Have you reviewed your Home page lately? Your entire website won’t be as successful as it could be if your Home page doesn’t do its job effectively . . .

Over time, new sections or copy get added. You add new products or services. And maybe you’ve modified your overall message direction. You should review your Home page periodically, to consider: is your Home page as a whole still doing its job?

 1. Does your Home Page main headline address what your audience wants?

Missed Opportunity: if your Home Page talks about your product or service . . . but doesn’t address why your audience should care – i.e., what it will do for them – you’ve missed the first opportunity to engage that traffic you’ve likely worked so hard to attract.

Unless your products are sold by the way they look (clothing, furniture, artwork, etc.), your audience may not recognize why they should stay and learn more. Never be secretive about the BENEFIT of your products — or assume your audience will read to figure it out  Most won’t.

  • If your Home Page has a high Bounce Rate, this could be one reason why.

Your Home Page headline should draw your audience in and address what they’re looking for (so they know they’re in the right place).

Your products or services should solve a problem or fulfill a need or want. Your main headline should address that problem, need, or want directly.

2. Does your Home Page headline also address why the audience should do business with you?

Does it introduce your overall brand promise?

  • For ecommerce, your headline should introduce the “why we’re different” or “why our products are different” story.
  • For services businesses, your headline should introduce your expertise – why we’re the best company to deliver what you’re looking for

Your main headline should give your audience a reason to stay on the site. It should let them know why you can address their problem or deliver what they’re looking for.

3. Does the rest of your Home Page copy expand on your brand promise?

Especially for products NOT sold by the way they look, your Home Page should deliver those SPECIFICS that make your product offering unique, or that prove your expertise.

Don’t hide your unique benefits or expertise on your “About” Page — because your audience may never visit that page. Your brand promise should be woven throughout your website, and appear on every product/service page and within each blog post.

4. Does your Home Page effectively funnel traffic?

Your Home Page is like the cover of a magazine – it should hint at what’s inside, and highlight the main stories.

  • For ecommerce, you’ll highlight your latest arrivals, best sellers, highest-rated products.
  • For services, the goal of your website is likely Lead Generation. So, your Home page needs to introduce your main Lead Generation Offers.

If your website has 3 main categories of products or services, all 3 should probably be represented on the Home Page with a link to each category page.

If your expertise lies in 3 main services, all 3 should be introduced on the Home Page. And ideally, you should promote the Lead Generation Offer for each service.

5. Does your Home Page still present your messages in the right order?

You need a “prominence plan” for your Home Page messages — so the most important messages are presented first.

As copy is added or moved on your Home Page, are your messages still in the right order?

6. Does your Lead Generation website introduce an Offer on Home?

If the entire purpose of your website is to generate leads, why are you hiding your Lead Generation Offers?

NEVER rely on visitors to look around to find them. That’s not why visitors are on your website. They’re there to learn more or to find something — so HELP THEM!

Offer them a Buyer’s Guide or a Comparison Report or a Deep Dive into Options to Solve a Problem – right on Home.  Never assume your visitors will make it to your Offer page.

GIVE THEM A REASON TO RESPOND!  Introduce your Lead Generation Offers on Home, on every Product/Service page, and in every blog post.

Present Offers on the key pages where your audience is likely to visit, not just where you hope they’ll go.

7. Does your Home Page effectively drive Organic search traffic?

Have you searched for your site on Google lately, and reviewed the Page Title and Description for your Home Page (that may have been created years ago)?

Is that still the main message you want to appear in search results?  (Page Title becomes the headline on google.com, and Description becomes the description that helps to motivate the click.)

Are the keywords used in the Page Title still the most important keywords on the Home Page?

For many companies, the Home Page is the strongest driver of Organic traffic, and can be the landing page for anywhere from 30% to 70% of your traffic. So you want to be sure that its optimization is as effective as possible.

Check the Click-Through of your Home Page when it appears in Organic search results (see Google Search Console, Performance, Pages). Your Home Page likely appears first on the report, with the most clicks and impressions. But how effective is your Page Title and Description for getting clicks?

 

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