Building a website from scratch is time-consuming and it requires investing thought and consideration before all. There are important decisions to be made and choosing might just be your main activity. The most important part of a website is its home page. If you are just starting then you should know that it’s the face of your whole concept, idea, and aim.
What people will see when they click on a link in the first moment of their decision – do they want to stay there or will they bounce right away. This is usually a combined feeling of a lot of mistakes that can be made in the design of a website. However, there are a few mandatory things you have to include on your website home page if you want to keep users there.
And just quick advice about the responsiveness of your website. Regardless of what it is about, how people find it through different devices is one of the most crucial matters to think about. That’s why if you are going with WordPress hosting service you need to choose the right theme for that.
Of course, we have to point out that what your website is actually about, is the driving power to the consistency of the home page. If you are creating an online shop, you’ll have more CTAs, you are creating a blog you probably will have links to previous posts, photos, and sidebars. If it is a business website then you need more information about yourself and your services. But trying to look above the theme of it, here are the most important parts of a website home page.
Questions You Need to Answer:
Who Are You?
On your home page, you absolutely need to tell what is your business, product, or website about. This is important whether you are creating a blog, e-commerce, or anything really. It can be a sentence or a paragraph. It can be a photo or a logo with a slogan. Whatever you choose to present yourself, make sure people know who they are about to deal with.
What Are You Selling?
Are you selling your thoughts, services, products, or information? Whatever it is, tell it. Make sure it’s visible and easy to understand. For user-friendliness we’ll talk in the next paragraph, but still – know your most important information, position it clearly and leave no doubt about what you are providing and what your website is about.
Elements You Need to Include
Headline and Sub-headlines
The headline is the first thing that people see and they use about three seconds to read it and decide if they are interested enough to stay longer. So, for your website home page, you need a powerful headline that is simple, intriguing, and at the same time informative.
Sub-headlines are important for second reads and understanding the concept of what is hidden in the body of your page. Furthermore, it is loved by Google and works great for SEO.
Image
The design and the positioning of the elements of your website and your main page depend on you. However, there are a few things you can take in mind to make sure you are absolutely user-friendly. The size of an image is usually very big or not big at all. People choose to lean on great photographs and colors, or the opposite – simplicity, clarity, and text.
It also depends on the theme of your website, but an image is necessary 100% due to the fact that most people are visual and are triggered by what they see. Avoid basic stock photos and try those that capture emotions and create ones.
Navigation
I will combine here the sidebars, main menus, categories – everything you will use to navigate people on your website. The user experience should be one of the most important for you. If you don’t provide an easily understandable and guidable website, they will simply increase your bounce rate, exiting your home page.
Make sure you create menus that are visible at the top of the page, and website viewers can easily find what they are looking for. Don’t send them all around different pages that they don’t know the way out of – because they’ll find the X pretty fast.
Call to Action Buttons
This is an if matter. The basics of your website will tell you if you need to include buttons on your home page. For example, an e-commerce needs Buy Now, Order, Sign in, or whatever else you choose. A business website can have to Learn More, Contact, or other. But on a blog, you can mostly see Subscribe button, and that’s if you are sending emails.
It could be a website home page without call-to-action buttons but it would be best for you if there is a direction for your users. A clear and exact actions they need to make.
Header and Footer
The header is the strip across the top of your page that most of the time consists the logo, name, heading and sometimes main menu and navigation. It could be just with your logo, or with a photo – it all depends on you, but it is necessary to have a header and use it for all of your web pages.
The footer of a website home page is quite bigger than the header. It needs fine print, copyright notices, quick access links and/or contact information.
The Body
After listing all of the important elements for a website home page, the only thing left is the body of it. The content between the header and footer contains advantages you have over your competition, benefits, proof of your work, latest posts, or the most important content of your website gathered in bullet points in a responsive and attractive design that makes people not only stay on your home page but also look around your website.