend hours reading something online. Avoid losing the attention of your audience by being repetitive and going into too many details.
Your visitors should not spend their time learning how to use and navigate your page. Finding the links about the information they’re looking for, or what they should do next should not be confusing and challenging. The first impression of your business for most of your potential customers is your homepage, so ensuring that their experience is as smooth as possible is crucial. Did we miss anything?
This article originally appeared on b3multimedia.ie
Written by Aileen Cuaresma
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