What to Put On Your website Homepage: 11 Elements to Consider

What should you put on your homepage? That’s a question that many people ask when trying to design their homepage. It’s generally the first thing that people land on when they find your page, so it’s pertinent that you include all of the crucial elements that will draw your visitors in, keep them on the page and lead them to other parts of the website. So, what should you include?

11 Elements to Create an Awesome Homepage

A strong first impression is everything, so you need to draw your visitors in right from the start and you can start by including these 11 elements on your page.

1. STRONG HEADLINES ARE IMPORTANT:

Using strong headlines is so important for drawing in your readers. Headlines and headers tags are important for boosting your SEO rankings. It’s important to remember that there are six different heading HTML tags: <h1>, <h2>, <h3>, etc. While these are all important, the h1 tag is considered the most important tag in a search engine’s ranking and will appear as the largest heading on the homepage.

So, what should this headline do? Well, your h1 tag should describe what the page or blog post is about. It gives the reader a sense of what they are going to be reading on the page, so ensure that it is a good one. Not only does this help out the visitor by letting them know what they will be reading, but it helps search engines to better crawl your website.

2. DO YOU HAVE SUCCINCT SITE NAVIGATION?:

It is important that your visitors don’t have to search too much for the information that they are looking for, so keep it simple to find. Studies show that a website’s navigation is among the first and most frequently viewed areas. People are busy, and they don’t want to waste time navigating through clunky navigation. If your homepage is hard to navigate, imagine what the rest of your site will be like. With this type of mindset, they will be likely to leave and check out your competitors.

Keep in mind that good navigation isn’t just about having an easy-to-use menu bar that is consistent on all pages. Discovering how people use your website will help you create “paths” that can show important sales information on your product and services.

3. HAVE A CLEAN LOGO:

A logo is one of the most important things that you can design for your advisory firm. It is something that stands out, and a lot of the time, it is what people most remember about your firm. It is so important to have a clear and clean logo, that makes your business appear professional and leaves a lasting impression in the minds of both prospective and current clients. If you do not have a strong image, it’s blurry or the colors look off-brand, then this can really set the tone for your site before someone even dives into your website.

Some of the factors that stand out initially when designing a logo for your financial planning firm are color, size, font, and the industry. It’s important to convey the brand and message that you are all about. What makes your business unique? How will you stand out from the competition? What do you want people to remember about your firm?

Some important things to remember when creating your logo are:

• Top-left is often a good spot to put your logo
• Make sure the logo stands out
• Remember that less is more
• Make it timeless

Twenty Over Ten client, Reynolds Financial Advisors has a clean logo located on the top left-hand corner of their website that stands out easily against the solid, dark background. Their logo is unique and memorable, especially with the RFA and the crossed golf clubs.

4. MAKE SURE YOUR HERO IMAGE IS INTRIGUING:

Studies show that visually appealing stimuli are an incredibly important tool for getting people to stay longer on a site and therefore converting more visitors into customers.

With this in mind, a hero image is often the first thing that visitors see when they visit your advisor site, so obviously, you want it to really stand out. Some important things to keep in mind when designing your image are:

• Capturing a visitor’s attention
• Remember that a high-resolution image will entice visitors to keep exploring your site
• Good design will influence a visitor’s opinion
• A strong hero image can keep visitors interested and establish trust

You can also include calls to action on your hero image, which is another great way to entice visitors to take the next step. Also, some themes that you can use for your image are potentially, the backdrop of a city where you are located, something around the theme of your business, real images of pictures of your team, etc. Be sure to avoid stock photos, as it’s important to use things that bring about genuine and relatable feelings.

Twenty Over Ten, INPAC Wealth Solutions has four different locations in Hawaii and the beauty of the scenery is captured in this hero image.

5. INCLUDE AN EASY TO FIND AND STRONG CALL TO ACTION:

When you include a call to action on your homepage, then immediately your visitors will see what next step they need to take. If your homepage doesn’t have one, then it is missing a very important step when it comes to attracting more visitors. What is a call to action? Well, it’s a text or a graphic strategically placed on a website to entice visitors to take a proactive step in engaging with your business.

It should consist of a short phrase that creates a sense of urgency. An example that you could have on your homepage would be as simple as a “Schedule a Meeting” button or “Download a Whitepaper” or tell people to subscribe to your newsletter. So, what are some of the best practices for creating a strong CTA? They should :

• Be large enough without being distracting
• Be visually eye-catching that compels the visitor to take action
• Be straightforward
• Be placed in an easy to find location
• Use action-oriented using verbs
• Show the user how they will benefit from clicking

Having this on your website is such a great to start the process of driving visitors right off the bat, so be sure to include them on your homepage.

Twenty Over Ten client, Opulus, has a strong call to action on the homepage that easily stands out. Directly under the tagline and on the hero image, it says, “Put Your Dreams Back Into The Picture,” which once clicked, it takes the visitors to a calendar where leads can pick a day and time.

6. CAN YOUR BLOG SECTION BE FOUND?:

Content is king, and you need to be creating killer content to draw traffic and boost your rankings. In this day and age, blogging is no longer something that you should have but rather something that your site needs.

78% of consumers prefer getting to know a company via articles rather than ads.

-Lyfe Marketing

With those types of numbers, you can really see why it’s so important to include a way to get to blogs from your homepage. When you are blogging be sure that you are able to:

• Convey your personality
• Keep it consistent
• Write about your niche

Keep it simple, write about what you know and ensure that you are regularly updating it, and it’s easy to locate from the homepage.

7. INCLUDE CONTENT THAT IS IMPORTANT TO YOUR NICHE GOALS ABOVE THE FOLD:

“Above the Fold,” generally refers to the portion of the website where a visitor can view things without any further scrolling. Since you have a very limited amount of time to draw in your audience, it’s important that you include pertinent information in this section of your homepage.

8. SOCIAL PROOF IS IMPORTANT:

This is where people copy the actions of others in an attempt to understand or undertake behavior in a given situation. It plays a  role in marketing and it can boost the effectiveness of your marketing strategy.

In situations where someone doesn’t exactly know what to do or they don’t know a lot about the subject, they assume those that are around them have more knowledge about what’s going on and what should be done. Some examples of how to include this on your homepage include:

• Client logos or customer stories
• Certifications your firm has
• Any awards or accolades you have received
• Press Hits
• Mentions or Reviews

This is a great time to “brag” a bit about yourself. Show your audience right off the bat how great you are and why they should work with you!

In the above image, Kyle Moore, CFP? included the publications that have mentioned the firm on the website for Quarry Hill Advisors. This is a great way to help your site to rank higher in the future, as visitors will see that these large publications found your firm credible enough to link back to their website. Additionally, if you join financial organizations, that is a great way to gain credibility and become even more established in the industry. You can network with others in the industry and really get your name out there and continue to grow.

9. SEARCH FUNCTION IS IMPORTANT:

If your website has a large number of pages, then you should offer a search function on your homepage. This is a convenient shortcut for your visitors enabling them to easily discover content without a need for navigation.

10. USE STRONG KEYWORDS TO BOOST SEO:

Using keywords gives your homepage the SEO boost it needs. Include words that pertain to your niche so that when people type those words into the search engine, your website is more likely to show up.

To optimize your homepage for search, place keywords:

• In your title tag
• In your headline
• In your menu items (where appropriate)
• Within the page’s copy where it makes for natural language
• “Behind” your images (as alt img tags)
• In the meta description, which will be the snippet for your homepage

It’s important to remember that you don’t use too many keywords though, which is known as “keyword stuffing” and can come off as spammy, which makes your website rank lower.

11. INCLUDE A FOOTER:

Like your header, the footer of your homepage is likely to be a standard feature all across your website. You’ll want to create a footer and carefully consider the elements it contains.

Leading contenders for inclusion in your footer include:

• Contact information
• Maps and/or locations
• Social media icons and widgets
• Email signup form
• Galleries
• Badges (remember social proof?)
• Blog post digests
• A final call to action

Twenty Over Ten client, Lucid Wealth Planning includes a footer with their contact information, social media icons and a CTA to “Schedule A Time To Chat.” The footers can be more in-depth or simple and to the point like this one, which includes everything that you need, it’s just whatever works best for your site.

Does Your Homepage Have What it Takes?

A strong first impression is everything, so you need to draw your visitors in right from the start and you can start by including these 11 elements on your page.