Introduction

There is no single rulebook but if you have a small to medium sized business and you use your website to attract potential new customers then these simple tips will help.

Overview: Be clear in your objective. The single best bit of advice we can offer is to keep in mind exactly who your visitor is and what you want them to do or get out of the visit.

Everything else feeds that goal. ‘Journey’ is overused and it’s become a cliché - but in this case it’s valuable as a metaphor: you are taking your visitor from the known to the unknown and guiding them towards your objective.

Contents - top 5 recommendations for a successful website home page

1. Keep it Simple but engaging

2. Plan the Hierarchy

3. Use Quality Images

4. Calls to Action

5. Use the Footer

1. Keep it simple but engaging

You have seconds, not minutes to engage visitors. Make sure your messages can be easily understood or are so engaging they entice people to scroll or click.

2. Plan the hierarchy

Apply the appropriate heading tags (H tags). H tags are important for SEO because they communicate to search engines and your visitors what the content of a page will be about in a hierarchical, structured way.

The H1 tag should contain your targeted keywords but always be relevant to the page content.
H2 tag is a subheading supporting H1.
H3 is then a subheading/s of H2 and so the structure continues - but do keep it simple!

Here’s an example for a simple Home Page:

H1 - A clear statement of what you do / who you are.
H2 - Your key, headline services or product descriptions.
H3 - Featured services or products that link to specific case studies or featured products. This can be topical and you should be able to update easily to keep this section relevant and/or topical.
Body text - for the detailed information.

3. Use quality images.

If you are selling a physical product, consider investing in professional photography. People do buy with their eyes.
If you offer a personal service also consider having professional photography, we can all spot a selfie!
If you are selling a service, source appropriate, quality, stock images. With the amount of quality images available (free or for a small fee) you don’t need to compromise. When selecting stock images, try and think outside the box, you don’t want to be obscure but you don’t want to use clichéd, overused images either. You don't need to be too literal, you do need to look professional.

4. Have clear ‘Calls To Action’

Ask yourself…
‘What do I want someone to do when visiting my site?’

If you want visitors to get in touch, make it easy for them - have clear email links or a pop-up form.
Buttons are a great way to focus attention and can link to email, forms, pages etc.

If you want visitors to buy a product, lead them to the product page/s, use a ‘featured’ section on the home page to link to specific products you want to sell now.

5. Use the footer

This section of a website can be visible at the foot of every page, so use it.
It’s a great place to add information that, at a glance, will help give your visitors confidence:

• Add contact information including address and phone number - you then become ‘real’.

• Add any organisations/membership logos - communicates credibility.

• Add the date (year) and keep it updated - this shows people you are current and trading.

• Add links to your privacy policy or terms and conditions - these need to be accessible but shouldn’t crowd out your top level navigation

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