Homepage Features that Will Set Your Business Website Apart

For many business owners, the first place a customer will interact with your business is on your company website.

You can think of your company website as a virtual storefront. Your virtual shop window should entice clients and customers to explore the website and hint at what your business offers.

For businesses that don’t have brick and mortar locations or businesses that have had their physical offices closed due to COVID, business websites are critical to success.

If you want to improve your website homepage features, we’ve got a few tips you can use to enhance your company website and grow your traffic. Keep reading below to learn how to craft an intriguing company website that can attract new visitors from all over the globe. 

Tip #1: Make Sure Your Website Homepage is Easy to Scan

When people visit your website, it is highly unlikely they will read every single word on the page. Most people want to be able to scan the copy on your website homepage to glean basic insights and takeaways.

In fact, one study found that just 16 percent of people read online articles and website copy word-for-word. Not only are site visitors unlikely to read through your entire site, but they also want to be able to quickly and easily access the information they are looking for.

If they are unable to locate the content they are seeking from the homepage, it is likely that they will quickly leave your website.

So, what can you do to your website to take advantage of people just looking to scan your website pages? Here are a few basic guidelines to follow:

• Use larger font sizes

• Break up text with helpful graphics and visuals

• Use short, straightforward sentences (think Hemingway!)

• Add captions to explain any images on the page

• Use both headings and subheadings to break up sections

• Use bullet points and outlines rather than sentence-heavy paragraphs

Tip #2: Pay Attention to Your Photos and Images

One of the best ways to humanize your brand and make it more relatable is by using people in your product photos and stock photos. Try to sprinkle in photos of actual customers as well as pictures of your staff. 

Great photos and images can make your brand seem professional — but it is important to ensure that all of the visuals you use are optimized for your website.

There are free image optimizers you can leverage that reduce the file size of any photos or pictures you upload onto your website. In turn, the pictures load faster so customers aren’t waiting around for your website pages to load. 

Uploading photos with the right file size can not only increase your user experience but search engines are now using page load speed as a ranking factor. If your site loads too slowly, you may be dinged and lose organic rankings for this.

If you are losing organic rankings, you are losing organic traffic and by default, missing out on revenue opportunities. 

Tip #3: Make Your Website Homepage Easy to Navigate

Many website owners choose to hide their website navigation bar in the name of minimalism. Unfortunately, this can make it difficult for potential customers to find key pages on your site.

Consider anchoring your navigation bar somewhere visible on the homepage to make it easy for visitors to discover the rest of your website.

In addition to providing a search bar for site visitors to easily search for the information they are seeking, you should make sure the layout is easy to navigate. Make sure you have links to your primary landing pages accessible from the homepage.

Additionally, if you have a lead form page, this should be accessible from your homepage. Providing links to these pages is important from a UX standpoint but is also important for search engines. This is referred to as your internal linking strategy and can help search engines to better understand and navigate your site.

When your homepage has an optimized internal linking strategy, it increases the chances that you will rank higher on the search engine results page (SERP). 

Tip #4: Define Your Company

For new companies that don’t have the benefit of brand recognition, it is important to establish the purpose and values of your business.

Your company description should tell the reader about the company’s origins, goals, and what services or products you offer (and why they matter). This can also be a great opportunity to include testimonials or reviews so that you can establish trust and demonstrate your reputation on the first contact with site visitors. 

The company description for Snowy Pines White Labs is an ideal example you can emulate for your own website:

Tip #5: Use a Clear Call to Action

A call to action or CTA directs readers to execute a particular action. So, if your company sells products, you might want a CTA that encourages visitors to add products to a virtual cart or to start shopping.

If you are providing a service, you might want to add a CTA that directs visitors to fill out a form for a quote. A large button with minimal words and clear instructions is the best way to make sure your CTA leads people to do something.

Take a look at this call to action on the Vapor Empire’s main page below for an example of an effective CTA.

Tip #6: Create a “Contact Us” Page

If customers have questions or want to reach out for a service, they should be able to easily find out how to contact you. Make sure your company’s contact information is easily accessible and available in a prominent place on your websites, like at the top navigation or sidebar. 

Ideally, you’ll have more than one channel for customer communications. Setting up a business phone number, email, chat, and a contact form allows customers to reach you through multiple avenues. 

Tip #7: Take Time Crafting Your Content 

Is your website littered with typos and bad grammar? Those kinds of mistakes can instantly turn off potential customers. Plus, those errors can drag down your professional reputation. 

So, it is a good idea to use some of your budget for developing user-friendly content for your website. A professional copywriter can help you add polish and a unique voice to your website that draws visitors in.

Although SEO content is always going to be important, it should never be at the expense of user experience. Avoid keyword stuffing and stick to natural-sounding paragraphs that get straight to the point. 

Content can help set you apart from other websites and establish your company as an authority in your industry niche. It is not a bad idea to create a blog that publishes articles within your industry space to increase your relevance.

Plus, more relevant content on your website pages gives Google’s bots a better idea of what your company is about and can help raise your company’s rankings in search engine results. 

Tip #8: Find Ways to Gather Customer Reviews

Customer reviews help establish trust. After all, you can create amazing product and service descriptions but if your claims aren’t backed up by real-world reviews, customers might not take your word for it. 

You can also ask customers and other businesses for testimonials you can place prominently on your website. You can allow customers to simply rate their experience based on a star-system or ask for more descriptive feedback in an email survey.

Try to get customers to leave feedback as close to a completed transaction as possible. It is much harder to get reviews the longer you wait to ask.

It is also a good idea to respond to all reviews — whether those reviews are good, bad, or somewhere in between. Responding to reviews shows customers that your company cares.

Tip #9: Include an FAQ Section

If you get potential customers asking you the same kind of questions over and over again, it might be a good idea to add an FAQ section on your website homepage. This can provide clarification for common questions.

Additionally, adding an FAQ section will potentially cut down on the amount of bandwidth needed by your customer service team, thereby saving you money in the long run.

Some studies have found that providing an FAQ section on your site can also help boost sales. By quickly and efficiently providing site visitors with questions they may have that could influence a purchasing decision, you can get any potential objections out of the way and get one step closer to closing a sale. 

Conclusion: Homepage Features of Business Websites

First impressions matter. And for many businesses, your website homepage is often the first place a customer interacts with your brand.

Take time building it out so that it is easy to navigate. Make sure you make it easy for visitors to contact you from the homepage and leave reviews.

Taking time to craft a well designed, the thoughtful homepage can do wonders for your business and bottom line. While it may require some initial investment, it will certainly pay off in the long run. And, don’t forget to spend time writing good content that attracts visitors and encourages them to explore your website.