Web design Sunshine Coast
Your home page or first page of your website that visitors see, is the window to your business. Basically there are a number of 'things' it has to do. After the shopping cart, the homepage is the most important part of any business website. It’s the first page that greets new visitors and it’s instrumental in converting them to customers.
Although web design has the strongest impact on a visitor's initial impression of a new website, the content it presents is what convinces them to stay and have a look around. Many businesses on the Sunshine Coast compete for fewer customers in the same market. This is why the writing (copy) that appears on your homepage is one of the most crucial ingredients to the success of an e-commerce site. Here are some of the things it needs to achieve.
Given that the copy on your homepage is the first information new customers are likely to process, it’s important to make sure it wastes no time in getting right to the heart of what your business does.
Make your homepage speak your brand the loudest. Your homepage is the first thing people see about your brand, who you are and what you’re offering, so make sure it represents you the way you expect it to. More on Web design identity.
Copy is the most immediate way of convincing visitors they’ve come to the right place. If it can’t communicate the value of your site to them in the first few seconds, they’re likely to move on to a competitor’s site.
“If a visitor is looking for something specifically, and it’s not being addressed, then they’re going to go elsewhere.
Your attention span is so short on the net, you need to know very quickly that this site is going to provide you with what you need.
This is why homepage copy has to be as simple, concise and direct as possible. Use small sentences and don’t be shy with headlines. Use text as links to relevant products or areas.
It’s also wise to use keywords as signposts to the reader when writing for the web. These help to break up the copy so it’s easier to read, help visitors process what they’re reading and can also have a positive effect on how the site ranks in search results.
Web users scan for information. They’re not reading all the words on the screen, they’re looking for information and keywords that will help them go to the next point in their destination.
A website is basically the online equivalent of an answering machine and automated switchboard. No-one likes talking to a machine, so it’s vital that your homepage copy reads like it was written by an actual person.
Web copy is a substitute for a conversation with you, the owner, or one of your sales staff, so make it appear as such. No-one enjoys talking to people who use a lot of dense corporate language, so avoid jargon and complex words in favour of directness and simplicity.
Additionally, it’s important that your homepage copy makes it very easy for visitors to contact your business directly. Where possible, display contact details prominently and include more than one method of contact.
It’s also important for homepage copy to appeal to the visitor’s interests.
Customers don’t visit your site because they care about your business; they want to know what your business can do for them and most aren’t willing to spend a lot of time finding out.
Really, it’s about providing them with direction. A mantra that writers typically hear a lot is ‘show, don’t tell’. That slogan works for websites as well.
The key is to avoid overselling your company and its services.
You don’t want to tell people how amazing your product or service is, you want to show them with clear cut examples and let the customer come to their own conclusions. More on web design for customers.
Too many times we see a lot of businesses trying to oversell their products, or oversell their services on the homepage.
This is why copy should focus on the visitor. It needs to address them directly, using words like ‘you’ instead of ‘we’, as this better appeals to their self-interest.
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