November 18, 2025 • 21 mins
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You’ve got just three to five seconds to capture a visitor’s attention on your website. Miss that window, and they’re gone! In this episode, I share why so many homepages, despite looking beautiful, act like fancy doormats that fail to convert. Using real-world examples, I break down the strategic elements every homepage needs, from clear navigation and compelling headlines to calls to action and social proof, to turn browsers into buyers. I also highlight common mistakes business owners make when aesthetics outweigh strategy and share a quick-check framework to ensure your homepage passes the three-second test!
02:14 – Real-life restaurant website mistakes and missed opportunities
05:51 – Identifying your homepage’s primary purpose for maximum impact
07:20 – Crafting clear navigation and messaging for your ideal customer
10:33 - Common homepage mistakes to avoid (and what to do instead)
15:54 – What you can do today to improve your homepage
Links & Resources:
- Watch this episode on YouTube
- Follow me on Instagram @kristendoyle.co
- Check out my Everything Page: a one-stop shop for savvy selling!
- The Savvy Seller Collective
- Join my private Facebook community: Savvy Teacher Sellers
- More resources for growing your TPT business
- Rate & review The Savvy Teacher Seller on Apple Podcasts
Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode169
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Check out my Everything Page at https://kristendoyle.co/everything
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Kristen Doyle (00:00):
You have got three to five seconds. That's
it, three to five seconds,before a visitor decides whether
to stay on your website or golooking for someone else. Now I
know I've shared this statbefore, but it bears repeating,
because so many home pages I seeare basically just pretty
(00:21):
welcome mats that don't doanything to really hook people
in. Whether you are offeringcoaching services, or selling
teaching resources, or you're alocal brick and mortar, really
any kind of business, whensomeone lands on your homepage,
you have seconds to get themhooked before they disappear.
(00:41):
Today, I'm sharing somestrategic homepage elements that
actually convert those visitorsinto customers, plus the biggest
mistakes I see that are costingyou sales, including one from
one of my favorite localrestaurants that's doing so much
right inside their restaurant,but almost everything wrong on
their website.
(01:03):
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like Teachers PayTeachers, Etsy, or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno-fluff tools and strategies
(01:25):
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
in the process—things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
building, automations, and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.
As a web designer, I am alwayslooking at websites, probably
(01:47):
with different things in mindthan what the average user does.
So I see a lot of home pagesacross so many different
industries that are basicallyjust a pretty welcome mat that
doesn't do anything to reallyhook people in and get them to
start taking action in thatfirst three to five seconds.
(02:09):
For example, there is a localrestaurant near me that I
actually really love. It's oneof my family's favorite places
to go. But when I look at theirhome page, if I didn't already
know, it really is not superclear what they offer, and I
have no idea what to do. Infact, even as someone who
(02:31):
obviously uses a lot of websitesvery frequently, the first time
I ever went to their website, Iwas looking for their menu. See,
I had already been in to therestaurant and eaten there. I
knew we liked it, but we weregoing to place an order to pick
up, and I wanted to take a peekat their menu again and decide
what we wanted. And when I firstlanded on the page, I wasn't
(02:52):
even sure where to find theirmenu.
When you load their page, and ofcourse, I'm not going to share
who it is, but when you loadtheir website, at the very top
there is their logo and theirmenu. It's really, really small,
though, super hard to see, andsocial media links. That's what
you see at the very top in theirnavigation area. Then the entire
(03:14):
top of the homepage, before Iscroll is a picture that I know
is from their space. They havesome outdoor seating, and it's a
picture of their outdoor diningspace.
But the way the picture istaken, it's a really pretty
picture, I know why they choseit, but it's not clear what it
is. In fact, if I didn't know,just looking at that picture,
(03:35):
you wouldn't even be able totell it's a restaurant. So
without context, it's reallyhard to even tell what that
picture is supposed to betelling me. It says nothing
about the type of food theyserve or what I might experience
there. It is literally just apretty picture.
Over the top of that, theirrestaurant name is there, which
that is good and important, andthere is a tagline, kind of a
(03:58):
description of their space. Butto be honest, it's pretty vague.
There is nothing else, that'sliterally it until I scroll. And
once you do scroll, the onlything below that is the website
footer. Now it does includetheir phone number and their
address, which are superimportant, obviously, for a
local business, but that's it.
There is no super obvious linkto their menu or events they're
(04:21):
having, or anything like that,until you click on the menu
link.
The mobile version is evenworse. Because of that image and
the way it's positioned and thecoloring on it, you actually
can't even read a lot of thetext over the image on mobile.
(04:43):
So this is a website thatdefinitely could be doing a lot
better on the homepage.
And the reason I think that thishappens a lot of the time is
that businesses focus onaesthetics over the strategy.
See a lot of times when someonecomes to me as a client and is
ready to get their websiteredesigned, they want to
immediately talk about how theywant their site to look, and
(05:07):
they're checking to see if mydesign style lines up with the
vision they have for what theirsite's going to look like.
And that's a big mistake,because the strategy behind it
is so much more important thanhow it looks. And in reality,
most web designers are going tobe able to adapt to whatever
style you want, but the piecethat's often missing is that
(05:28):
strategy. See if they don'tunderstand the visitor behavior,
that three to five seconddecision window and what people
need to see in order to makethat decision, they end up
treating the homepage more likea brochure or a business card
instead of a conversion tool fortheir business.
So let's talk about how to fixthat problem, and we do that by
(05:52):
having some very strategicelements in place to drive
action right from your homepage.
The first thing that you need todo is identify your homepage's
primary purpose. So for yourbusiness, when people land on
your homepage, this is probablythe first time that they've
discovered you, what is the mostimportant thing for them to do?
(06:14):
That question drives the entirerest of your homepage.
So depending on your business,maybe that purpose, that one
action you need them to take isto get people to join your email
list, or some other way thatyou're trying to get their
information to generate leads.
Maybe you want them to book afree discovery call to work with
(06:36):
you. If you're a physicallocation, a local business,
maybe you are hoping to get foottraffic into your store, your
restaurant, whatever it is.
Maybe you are trying to getpeople to make a reservation or
an appointment with you or placeorders online. Maybe you need to
(06:58):
drive traffic to a shop ifyou're an e-commerce business.
Regardless of what your businessis, though, that primary purpose
needs to be identified beforeyou even think about what you
want your page to look like orwhat content goes on it, because
that primary goal is what driveseverything else about this page.
(07:19):
Then once you've figured outthat goal, it's time to create
those homepage elements that aregoing to drive the action you
want people to take. That startswith really clear navigation
options so that people can findwhat they want. That means the
menu at the top of your site,but it also means all the call
to action buttons throughout thepage. If you have multiple
(07:43):
service options or differentpaths for people to take, those
should be really clearlylabeled.
Back to our restaurant example,maybe those three paths for a
restaurant are making areservation, checking out the
menu or ordering online. If youare a digital product seller, it
(08:04):
might be three categories ofproducts that you sell, maybe as
a service provider, it's threedifferent levels of service that
you offer, or different types ofservices. However, you need to
do that for your business, youhave to have very clear
navigation for people to guidethem right to what they need.
Beyond those navigation buttons,the headlines and the text on
(08:27):
your page are what really isgoing to speak to your ideal
customer and draw them in toyour business. So you want to
make sure you're highlightingthe problem that you solve and
what that solution is that youoffer. You are including social
proof in the form of reviewspeople have left you,
testimonials, anything niceanyone has said about you.
(08:50):
And beyond everything else, besure that you avoid any generic
messaging. If the messaging youhave written could apply to
anyone in your industry or yourniche, then it's too generic,
and you need to get a lot morespecific about talking to your
ideal customer. Who are youtrying to draw in? Is it that
(09:14):
business owner who needs yourservices to grow her business?
Is it that teacher who isstruggling and needs your
resources to help them in theirclassroom? Is it that family
looking for a fun place to havea night out in your
neighborhood? Whatever it is,you need to speak to your exact,
(09:37):
specific ideal customer in thoseheadlines and the supporting
text throughout your page.
Sometimes, when I'm working withclients, I get pushback,
especially about what we'reputting in the navigation at the
top of the site and what we'reputting buttons for on the page.
In fact, I have been told veryrecently by one client that they
wanted to remove some thingsfrom the page because, "people
(10:01):
know," is what they told me.
People know where to go. If theywant this, they'll go in the
menu and get it.
But the reality is, people justdon't. Visitors to your website
need things to be so extremelyeasy that they don't have to
think about it or go hunting inyour menus or use a search
(10:21):
function to find the things thatthey want, because, like I said,
the truth is they just don't.
People need things to beextremely easy so that they
don't have to think about it.
Alright, let's talk about somehomepage mistakes to avoid.
(12:55):
Honestly, one of the biggestmistakes is the one that my
favorite restaurant makes, andthat is when people have their
hero section, that's that firstsection when you load the page,
they have it vertically take upthe entire page and there's no
good content in it.
In the restaurant example Ishared earlier, the background
(13:17):
image doesn't tell me much aboutthe restaurant. It's just a
pretty placeholder. The textdoes give me a little bit of a
hint, but there is no call toaction. This one's not quite as
bad, though, as anotherrestaurant in town. This one has
a video background. Now, there'snothing wrong with a video
background in general, but it isa full screen video of happy
(13:43):
people at tables, serversbringing food out, you know,
just some video that has beentaken in their restaurant. It's
obviously professional video. Itlooks fantastic.
But there is literally nothingon that video. So there are no
words at all on the page until Iscroll down. If I went to that
page, not knowing anything aboutthe restaurant. And in fact, the
(14:06):
first time I visited their site,this was me. It was a brand new
restaurant. I went to their pageand I saw a pretty video, and
that was it. And the name oftheir restaurant doesn't really
tell me much about what type offood they serve or anything like
that. So before I scrolled down,there was nothing to grab my
interest and make me want to gothere.
(14:26):
So I scrolled down some more,and there's great content below
that, but for people who are ina hurry, who aren't as tech
savvy, they may not even realizethey need to scroll because the
video takes up the entire topscreen. So this restaurant would
have done much better to have agood, solid headline, the name
of their restaurant, a subheadline that highlights what
(14:49):
type of place this is and whatkind of food they serve, and a
call to action for a restaurant,probably the call to action is
usually just a menu link so thatpeople can go check out your
menu.
Because if you think about it,that's the first thing people
usually want to know when theyget to a restaurant website is,
what kind of place is this? Whatkind of food do they have, and
how expensive is it? Becausethat's what we're thinking about
(15:11):
when we're looking forrestaurants. No one comes to
your restaurant website to watcha video or to look at your
pictures. And the same is truefor almost every other niche,
unless you're a photographer,maybe.
And that really leads us rightinto the second mistake, which
is missing the criticalinformation above the fold,
meaning before they have toscroll in that hero section. So
(15:34):
your site needs to have a clearheadline that says who you are,
and a sub headline that explainswhat you offer, and it needs a
call to action button rightthere, front and center.
Now the opposite problem that Isee is home pages that just
overload people with way toomuch information. And I think
(15:56):
this comes from a place of beingworried that people may not
click to other pages, and soyou're trying to show off
everything right on thehomepage, instead of guiding
people to their next step. Abetter approach is to simplify
and to streamline things basedon what your visitors need.
Now your homepage obviously doesneed to be a little different
(16:19):
depending on what type ofbusiness you have. So if you
sell digital products or you area coach, then you need to make
sure your homepage highlightswho you serve and the problem
that you solve for them. You'vealso got to make sure that you
build trust through putting sometestimonials, some social proof
(16:40):
on there, and there needs to bea very clear path, either to
purchasing your products orbooking your coaching services.
If you're a service provider,you still need to have that
problem solving focus, but youneed some really heavy trust
building elements. You need alot of social proof and a lot of
(17:00):
establishing your expertisethroughout the page. The other
thing that you definitely wantto make sure you don't forget
about as a service provider islinks over to your portfolio or
some case studies and some photoexamples of your work, if that
is something that applies to thetype of service that you offer.
Now, if you're a local business,it's a lot different. You don't
(17:21):
have to do as much trustbuilding, because people can
walk into your business, and youcan build trust that way. But
you do need to make sure yourlocation information is
prominent, your hours and yourcontact information are easy to
access and find, and then youneed to think about what goes on
this page to drive offlineactions, because people come to
(17:43):
your site looking forinformation, but you want to
move them from the website tothe business.
So in that case, that looks likean appointment scheduler so that
people can make theirappointment and show up at your
business for that appointment,or a reservation scheduling
system. Maybe it looks like amenu or very clear explanations
(18:05):
of what you offer when peoplecome in and what to expect. You
want to get people to move fromthe website to the business.
So regardless of what businessmodel you have, here is what I
want you to do today. Take a fewminutes to check your current
homepage against that three tofive second rule. Look at just
(18:25):
the section before you start toscroll, so that above the fold
section, and check it on mobileand desktop to see if your
headline clearly communicateswho you are and who you serve,
plus it has a good call toaction that lines up with your
website's primary purpose.
Now, before you can do that, ofcourse, you do have to identify
(18:46):
the primary purpose of yourhomepage based on your business
goals. So think about what isthat one most important action
that you want those first timevisitors to take? And then look
to make sure you have a clearheadline, not a generic one. You
have a value proposition in thatsub headline, what do you offer
to people? And you have that oneprimary call to action. Make
(19:08):
sure the entire page, includingyour menu navigation, is
intuitive for first timevisitors, and that they can
easily find what they needwithout having to hunt around.
And then double check make sureyour homepage isn't either
missing all the importantinformation or overwhelming
people with way too much. Youwant to be in that sweet spot in
the middle where it hooks peoplein, gets them interested and
(19:31):
excited, but doesn't quiteanswer all their questions until
they click on whatever link itis that you want them to click.
Keep in mind you have that threeto five seconds to hook a
visitor before they bounce andgo looking at your competition.
So your homepage can't just bethat pretty welcome mat. It
needs to be a strategic toolthat guides people to take
(19:52):
action.
So take that few minutes todayto audit your homepage using the
framework I shared, and try yourhardest to look at it through
the eyes of someone who's neverheard of you before, and see if
it passes that three secondtest. Because the truth is, if
your homepage isn't convertingvisitors, you are literally
watching sales walk out thedoor.
If this show was helpful for youtoday, then make sure that you
(20:16):
follow the show so you'll getnotified when new episodes are
live, and check back next week,where we talk some more about
creating that content for yourwebsite that really converts
visitors into customers.
While you're at it, if you havean extra second, I would really
appreciate it if you would rateor review the show wherever you
(20:36):
like to tune in. I'll talk toyou soon.
You have got three to five seconds. That's
it, three to five seconds,before a visitor decides whether
to stay on your website or golooking for someone else. Now I
know I've shared this statbefore, but it bears repeating,
because so many home pages I seeare basically just pretty
(00:21):
welcome mats that don't doanything to really hook people
in. Whether you are offeringcoaching services, or selling
teaching resources, or you're alocal brick and mortar, really
any kind of business, whensomeone lands on your homepage,
you have seconds to get themhooked before they disappear.
(00:41):
Today, I'm sharing somestrategic homepage elements that
actually convert those visitorsinto customers, plus the biggest
mistakes I see that are costingyou sales, including one from
one of my favorite localrestaurants that's doing so much
right inside their restaurant,but almost everything wrong on
their website.
(01:03):
Are you a digital product orcourse creator, selling on
platforms like Teachers PayTeachers, Etsy, or your own
website? Ready to grow yourbusiness, but not into the kind
of constant hustle that leadsstraight to burnout? Then you're
in the right place. Welcome toThe Savvy Seller. I'm Kristen
Doyle, and I'm here to give youno-fluff tools and strategies
(01:25):
that move the needle for yourbusiness without burning you out
in the process—things like SEO,no stress marketing, email list
building, automations, and somuch more. Let's get started,
y'all.
As a web designer, I am alwayslooking at websites, probably
(01:47):
with different things in mindthan what the average user does.
So I see a lot of home pagesacross so many different
industries that are basicallyjust a pretty welcome mat that
doesn't do anything to reallyhook people in and get them to
start taking action in thatfirst three to five seconds.
(02:09):
For example, there is a localrestaurant near me that I
actually really love. It's oneof my family's favorite places
to go. But when I look at theirhome page, if I didn't already
know, it really is not superclear what they offer, and I
have no idea what to do. Infact, even as someone who
(02:31):
obviously uses a lot of websitesvery frequently, the first time
I ever went to their website, Iwas looking for their menu. See,
I had already been in to therestaurant and eaten there. I
knew we liked it, but we weregoing to place an order to pick
up, and I wanted to take a peekat their menu again and decide
what we wanted. And when I firstlanded on the page, I wasn't
(02:52):
even sure where to find theirmenu.
When you load their page, and ofcourse, I'm not going to share
who it is, but when you loadtheir website, at the very top
there is their logo and theirmenu. It's really, really small,
though, super hard to see, andsocial media links. That's what
you see at the very top in theirnavigation area. Then the entire
(03:14):
top of the homepage, before Iscroll is a picture that I know
is from their space. They havesome outdoor seating, and it's a
picture of their outdoor diningspace.
But the way the picture istaken, it's a really pretty
picture, I know why they choseit, but it's not clear what it
is. In fact, if I didn't know,just looking at that picture,
(03:35):
you wouldn't even be able totell it's a restaurant. So
without context, it's reallyhard to even tell what that
picture is supposed to betelling me. It says nothing
about the type of food theyserve or what I might experience
there. It is literally just apretty picture.
Over the top of that, theirrestaurant name is there, which
that is good and important, andthere is a tagline, kind of a
(03:58):
description of their space. Butto be honest, it's pretty vague.
There is nothing else, that'sliterally it until I scroll. And
once you do scroll, the onlything below that is the website
footer. Now it does includetheir phone number and their
address, which are superimportant, obviously, for a
local business, but that's it.
There is no super obvious linkto their menu or events they're
(04:21):
having, or anything like that,until you click on the menu
link.
The mobile version is evenworse. Because of that image and
the way it's positioned and thecoloring on it, you actually
can't even read a lot of thetext over the image on mobile.
(04:43):
So this is a website thatdefinitely could be doing a lot
better on the homepage.
And the reason I think that thishappens a lot of the time is
that businesses focus onaesthetics over the strategy.
See a lot of times when someonecomes to me as a client and is
ready to get their websiteredesigned, they want to
immediately talk about how theywant their site to look, and
(05:07):
they're checking to see if mydesign style lines up with the
vision they have for what theirsite's going to look like.
And that's a big mistake,because the strategy behind it
is so much more important thanhow it looks. And in reality,
most web designers are going tobe able to adapt to whatever
style you want, but the piecethat's often missing is that
(05:28):
strategy. See if they don'tunderstand the visitor behavior,
that three to five seconddecision window and what people
need to see in order to makethat decision, they end up
treating the homepage more likea brochure or a business card
instead of a conversion tool fortheir business.
So let's talk about how to fixthat problem, and we do that by
(05:52):
having some very strategicelements in place to drive
action right from your homepage.
The first thing that you need todo is identify your homepage's
primary purpose. So for yourbusiness, when people land on
your homepage, this is probablythe first time that they've
discovered you, what is the mostimportant thing for them to do?
(06:14):
That question drives the entirerest of your homepage.
So depending on your business,maybe that purpose, that one
action you need them to take isto get people to join your email
list, or some other way thatyou're trying to get their
information to generate leads.
Maybe you want them to book afree discovery call to work with
(06:36):
you. If you're a physicallocation, a local business,
maybe you are hoping to get foottraffic into your store, your
restaurant, whatever it is.
Maybe you are trying to getpeople to make a reservation or
an appointment with you or placeorders online. Maybe you need to
(06:58):
drive traffic to a shop ifyou're an e-commerce business.
Regardless of what your businessis, though, that primary purpose
needs to be identified beforeyou even think about what you
want your page to look like orwhat content goes on it, because
that primary goal is what driveseverything else about this page.
(07:19):
Then once you've figured outthat goal, it's time to create
those homepage elements that aregoing to drive the action you
want people to take. That startswith really clear navigation
options so that people can findwhat they want. That means the
menu at the top of your site,but it also means all the call
to action buttons throughout thepage. If you have multiple
(07:43):
service options or differentpaths for people to take, those
should be really clearlylabeled.
Back to our restaurant example,maybe those three paths for a
restaurant are making areservation, checking out the
menu or ordering online. If youare a digital product seller, it
(08:04):
might be three categories ofproducts that you sell, maybe as
a service provider, it's threedifferent levels of service that
you offer, or different types ofservices. However, you need to
do that for your business, youhave to have very clear
navigation for people to guidethem right to what they need.
Beyond those navigation buttons,the headlines and the text on
(08:27):
your page are what really isgoing to speak to your ideal
customer and draw them in toyour business. So you want to
make sure you're highlightingthe problem that you solve and
what that solution is that youoffer. You are including social
proof in the form of reviewspeople have left you,
testimonials, anything niceanyone has said about you.
(08:50):
And beyond everything else, besure that you avoid any generic
messaging. If the messaging youhave written could apply to
anyone in your industry or yourniche, then it's too generic,
and you need to get a lot morespecific about talking to your
ideal customer. Who are youtrying to draw in? Is it that
(09:14):
business owner who needs yourservices to grow her business?
Is it that teacher who isstruggling and needs your
resources to help them in theirclassroom? Is it that family
looking for a fun place to havea night out in your
neighborhood? Whatever it is,you need to speak to your exact,
(09:37):
specific ideal customer in thoseheadlines and the supporting
text throughout your page.
Sometimes, when I'm working withclients, I get pushback,
especially about what we'reputting in the navigation at the
top of the site and what we'reputting buttons for on the page.
In fact, I have been told veryrecently by one client that they
wanted to remove some thingsfrom the page because, "people
(10:01):
know," is what they told me.
People know where to go. If theywant this, they'll go in the
menu and get it.
But the reality is, people justdon't. Visitors to your website
need things to be so extremelyeasy that they don't have to
think about it or go hunting inyour menus or use a search
(10:21):
function to find the things thatthey want, because, like I said,
the truth is they just don't.
People need things to beextremely easy so that they
don't have to think about it.
Alright, let's talk about somehomepage mistakes to avoid.
(12:55):
Honestly, one of the biggestmistakes is the one that my
favorite restaurant makes, andthat is when people have their
hero section, that's that firstsection when you load the page,
they have it vertically take upthe entire page and there's no
good content in it.
In the restaurant example Ishared earlier, the background
(13:17):
image doesn't tell me much aboutthe restaurant. It's just a
pretty placeholder. The textdoes give me a little bit of a
hint, but there is no call toaction. This one's not quite as
bad, though, as anotherrestaurant in town. This one has
a video background. Now, there'snothing wrong with a video
background in general, but it isa full screen video of happy
(13:43):
people at tables, serversbringing food out, you know,
just some video that has beentaken in their restaurant. It's
obviously professional video. Itlooks fantastic.
But there is literally nothingon that video. So there are no
words at all on the page until Iscroll down. If I went to that
page, not knowing anything aboutthe restaurant. And in fact, the
(14:06):
first time I visited their site,this was me. It was a brand new
restaurant. I went to their pageand I saw a pretty video, and
that was it. And the name oftheir restaurant doesn't really
tell me much about what type offood they serve or anything like
that. So before I scrolled down,there was nothing to grab my
interest and make me want to gothere.
(14:26):
So I scrolled down some more,and there's great content below
that, but for people who are ina hurry, who aren't as tech
savvy, they may not even realizethey need to scroll because the
video takes up the entire topscreen. So this restaurant would
have done much better to have agood, solid headline, the name
of their restaurant, a subheadline that highlights what
(14:49):
type of place this is and whatkind of food they serve, and a
call to action for a restaurant,probably the call to action is
usually just a menu link so thatpeople can go check out your
menu.
Because if you think about it,that's the first thing people
usually want to know when theyget to a restaurant website is,
what kind of place is this? Whatkind of food do they have, and
how expensive is it? Becausethat's what we're thinking about
(15:11):
when we're looking forrestaurants. No one comes to
your restaurant website to watcha video or to look at your
pictures. And the same is truefor almost every other niche,
unless you're a photographer,maybe.
And that really leads us rightinto the second mistake, which
is missing the criticalinformation above the fold,
meaning before they have toscroll in that hero section. So
(15:34):
your site needs to have a clearheadline that says who you are,
and a sub headline that explainswhat you offer, and it needs a
call to action button rightthere, front and center.
Now the opposite problem that Isee is home pages that just
overload people with way toomuch information. And I think
(15:56):
this comes from a place of beingworried that people may not
click to other pages, and soyou're trying to show off
everything right on thehomepage, instead of guiding
people to their next step. Abetter approach is to simplify
and to streamline things basedon what your visitors need.
Now your homepage obviously doesneed to be a little different
(16:19):
depending on what type ofbusiness you have. So if you
sell digital products or you area coach, then you need to make
sure your homepage highlightswho you serve and the problem
that you solve for them. You'vealso got to make sure that you
build trust through putting sometestimonials, some social proof
(16:40):
on there, and there needs to bea very clear path, either to
purchasing your products orbooking your coaching services.
If you're a service provider,you still need to have that
problem solving focus, but youneed some really heavy trust
building elements. You need alot of social proof and a lot of
(17:00):
establishing your expertisethroughout the page. The other
thing that you definitely wantto make sure you don't forget
about as a service provider islinks over to your portfolio or
some case studies and some photoexamples of your work, if that
is something that applies to thetype of service that you offer.
Now, if you're a local business,it's a lot different. You don't
(17:21):
have to do as much trustbuilding, because people can
walk into your business, and youcan build trust that way. But
you do need to make sure yourlocation information is
prominent, your hours and yourcontact information are easy to
access and find, and then youneed to think about what goes on
this page to drive offlineactions, because people come to
(17:43):
your site looking forinformation, but you want to
move them from the website tothe business.
So in that case, that looks likean appointment scheduler so that
people can make theirappointment and show up at your
business for that appointment,or a reservation scheduling
system. Maybe it looks like amenu or very clear explanations
(18:05):
of what you offer when peoplecome in and what to expect. You
want to get people to move fromthe website to the business.
So regardless of what businessmodel you have, here is what I
want you to do today. Take a fewminutes to check your current
homepage against that three tofive second rule. Look at just
(18:25):
the section before you start toscroll, so that above the fold
section, and check it on mobileand desktop to see if your
headline clearly communicateswho you are and who you serve,
plus it has a good call toaction that lines up with your
website's primary purpose.
Now, before you can do that, ofcourse, you do have to identify
(18:46):
the primary purpose of yourhomepage based on your business
goals. So think about what isthat one most important action
that you want those first timevisitors to take? And then look
to make sure you have a clearheadline, not a generic one. You
have a value proposition in thatsub headline, what do you offer
to people? And you have that oneprimary call to action. Make
(19:08):
sure the entire page, includingyour menu navigation, is
intuitive for first timevisitors, and that they can
easily find what they needwithout having to hunt around.
And then double check make sureyour homepage isn't either
missing all the importantinformation or overwhelming
people with way too much. Youwant to be in that sweet spot in
the middle where it hooks peoplein, gets them interested and
(19:31):
excited, but doesn't quiteanswer all their questions until
they click on whatever link itis that you want them to click.
Keep in mind you have that threeto five seconds to hook a
visitor before they bounce andgo looking at your competition.
So your homepage can't just bethat pretty welcome mat. It
needs to be a strategic toolthat guides people to take
(19:52):
action.
So take that few minutes todayto audit your homepage using the
framework I shared, and try yourhardest to look at it through
the eyes of someone who's neverheard of you before, and see if
it passes that three secondtest. Because the truth is, if
your homepage isn't convertingvisitors, you are literally
watching sales walk out thedoor.
If this show was helpful for youtoday, then make sure that you
(20:16):
follow the show so you'll getnotified when new episodes are
live, and check back next week,where we talk some more about
creating that content for yourwebsite that really converts
visitors into customers.
While you're at it, if you havean extra second, I would really
appreciate it if you would rateor review the show wherever you
(20:36):
like to tune in. I'll talk toyou soon.
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