Five Tips for Maximizing Your New Home Page

Work on the call to action first – once you decide what it is, it can sometimes help you focus your writing and other home page content more effectively.

Second, connection information. This can be a phone number in the header, or a contact form, map or location address in the footer. Don’t forget to include links to your social networks so visitors can connect that way if they choose. Give them a way to subscribe to your blog too, either by RSS feed or email.

Third, newsletter registration form. If you have a newsletter (and if you’re a business, you should consider it) most email services like MailChimp and Constant Contact will provide you with a little snippet of code that you can use on your website to create a signup form.

Fourth, images. Especially if your business is design, architecture, interior design or anything that you can take a photo or screenshot of, show off on the home page. Include images of your best work in a slider or slideshow placed high up in the content. If you’re a photographer, consider showing a series of gallery thumbnails that link to your portfolio deeper in the website.

If you’re not a designer, no worries. Carefully chosen and appropriate stock images can help add a lot of visual interest, just don’t go overboard, and be thoughtful about what the image(s) you choose mean. How do they represent your business and its personality?

Finally (and this shouldn’t even need to be mentioned) – clean navigation that’s very simple to follow with a site architecture that doesn’t involve too many clicks to get to any page. This is a given, not an afterthought.

Hopefully these tips will help you get focused when it comes to the sometimes daunting task of putting together an effective home page! If you need more ideas, contact Red Kite.