How to Avoid These 6 Common Mistakes Brands Make with Their Homepages
We all know that first impressions are crucial, and your homepage is the virtual handshake that can make or break your brand's image. But unfortunately, too many brands shift into the wrong gear and design cringe-worthy homepages.
If you don't want to join their club, you've landed at the right spot. Here, we'll delve into six common mistakes brands make and teach you how to give your brand's homepage a much-needed upgrade.
By the time you've finished reading this article, you'll learn how to effortlessly dodge some common pitfalls and arm yourself with the secret sauce necessary to transform your homepage into a dazzling, customer-converting machine.
So, without further ado, let's dive into the world of homepage hacks.
Present Your Product Early and Clearly
You see, the problem with many homepages is that they take too long to get to the point, leaving visitors scrolling and clicking around in a futile quest to understand the product or service. This is a rookie mistake that can send potential customers running (or clicking) for the hills.
The antidote to this common issue is simple: put your product front and center. Ditch the lengthy intros and get straight to the heart of what you offer.
This means crafting a punchy headline, followed by a subheading that succinctly explains your product's key benefits. And don't forget visuals! An eye-catching image or video can work wonders for grabbing attention and making your message stick.
By presenting your product early and clearly, you'll be setting the stage for a delightful user experience, making your visitors feel like they've struck gold in the vast digital desert.
Take a look at the image below to see how it's done. Vivion, a supplier of high-quality ingredients, explicitly states its main value proposition in their top header, letting its prospects know they've potentially discovered just the right product that they've been looking for. That's precisely the kind of first impression you need to make with your homepage.
Source: Vivion.com
Build for Speed
A fast homepage is synonymous with a great user experience, and trust us, nothing puts a damper on potential conversions like a slow-loading website. In this day and age, visitors won't stick around if your homepage takes forever to load.
So, if your goal is a lightning-fast homepage, make sure to do the following:
- Optimize images. Large images are the prime culprits behind slow-loading pages. Use tools like ImageOptim or TinyPNG to compress your images without sacrificing quality.
- Minify your code. Keep your HTML, CSS, and JavaScript lean and clean by minifying your code. Tools like UglifyJS and CSSNano can do the heavy lifting for you.
- Leverage browser caching. Use browser caching to store static files like images, scripts, and CSS. This will speed up page load times for repeat visitors.
- Use a Content Delivery Network (CDN). A CDN can distribute your content across multiple servers, reducing the distance between your website and visitors, thereby improving load times.
- Prioritize above-the-fold content. Ensure your most crucial content loads first, keeping your visitors engaged while the rest of the page loads in the background.
Google's PageSpeed Insights and GTmetrix are great resources for regularly checking your site's speed and fixing even the most complex issues.
Show Sufficient Social Proof
We humans are a skeptical bunch, especially when it comes to online purchases. Many brands fail to address this inherent wariness, leaving potential customers hesitant to engage.
Enter social proof, the solution to this common problem.
Social proof is all about showcasing your brand's trust and credibility by leveraging others' positive experiences. By employing this tactic, you're sending a clear message: "Hey, these people loved us, and you will too!"
- Testimonials: Share glowing quotes from satisfied customers. Add a name, title, and photo to make it even more convincing.
- Case studies: Highlight a few success stories that showcase how your product or service has made a tangible difference for clients.
- Ratings and reviews: Display aggregated ratings from trusted review platforms like Trustpilot or Google Reviews.
- Client logos: If you've worked with well-known clients or partners, showcase their logos to lend your brand some extra street cred.
You can also follow the approach from ShopSolarKits.com. This solar power systems supplier has about six different types of reviews/ratings/testimonials on their home page. However, the user-generated content (UGC) at the bottom of the page stands out as real proof of how their happy customers use their products.
Source: Shopsolarkits.com
Take Mobile Browsing Seriously
With the majority of web traffic now coming from mobile devices, a common problem brands face is delivering a subpar mobile experience. Ignoring mobile users is like turning your back on a treasure trove of potential customers.
Take mobile browsing seriously by implementing these best practices:
- Responsive design: Ensure your website adjusts seamlessly to different screen sizes and orientations. Google's Mobile-Friendly Test can help you assess your site's mobile-readiness.
- Touch-friendly navigation: Create large, easy-to-tap buttons and links that cater to users' fingers instead of mouse pointers.
- Legible text: Choose a readable font size and maintain sufficient contrast between text and background.
- Prioritize speed: As mentioned earlier, speed is crucial, especially for mobile users.
- Simplify forms: Keep forms short and simple, and use mobile-optimized input types for a smoother experience.
For more insights on mobile site design, check out resources like Adobe's Mobile Design Best Practices guide. By taking mobile browsing seriously, you'll capture the hearts (and thumbs) of your on-the-go audience.
Check out Headspace – a meditation and mindfulness tool. Their mobile website follows the company's branding and all of the tips for a great mobile user experience. It's fast, captivating, and doesn't overwhelm the user with unnecessary elements that might scare them off.
Source: Headspace.com
Strike a Good Balance When Discussing Your Product in Detail
Meet the classic homepage conundrum: too much information and jargon that overwhelm and confuse. On the other hand, there are those with too little that leave potential customers scratching their heads. Both are obviously very wrong.
As a growing, aspirational brand, striking the perfect balance between detail and simplicity is critical.
To achieve that, keep your product descriptions clear, concise, and focused on the most essential benefits. Avoid saturating your homepage with a barrage of technical terms, but do provide enough information to provoke interest and encourage further exploration.
Highlighting the main features and benefits of your product, along with a few key selling points, is the sweet spot. This approach keeps your homepage informative and engaging without overwhelming or underwhelming your audience.
In the following example, Trustshoring does that perfectly. This agency that outsources software developers provides just the right amount of information without being overly salesy. By striking this balance, they create an inviting environment that encourages potential customers to learn more about their offerings.
Source: Trustshoring.com
Be Bold With Your CTAs
Many brands are being too timid with their calls-to-action (CTAs), leading to missed conversion opportunities. You should respond to that weakness by being bold with your CTAs, making it easy for visitors to take the next step.
To achieve this, strategically place clear, eye-catching CTAs throughout your homepage. This could include buttons for signing up, scheduling a demo, or downloading a free resource. As visitors interact with different elements on your homepage, you want to ensure they always have an easy path to conversion.
Remember, your CTAs should be attention-grabbing and straightforward. Use compelling, action-oriented language and make your buttons stand out with contrasting colors. Prominent CTAs create a smooth user journey and make it incredibly simple for visitors to take the plunge and engage with your content.
Let's take a look at how SellerPlex does it. They manage finances, operations, and supply chains for online businesses, so it's a smart idea to give their visitors a way to quickly jump into the process of trying out their services. Notice how they have two easily-noticeable CTAs right on their homepage's first loading screen.
Source: Sellerplex.com
Final Thoughts
By following these tips, you'll elevate your homepage game and create a delightful user experience that keeps your audience coming back for more.
Remember, the key to success lies in balancing clarity, speed, social proof, mobile-friendliness, and bold CTAs, all while providing just the right amount of product detail.
So, go ahead, give your homepage the makeover it deserves, and watch your business flourish in the digital landscape.
What Makes A Great Law Firm Homepage?
Homepages need to make a strong impression on site visitors. A good homepage can convince a passing visitor to know more about your law firm, find more content you've created, or heed your calls to action.
In some cases, your homepage might even inform people's first impression of your law firm. In most cases, homepages represent who is behind the website, their goals, and what they can offer. So, ensuring it represents who you are and what you do is crucial for site-building, lawyer SEO, and law firm digital marketing.
So, where do you start? What are the things you should optimize to ensure your homepage reaps the best law firm ROI? Let's discuss:
5 Tips On Building The Best Law Firm Website Homepage
There are several ways to approach homepage building for law firm digital marketing. Not only should it be optimized for the SERPs, but it also has to look and feel great for great first impressions from audiences.
Here are a few key things you need to consider when designing and building your homepage:
Tip #1: Start With The Visuals
Remember, you want to make the best first impression. So, while visuals and design aren't direct SERP ranking factors, they have the power to attract and pique your audience's interest. After all, a homepage that looks outdated, buggy, and generally unpleasant to look at won't make your audience want to work with your law firm.
Before people even start reading your About Me, landing pages, and blogs, they'll first look at how your homepage looks. Homepages can give off a general vibe; they could look elegant, professional, or welcoming, depending on your design choices.
Make sure to check off the following:
- Color schemes
- Theme and page formatting
- Images
- Animations
- Branding (i.e., logo, signature color scheme, etc.)
- Important buttons and menus
Fortunately, most people can access pre-made site themes in various color schemes and designs. Whether you're building your page design from scratch or just using existing themes, you want to make sure it looks good, represents your law firm, and is easy for audiences to use.
Tip #2: Optimize User Experience
Aside from looking good, your homepage should also feel good to use. A slow, buggy, and hard-to-read homepage will turn people off. Likewise, if your page is hard to use, people might click off or find it challenging to get what they need.
That said, user experience should be considered in tandem with building visual design. For example, if some animations cause very slow loading speeds, you should prioritize user experience over visual design aspects. Likewise, it doesn't matter how good a theme looks if it is too heavy and is causing loading problems.
You also want to optimize your navigations, formatting, links, and buttons. The goal is to make sure people will have an easy time using your law firm's homepage. It won't matter how good your homepage looks if people struggle to use it.
Tip #3: Implement Lawyer SEO Keywords
Keywords make your homepage discoverable. If you ensure content quality and Lawyer SEO, your homepage can start climbing up the SERP rankings, bringing in more traffic, visibility, and lead generation opportunities for your law firm.
Additionally, using the right keywords ensures you attract the people you want to find your law firm. For example, if you're looking for employment law clients in California, you can use relevant and high-volume keywords to rank in the right SERPs. This targets people more likely to become your clients, attracting those who will best respond to your website, content, and landing pages.
Note that the optimal keywords for your law firm's homepage can change. Keywords can fall off, new keywords will come up, and you'll learn more ways to optimize your homepage. So, audit and test your homepage to monitor its performance and catch any problems before they affect your SEO.
Tip #4: Every Page On Your Website Should Be Accessible Through The Homepage
Think of your homepage as the central point of your website. If people look up your law firm on Google, it's the first thing they'll see. If they find you through a legal blog post, they'll click on your home button to learn more about you.
Hence, you want your website's crucial parts to be accessible from the homepage. You want people to easily access your landing pages, blogs, law firm information, and contact details. In short, users shouldn't have to dig around for the content they need.
The best and most organized way to do this is to have a navigational menu enabling people to jump to whatever page they want. You can also use tabs and drop-down menus to avoid any messiness. So, if someone needs something from your website, they could simply go to the homepage and get what they need quickly.
Tip #5: Ensure It Properly Represents Your Law Firm
As a general rule, you want people to understand what your website is about simply by looking at the homepage. This is a strategy used by every business and firm to ensure they make the strongest impression on site visitors.
While you can represent yourself in many ways, you must ensure people understand who you are, what you do, and what you can offer through your homepage. This means you should leave no room for people to assume your website is something other than a law firm with your specific goals.
For example, you can show that you are a California-based law firm who have successfully handled personal injury cases. In some cases, law firms will use statistics or show off previous high-profile cases they've previously handled. You can also use taglines, CTAs, an event promotion, etc.
Bottom-line
Every part of your law firm's website plays a crucial role in your digital marketing efforts. Your homepage, much like your landing pages and blogs, affects your SEO, law firm content marketing, and lead generation strategies.
Aside from ensuring you're building it right, you must continually manage, test, and audit its performance for more optimizations. Doing so will ensure you maintain rankings, stay up to date, and solve possible bugs and problems.
Author’s Bio
JC Serrano is the founder of 1000Attorneys.com, one of the very few private enterprises certified to process lawyer referrals by the California State Bar. His marketing strategies have continuously evolved since 2005, incorporating ever-changing SEO strategies into lawyerleadmachine.com.
5 Creative Ways to Display Your Products on a Homepage (with 7 Great Examples)
In the world of ecommerce, grabbing your audience’s attention is increasingly important. The sooner you can spark an interest, the more likely you’ll inspire a conversion.
In this post, we’ll look at creative ways to display your products on your homepage and ensure they get noticed.
Display Your Product Categories
If you offer more than one product, displaying your product categories on the homepage can be a great way to direct traffic. Some of your visitors may know exactly what they’re looking for, while others will want to browse and get to know your stock.
True, there’s always the menu, but people will always be more likely to click if the link looks inviting. Take a look at Real Thread and the way they’ve featured their categories. They are nestled under the Our Products heading and surrounded by captivating imagery.
Source: realthread.com
It’s a great choice if you also offer customization like this brand does. They have also featured their add-ons under the same heading.
Showcase the Benefits
A rule of ecommerce marketing you should always stick to: highlight the benefits of your products, as opposed to their features.
Customers will want to know what the purchase will be doing for them and how it will solve a problem. Those who want to learn more will always check out the Features page. But your homepage should do a good job of clinching a sale.
Hootsuite has done a marvellous job in this regard. They’ve described the benefits of using their product (a SaaS product, true, but you get the idea), and they’ve also added some social proof to underline their points.
Source: hootsuite.com
Add Some Social Proof
Speaking of social proof, using it on your homepage in the form of user-generated product images will certainly help boost the appeal of your stock.
No matter how well you shoot your products, shoppers will always want to see how others have used them, worn them, styled them, liked them. Your pro photos are there to show the product in the most realistic light. UGC photos serve to help a customer imagine using the product themselves.
Take a look at Isabella Oliver’s gallery of UGC images on their homepage. They all look highly professional, but they are still shot by their lovely customers. This instantly allows access to more diverse models and will highlight the items in an entirely new light.
Source: isabellaoliver.com
Show Your Most Popular Products
Your most popular products are popular for a reason. And since your target audience already likes them, it’s always a good idea to show them on your homepage. This will help those who have come across your brand for the first time get to know you better and make an inspired purchase.
To achieve the best effect, make sure to keep changing these products regularly. You don’t have to display a huge number of them, but to keep your page fresh and interesting, a bit of a switch-up can go quite a long way.
Impossible has a brief section on their homepage that displays their most popular products.
Source: impossible.co
It serves to demonstrate what customers can expect from their products and allow them to start their browsing process there.
Use a Video
Finally, you can choose to display your products or provide more information about them by using a video on your homepage.
Homepage videos, as well as product videos, are always a good idea. They can communicate value more effectively, and they always speak louder than the most professional images and copy combined.
As for the kind of product video you choose, the options are numerous. For one, you can show the manufacturing process of a product and tell a more meaningful story. This is what Purple did with great effect. Their video takes visitors behind the scenes and helps them become more invested in the purchase they’re about to make.
On the other hand, you can also try shooting a value-based video. It should still feature your products and showcase them as they are being used, but the video itself should go deeper than a product video. Born Primitive has done an amazing job here. Their homepage video features numerous products, provides motivation, and showcases the brand’s values.
Source: bornprimitive.com
Finally, Calendly showcases their product in action in a very creative way. This is a great choice if you’re selling a digital product. It will allow you to both do a product demo and highlight the benefits in a meaningful and digestible way.
Final Thoughts
Consider these options for displaying your products on your brand’s homepage, and test which option will work best for your audience. It may need some time to figure out which works best, so some A/B testing might be warranted.