Intro

There are many elements that make a truly high-performing website. However, perhaps the most important page of all is the homepage. This is the face of the website that greets many new visitors when they first get on your website.

That is why making the most of your homepage is so important for improving your SEO and conversions among other things. Hence, here’s how to create a homepage that successfully converts users in 2022.

Keep the design simple

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First of all, think about your website design. You can’t make your homepage get many conversions purely with the help of good content. The way it is designed and how that is in line with your website itself will be a determining factor as well. Here are some things to take care of when working on your website design:

• Keep it simple – There is no need to staff your homepage with numerous links, visuals, and content. This will only overwhelm users instead of encouraging them to explore your website. Try to keep your web design simple and focus on essential elements first.
• Remember visual branding – You likely have a visual branding strategy, so stick to it. Use the right colors, fonts, and branding elements. Moreover, think of your branding values (e.g. professionalism) and show that in your website design.
• Work with feedback – Get feedback from professional testers. Likewise, track user activity on your website and change your web design based on what you see. For example, if users tend to click on a specific button while ignoring others, then maybe you don’t need other buttons at all or need to change their position.

Improve loading speed

The next thing to think about is your website loading speed. We live in a time when users are used to fast Internet, so many of them expect your website to load quickly even if their connection is poor. While you can’t improve their connection quality, you can still do certain things that will improve your website loading speed.

With a better homepage loading speed, you can definitely expect more conversions. If the page loads quickly, site visitors will be more likely to keep browsing your website and exploring other pages. On the other hand, if the page loads slowly, there will be more frustrated users who will decide to leave as soon as they come.

Run tests to check your loading speed. Then, implement the right measures to improve it. Use images with smaller sizes. Simplify your web design. Writer shorter texts. Remove any unnecessary elements from the homepage. Maybe even check your web hosting services and see if the problem with poor loading speed comes from them.

Use the right keywords

It goes without saying that proper keyword research and active keyword usage are absolutely necessary for your website to rank well in search results. However, you should pay special attention to keywords when it comes to your homepage. Remember that this is the face of your website, so it needs to look the part.

The problem with many homepages is that they don’t explain what the website is for. How many times have you checked the homepage of a business website and found nothing about the business itself? Users need to understand what this company is about right away – and an important aspect of this are the keywords.

Perform keyword research and find the best keywords to use for your homepage as well as essential keywords to describe your business. Make a part of your homepage dedicated entirely to the introduction of the company in question while using relevant keywords. Likewise, use keywords in all the content on your homepage.

Add appealing visuals

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While you will need to use some text on your homepage, another type of content you will be using is visual. Images, videos, GIFs, infographics – all of these will be important for introducing your website to first-time visitors. In part, visuals are related to your web design, but they are also separate entities.

In other words, your visual content should work well with your web design. For example, if you are using a specific style of graphic design for your web design, you will likely want to use the same style for your infographics, charts, and animated videos. Make sure that placing your chosen visuals with your web design doesn’t look jarring.

As mentioned earlier, your visuals can also have an impact on your page loading speed. That’s why you should also make sure that your visual content isn’t too heavy and won’t be bringing down your page loading speed. Likewise, don’t overstaff your homepage with visuals to avoid overwhelming site users.

Write high-quality content

In addition to visual content, you also need to write textual content. This is by far one of the most important parts of your homepage because the text doesn’t just come as a single block but rather as many pieces of text here and there. For example, the first piece of text on your homepage will likely be a sentence describing your business, but you will also need to have segments later on where you describe the main functions of your business.

If you don’t know how to write high-quality content, you can get the help of experienced writers from the custom writing reviews site Best Writers Online. With their help, you can make the most of your homepage and improve your conversions without worrying too much about your own writing skills. Professional writers have the expertise to perfect all the text on your homepage and make it work towards a specific goal (i.e. increasing conversions).

Optimize for mobile use

While many users still access the Internet from desktop devices, more and more people are performing searches on the go. That’s why every major website today is optimized for mobile use – and so should be your website too. Otherwise, you will be missing out on many potential customers.

When a smartphone user searches for something online and accesses your website, they need to be greeted with a fully functional mobile version of your site. If they see the regular desktop version, they might not be happy to continue browsing your website and looking for the information they are interested in.

That’s exactly why mobile optimization is so important for conversions. Of course, it’s not just about your web design. For instance, ranking in mobile searches is a bit different from desktop searches, so you might have to target additional keywords as well. That being said, the most important aspect of mobile optimization is having a mobile version of your website.

Build a strong link profile

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Having a strong link profile is primarily an important aspect of SEO. However, your link profile also plays a role in UX and directly impacts conversions on your homepage. Here are the three types of links you need to have:

• Internal: Links on your website to other pages on your website. Use these to encourage users to continue browsing your website starting from your homepage. These links are important for navigation and can also help you increase average session time.
• External: Links on your website to other pages on other websites. Use these to back up your claims and quotes with sources. These will usually appear in regular content on your blog, but they can also be used on your homepage to an extent. Generally, you will want to reduce the use of such links on your homepage because they can encourage your site visitors to leave your website.
• Backlinks: Links on other websites to pages on your website. Backlinks help you get more traffic from other websites as well as improve the authority of your website and make it rank higher in search results. You can get backlinks with the help of guest blogging, through mentions in the media, and affiliate marketing among other things.

Include a single CTA

Remember how simplicity in web design is fundamental for your homepage? The same can be said for your Call to Action or CTA. You don’t need many CTAs to make your site visitors act. In fact, it’s much better to have a single CTA that you use multiple times throughout your homepage.

For instance, if you want users to purchase your products, your CTA can be something along the lines of, “Check out our product catalog!” It doesn’t necessarily have to be so direct, but you need to capture the essence of it – the action of visiting your product catalog and browsing it to find a product the user will want to purchase.

You can place this CTA as an action button at the beginning of your homepage and then in other places throughout your homepage. If you do want to have one more CTA, you can make it something simple and non-demanding (e.g. subscribing to your newsletter). Place it at the bottom of your homepage or maybe even in the footer so that it appears on all pages.

Final thoughts

All in all, making the most of your homepage is definitely an important step that will help you significantly improve your conversions. Use the tips in this article to help you create a homepage that will be the most effective at increasing conversions consistently.