I’m betting I know what you’d prefer …
The concierge-style home page
Given a choice, you’d much rather have a homepage that acts like a concierge, albeit one you don’t have to pay a salary.
You’d like a home page that:
- Makes your visitors feel welcome and appreciated.
- Guides your visitors to what they need.
- Helps them get what they want — when they want it.
- Leaves them with a smile on their face, and a great feeling about your business.
How to know if your homepage is a bouncer
If your home page behaves like a bouncer, visitors feel unwelcome. They don’t know the ground rules. They might be pulled out of line at any moment and sent back to where they came from.
Not good.
Related: How to Start an Online Business and Conquer its #1 Challenge
Entice, enable and engage with a winning homepage
Creating a website home page that behaves more like a concierge isn’t that difficult, and there’s lots of information readily available to help.
Your home page headline is where the “enticement” starts. Get this right, and everything else will fall into place. KISSMetrics has a great post about nailing this important first impression:
9 Steps to Write Your Ultimate Home Page Headline
Hubspot has a post with examples you can use for inspiration. Warning: many are e-commerce sites, which may not apply to your business. There’s good advice in the post, though, so even if you don’t have a marketing budget with lots of zeroes, take a look:
15 Examples of Brilliant Homepage Design
A couple of years ago I wrote a post for Copyblogger about all the ways you can use design to get your site visitors engaged and interested in your content. Take a look, even if it’s just to see the photo with the post (cute alert):
6 Design Tips That Will Have Your Audience Licking Their Screens