Reminder: What is the purpose of a website homepage
Before starting creating the homepage, it is essential to know its purpose. As we just mentioned, your website homepage is often the first page your potential customers will see. You only have a few seconds to convince them to stay on your site and visit the other sections. Consequently, your website must look credible and professional. If not, they will leave.
The homepage is also a summary of all your website. From this page, people can see where they can find the information they are looking for.
6 Mistakes to avoid when creating your website homepage
Since the homepage is often the most important page of your website, there are great chances that you must spend more time working on it. Here are a few mistakes to avoid to create a successful homepage for your website.
We do not know the topic of your website
The first mistake to avoid is not presenting your business or your website's topic on the homepage. One of the essential purposes of homepages is to show what your site is about. If you do not answer this in the first line, people who discover your website will not be able to see if you can meet their needs.
When you create pages for your website, you need to follow some rules. The most important information must be easy to find. It could be relevant to add them at the top of your homepage. Ask yourself what questions your visitors or potential customers could ask themselves when they visit your site. Then, make sure to display the answers.
There are images of poor quality
An image is worth a thousand words! If you use pictures that are blurry or of poor quality on your website homepage, it will harm your credibility. Look at professional websites you visit regularly. You will quickly see that they mostly all use beautiful images.
But what can you do to have beautiful photos for your website when you do not have the money to hire a professional photographer? There are many options. First, if you have a smartphone, you could try taking pictures yourself. Many tools can also help you edit photos too if needed. Also, it is possible to use image banks to find images that will meet your needs. Some image banks are free, while others require a fee.
There is no consistency
What components can help you create a successful website? Consistency can surely help you have a professional-looking website homepage. Consistency is the fact of always using some elements for the same reasons. For example, you should always use the same font or color for the call-to-action buttons or titles. By doing so, it will stand out from the rest of the website.
When there is no consistency, your visitors will have issues finding what they are looking for. It is then essential to think about this when creating your website homepage. Consequently, think about not using more than three main colors and two fonts on your website.
There are too many components
In the same vein, another mistake to avoid is to add too many components to your homepage. It is vital to have enough information so Google can understand the topic of your page, but you likely have noticed that the most trendy websites are now refined. Consequently, stay simple. You do not have to add 30 images to your website homepage for your visitors to understand what your site is about.
Every visual component you add has a weight. When you add too many elements, it can be more difficult for your visitors to find the information they are looking for. Moreover, you do not have to add all your site's content directly to the homepage. The main purpose of a website homepage is to provide a summary and invite people to discover the other pages and sections. Regarding this, think about using call-to-action buttons to improve your website browsing experience.
The website homepage is too slow to load
Another frequent mistake regarding website homepages is that they are slow to load. Besides harming your SEO, the more a page will be slow to open, the higher the chances your visitors will leave your site. In fact, the homepage should open in just a few seconds.
But what can make a website homepage slow to load? Most of the time, it is because there are too many components, especially pictures. If needed, think about using an image compressor or choose photos in the JPG format since they are lighter than PNG files. Finally, ask yourself if all the components on your website homepage bring value to your site. If you want to check your homepage loading speed, you can use tools like Google’s PageSpeed Insights.
The homepage is not optimized for search engines
The website homepage remains the most important page of your site, and it is also the case regarding SEO. When you look for something on Google, it is often the homepages that are displayed in the search results. If you do not take the time to optimize the homepage for search engines, you will surely miss many opportunities.
So, where should we begin? First, we should find the most important keywords on your homepage. It can be in the titles or the texts. Then, think about choosing a Header Tag (H1) as the main title of the homepage. It will be time to look at the title tag and meta description when it is done. It is the title and description you find in the search results. Use the most relevant keywords once more and shortly describe your products or services. The title tag should not have more than 60 characters, while the meta description can have up to 250.
In conclusion, when you create your website, take all the time necessary to build a beautiful-looking homepage that will guide your visitors. By avoiding these mistakes, you will increase your chances of success. If you want to sell your products on the internet, take a look at 7 Mistakes to avoid when creating your online store. Good luck!