Make a great first impression with these helpful tips
Long before my love affair with content marketing came my love of the internet. The days of 56K modems didn’t even deter my desire to experience a number of different websites; ones designed specifically for entertaining or educating, hosting topics from modern music to quantum physics. The tiny computer screen was my door to endless knowledge.
Throughout my years surfing the web, I have come across sites that I visit regularly, and ones that were truly disappointing. The disappointing ones were typically designed poorly and had awful content on them. Needless to say, I stopped visiting those disappointing sites and honestly don’t even remember their names.
Make your website memorable
Why were those websites designed so poorly? I have asked myself that question many times. I assumed even then, that if someone was going to take the time and effort to create a website, shouldn’t it be done correctly, in a manner that will encourage visitors to return? Then again, during that time the internet was so new. Web design was in its infancy and best practices weren’t yet established.
However, there is no excuse for it nowadays. There are a slew of best practices for web designers, many of which focus on the homepage design. As you may know, we here at the Mequoda Group have created a Website Design Scorecard. It’s comprised of 14 Guidelines, which of course is not a complete list of best practices, but an essential set for effective design that will satisfy visitors and encourage them to return for your content.
[text_ad]
4 Essentials in Website Homepage Design
Website Homepage Design Tip #1: Strategic Intent – You need direction for your website. If you want a visitor to sign up for a free email newsletter, click on a sponsored advertisement or even sign up for a paid membership, you need it to be perfectly clear to them. Entice them with a clear message and a clear design.
Website Homepage Design Tip #2: Content Webification – Design your website so your visitors know they’re on the internet. The internet isn’t like any other medium; not print, TV or radio. Take your content and make it compatible to the World Wide Web. We like to call this process “webification”. Offer videos, audio and other digital platforms for repurposing content that your audience will enjoy.
Website Homepage Design Tip #3: Relationship Building – Speak with your audience. Show them that you want to start a relationship with them and make it easy for them to sign up for your email list. Pay close attention to the language you use to convert visitors into subscribers. Your message needs to resonate with them.
Website Homepage Design Tip #4: Community Building – Do you encourage interaction between users and editors? How about between users? Doing so will help the number of subscribers and visitors increase, and will help relationships grow as your community gets stronger.
Those four website homepage design tips are just the beginning. For more on proper website homepage design and the chance to receive a website makeover from Nancy Horan and the Mequoda Design Team, register now for our upcoming Website Homepage Design Workshop Webinar. Only three websites will be chosen for makeovers, so don’t delay in signing up.
I totally agree with your points here. In fact I practically prosletize them in my book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website’s Home Page and How To Fix Them!, available on Amazon. The only one I didn’t mention was “Content Webification,” which is a really good one. Making your content “webby” helps visitors engage more with your website. Thanks for reminding me.
😉 Carma