Is Your Homepage Driving Away Customers?

6 questions small & medium businesses should be asking?

Your Homepage is the front door to your online world. You don't want it to be confusing, vague & sluggish. Homepages are meant to drive action, but if visitors are not clear on what you do and who it is for, you are losing money.??

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In my years of working with small & medium businesses, I have seen several falling into this trap. They want to share everything with potential customers. Often it is driven by a fear that the rare visitor would depart not knowing the company provides a particular product or a specific service (we do this & have that & pretty much everything you are looking for...).

This however is?counter-productive. Resulting in exactly what the business didn't want in the first place – driving away the customer.?

So what should you do?

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6 questions you should ask yourself if you are looking to optimize your homepage.?

1) If your ideal customer only reads the hero section, would they say, "This product is built for me"

?If not, you’ll make visitors wonder if they are in the right place.

2) If your ideal customer only reads the hero section, would they understand what the product does?? ?

If not, you’re creating friction for the main reason people read homepages, viz. -?To figure out what the company does.? ?

3) Within the first two scrolls, would a visitor know what problem you're solving?? ?

If not, you’re missing an opportunity to build trust.?You want them nodding along, saying: “Wow, that’s exactly what we’re struggling with”.? ?

4) If visitors skimmed only the headlines, could they explain the product to a peer?? ?

If not, you’re preventing word of mouth from happening.?People have short attention spans; they will not read everything on the page. Make it easy to get the basics.? ?

5) If a prospect only scanned the images in each section, would they have a good idea of what the product is and what it does?? ?

If not, you’re making it harder for visitors to absorb the information.?When paired with clear messaging, the images help visually reinforce your copy's arguments.? ?

6) If a non-ideal prospect read the hero section, would they think the product might be for them and scroll down to check?? ?

If they do, you’re not being clear enough with your positioning.?Strong positioning with clear copy should filter out these bad-fit prospects immediately.?

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(Source: Robert Kaminski, Fletch, LinkedIn post, 2024)? ?

Try it out?

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Have a look at the hero section of this website – eyecareleaders.com. The first one is a screenshot from 2022 & the other one is the most recent one (2024). Based on the above questions, what would your review be???

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You are not alone?

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The challenge to create a clear concise homepage isn't limited to small & medium businesses. Large firms struggle too. However, on account of their size, brand awareness & at times longevity, potential customers might already be aware of what they do. A luxury smaller firms don't have.?

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Here is an example of Airtable.com , a $11 billion valuation, cloud based software providing easy to use databases. Here is what they had on their hero section on their homepage in 2021 (source: Anthony Pierri, Fletch, in the article 'The Ultimate Guide to Homepages')?

If you just saw this picture, would you know what the company did?

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And here is the hero section from their homepage now (2024)?

Some templates you could use?

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This is one provided by MKT1. It explains clearly how to go about positioning yourself on the homepage.?

A simpler template shared by Anthony Pierri (FLETCH) is an example from a company called eWebinars?

Your homepage isn't your company wiki.

It is a marketing asset & you need to treat is as such. Its sole purpose is to drive action. Be it to request a demo, sign up, log in, navigate to help content or purchase. ?

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And you know website visitors have attention spans of a bird. So if your homepage lacks clarity and doesn't tell them what your product is, who it is for, what problem it solves, why it is better than other options – and all of this fast, drop everything and fix it! You can thank me later.?

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References?

?A)?Robert Kaminski, Fletch, LinkedIn post, 2024 -?6 Questions to Test Your Homepage Clarity?

B)?Anthony Pierri, Fletch, in the article 'The Ultimate Guide to Homepages'??

C) Emily Kramer, MKT1, in the article - 'How to create a more effective homepage'?

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