The homepage of your business’s website will serve as its virtual storefront — in order to get more sales and increase your bottom line, you need to get it right! Having a great homepage can help you build trust and leave a great impression on visitors, helping you to grow your small business.

In this article, we’re going to outline how you can optimize your website’s homepage. Let’s get started.

Target the right keywords to reach the right people

Targeting the right keywords on your website is a huge part of search engine optimization or SEO. SEO refers to a variety of tactics that can help your website to rank higher on relevant search engine results pages (SERPs).

To identify the best keywords to suit your homepage, you’ll need to conduct some keyword research. Start by coming up with a list of words and phrases related to your business. Then, head to a tool like Google Keyword Planner. Plug in the words you came up with and Google will provide you with a list of keywords based on their competitiveness, or how hard they are to rank for, and their average monthly search volumes. For your homepage, pick keywords that are relevant to the general theme of your website or the niche you work in. It’s best to avoid getting too specific, as any phrases directly related to certain products or services you sell should be targeted on more relevant web pages.

Also, when choosing keywords to target, find a balance between their competitiveness and search volumes. You want to reach as many people as possible with your keywords, but you also don’t want your chosen terms to be so competitive that you can’t rank at all.

You also need to keep in mind that, if you target a keyword on your homepage, you won’t want to target it on any other page of your website. If you have multiple blog posts or web pages that are trying to rank for the same keywords, you’ll be competing with yourself to rank. By splitting your efforts, you’ll eat away at your chances of either page being found. This is called keyword cannibalization, and is something that you want to avoid!

Make it easy for people to hire or buy from you

When people land on your homepage, you want to make it as easy as possible for them to take the next step with your business. This will increase your chances of making a sale!

When designing your website, you need to make it easy for people to find more information or move forward in the buying process. Here are a few ways you can do just that:

• Provide clear calls to action (CTAs)

• Offer a sophisticated search feature that directs them to the products or services they want

• Make it easy for the customer to get in touch with questions or concerns

Let’s take a look at a few examples of businesses that make it easy for a website visitor to take the next step on their homepages for inspiration.

For instance, personal injury lawyers in San Antonio, The Law Offices of George Salinas, make it very easy for a user to get in touch. As you can see in the image above, they offer a 24-hour live chat service, have a phone number at the top of their homepage, and have a CTA that a user can click to get a consultation. Multiple contact options like this are especially helpful for a law firm — inquiring about legal services can be intimidating, and it’s important that prospective clients can contact the firm in a way they’re comfortable with. Making their options clear like this will encourage website visitors to click and get in touch with The Law Offices of George Salinas for more information about their services!

On your website, be sure that your contact options are clear. This can help encourage visitors to get in touch with you if they have questions, making it more likely that they’ll make a purchase with your business.

 

American International University, a higher education institution in Kuwait, helps website visitors take the next step using CTAs. As you can see in the image above, there are three clear CTAs that a website visitor can choose from: “Find a Program,” “Apply,” and “Request Info.” Each of these options targets a different type of person depending on how familiar they are with American International University or whether they’re ready to apply. By offering multiple options, American International University can attract different types of people and make them more likely to take the next step.

On your website, consider providing multiple CTAs to target clients at different stages of the buying journey. When someone sees a CTA tailored to their needs, they’ll be more likely to click and take the next step with your business.

Use strong imagery that shows what your business is about

Strong visuals are important for grabbing people’s attention and showing them what your business is all about! You can use imagery in a lot of different ways. This will engage the website visitor and encourage them to interact with your business. For instance, you can use imagery to put a face to your business, show people what it’s like to work with you, or show off your brand’s personality!

Let’s take a look at a few examples of websites that use imagery well on their homepages for inspiration.

Longhouse, an assisted living facility in Seattle, uses imagery well on their homepage. As you can see above, Longhouse has a photo of several of their residents enjoying their time and socializing with each other. This type of imagery is particularly important for a senior living facility — putting loved ones into a residency like this can be scary but, by using cheerful imagery, Longhouse makes their business less intimidating. This makes it more likely that a website visitor will want to invest in Longhouse’s services!

Use imagery on your website that humanizes your business or helps build a relationship with a website visitor. This is particularly helpful for businesses  in fields like law or healthcare, which can be intimidating. You want your visitors to relate to your business, and imagery is perfect for helping with this, leading to more sales!

Kasala, a furniture store in Seattle, uses imagery well on their homepage, as well. Throughout the page, they have their furniture modeled in different spaces. This helps the website visitor to imagine where they would put their own Kasala furniture in their home, thus encouraging them to make a purchase.

On your website, consider using a similar strategy. Display your products in a way that helps prospective customers to imagine themselves using them in their own lives. This is a very effective image strategy that will help encourage more sales!

Highlight positive reviews to win customers’ trust

People value word-of-mouth recommendations over any other type of marketing. By highlighting positive customer or client reviews on your homepage, you can build trust with website visitors and encourage them to make a purchase.

To collect reviews, you just need to ask. Consider reaching out to your past customers in a post-purchase email and ask them to leave a review of your products or services. You can even offer a small discount to incentivize them to complete the review.

Then, once you have your reviews, you need to determine how you should best display them on your homepage. If you sell a lot of products, one option is to showcase an average star rating for each item. This will help your website visitors to quickly compare them. Or, if you offer more extensive services, you might consider showing off written testimonials from past clients — if you choose this method, be sure to include an image, name, and job title of the reviewer in order to show their credibility.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of websites that display testimonials on their homepages well for inspiration.

Backlinko, a digital marketing company, shows off written testimonials on their homepage. As you can see above, Backlinko has highlighted a few different written testimonials from their past clients. The reviews note that Backlinko has a ton of SEO knowledge and content marketing expertise. Additionally, they highlight the names and job titles of the reviewers to add credibility! This helps Backlinko build trust with their website visitors and make more sales.

On your website, use written testimonials to prove to your website visitors that you know your stuff. Having quotes from your past clients will help you build trust with anyone who comes to your homepage and encourage them to make a purchase!

Stryker T-Tops, a retailer of aftermarket T-tops and boat accessories, uses star reviews on their homepage well. As you can see in the image above, they have star ratings for several of their products. This can quickly convey to users that the products offered by Stryker T-Tops are high-quality, encouraging them to make a purchase!

If you want to display products on your homepage, consider using a similar strategy to Stryker T-Tops. Show off your star reviews below the relevant products to help your website visitors quickly compare your products and bring them closer to making a decision.

Ensure your homepage copy is helpful and engaging

Your website’s copy is incredibly important and the copy on your homepage can make or break a sale. To craft top-notch homepage copy, there are a lot of strategies that you can employ.

First, you should focus on the benefits that you can offer your customers, rather than just outlining the features of your products or services. Be sure that it’s clear in your copy how you can help a customer solve their problem!

You can also show off your brand’s personality in your copy. Feel free to have fun with it — your website visitors should feel like they’re getting to know you when they read your website. Think about how your target audience likes to be spoken to, whether it’s in a more casual or formal way. Write your copy with this in mind to help ensure that it’s effective.

Let’s take a look at a few examples of businesses with good homepage copy for inspiration.

Talkspace, an online therapy platform, has engaging copy on their homepage. As you can see above, the hero copy says “Feeling better starts with a single message.” In just a short sentence, the website visitor can quickly understand what Talkspace is all about: therapy using the ease of a smartphone. The phrase is clear and concise and easily conveys the message to the website visitor, making it a very effective piece of homepage copy.

Use the copy on your homepage to show off what you’re all about! If you had to sum up what you do in just a few words, what would you say? Engage your website visitors by providing them with engaging copy that tells them what you do.

 

Chipotle, a fast-casual Mexican restaurant, engages website visitors using their homepage copy, as well. They use their homepage to highlight their new product, smoked brisket. The supporting copy notes what’s special about the product and how it will only be available for a limited time. This gets a website visitor excited about ordering from Chipotle, making it effective homepage copy!

Consider using the copy on your homepage to highlight what’s new with your business. Write a few words conveying to the visitor what they should be most excited about. This can get them engaged and encourage them to make a purchase with you.

Shout about awards or qualifications relevant to your work

People will only want to spend their money with you if you’re able to earn their trust. This means that you need to design your homepage in a way that will help you build a relationship with visitors! Highlighting your awards, accolades, or qualifications relevant to your work can help with this.

Don’t have any awards yet? Don’t worry. Head to an online tool like Awards Finder. They can help you search through thousands of industry awards and find one relevant to your business or niche.

Once you receive a nomination or award, you can display these accomplishments on your homepage. Be sure that they’re placed near the product or service they’re relevant to — or, if you’ve received a more general industry award, place them near the top of your website’s homepage so visitors see it straight away.

Let’s take a look at a business that highlights awards on their homepage for inspiration.

 

Purple, an online mattress retailer, highlights one of their awards on their homepage. As you can see above, Purple has received the #1 award in customer satisfaction for two years in a row. Think about how important it is for Purple’s prospective customers to understand the quality of their products. People want to get a good night’s sleep, and this award proves that Purple can help. So, it builds trust with the website visitor, encouraging them to make a purchase.

On your website, consider doing something similar to Purple. Highlight your most relevant awards front-and-center on your homepage. This will immediately tell your website visitors that you know what you’re doing, which will encourage them to invest in your products or services.

Summary

Your homepage is very important to the overall success of your business. First impressions are everything! In this article, we outlined how you can optimize your website’s homepage, including by showing off your awards, having top-notch imagery, and adding creative copy.

 

Author: Alex Ratynski is a Content Strategist at Loganix, an SEO fulfillment partner that works with agencies and marketers. The company focuses on helping businesses to improve their online visibility, so they can grow and reach their goals. If you enjoyed this article, visit the Loganix blog for more expert advice.