Why Your homepage is Important
The main purpose of a homepage is to:
- Clarify Benefit to Visitors
- Who is your product or service for?
- What does it do and how can it help them?
- Establish Trust
- Point The Way
Having a strong home page builds trust with visitors and helps you turn a curious visitor into a potential client. A good home page will make it easy for potential customers or clients to understand how you can help solve a specific problem. It will also help them take the appropriate next step.
Summary of Findings
Total Score: 50% (16/32)
You have a great product and tremendous opportunity to reach thousands of homes, businesses, and shared spaces. You aren’t far off from making your homepage (and website) into a valuable asset that contributes to the growth of your business.
Bad News: Your homepage is not doing a good job of conveying the value your business is creating.
Good News: It’s not difficult to bring you from 50% up to 100%. You just need the right tools and support. You are only a few moves away from having a homepage that drives the growth of your business.
Homepage Evaluation Details
Top Section
Score: 2/4
Finding: Your formatting is following best practices- you have a headline and subline. You also have a clear call to action “Buy Now”. However, the copy and imagery in the top section of your homepage are not effectively conveying the solution you are offering to your target market.
Recommendation:
Your top section should clearly answer the questions:
- Who is this for?
- What problem does it solve?
- What do I need to do next?
Have a simple and clear headline/sub-headline that conveys your solution for your customers. I can provide you with a winning formula and examples to follow.
Include imagery that supports the transformation you help your customers make.
Consider adjusting your call to action to “Find The Right Umbrella”.
Imagery
Score: 2/4
Finding: Your images are visibly pleasing, but they distract from the core messages, either because they are unrelated or they negatively impact readability.
Recommendation: Your main image should position the customer as the hero and clearly demonstrates the ideal “after state” of your target market. All additional images should support the themes and messages within the copy of your page.
Improve the quality of your images to better illustrate the value of your product.
Top Menu
Score: 3/4
Finding: Yout company Iogo and primary call to action are visible, but the navigation is difficult to read due to the contrast of text and background.
Recommendation: Use a heading menu bar so your top menu navigation is clear and easy to read.
Highlight your primary call to action within your menu “Shop” so it naturally draws the eye.
Calls To Action
Score: 3/4
Finding: A call to action is present, but the action and/or next step is vague.
Recommendation: Make sure your page maintains a consistent primary and secondary call to action. The visitor should know the exact action they need to take (ex. Review Models, See Pricing, See Case Studies; etc.) to progress to the next step of their buying journey.
Body
Score: 2/4
Finding: Your text and images are company-centric (i.e. they position the company as the hero), and fail to connect with the challenges the visitor is experiencing and how your product/service can solve those specific challenges.
Recommendation: Update your text and images to clearly and succinctly communicate the value your product/service provides to your customers. Expand on HOW your product/service works, WHO will benefit, and WHAT the visitor needs to do next. Clearly label your sections, and make sure the copy is in line with your core messaging and customer avatar guidelines (if you don’t have these I can help you set them up).
Trust
Score: 3/4
Finding: Logos and testimonials are visible, but there are no links to any specific customer stories or case studies featuring known avatars.
Recommendation: You have a big opportunity to take the happy customers you have now and organize them into useful case studies. A potential customer should be able to see the types of solutions you’ve provided for various locations / needs, e.g. home, small business, public area, etc.
Footer
Score: 2/4
Finding: Only the essential information is visible and there are no additional resources or value to be found in the footer.
Recommendation: In addition to all important and essential information (i.e. expanded navigation, physical address, links to Contact Us, Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, etc.), the footer can also be a resource for content and case studies.
Tip: Keep your top menu simple and use your footer as an expanded menu.
Responsiveness
Score: 4/4
Finding: The homepage is responsive. Your headline and CTA are visible in the first frame, and navigation works properly.
Recommendation: Keep your homepage responsiveness as is. Shopify does a great job of making their sites mobile friendly. No action necessary on this part of your homepage.
Action Items
Follow this workflow to build a homepage that resonates with your potential customers and supports the growth of your business.
Main Steps
- Start by clarifying your most important market segments. I recommend completing a customer avatar and core messaging worksheet for each market segment.
- Clarify the primary and secondary offers you will provide to each segment.
- Use your primary customer avatar and best practice guidelines (templates available upon request) to update the copy of your homepage Top Section.
- Add a “How” and “Who” section to your homepage.
- Add imagery that underscore the benefits your solution provides.
- Update your testimonials to be mini case studies that clearly show the value your product provides for each individual market segment you sell to.
- Update your calls to action to meet best practices.
- Create a plan to raise awareness for your service and bring the right people to your homepage.
How would a better website help you reach your growth goals?
Share your goals and I’ll let you know what your growth potential is:
