Home Page Best Practices for Local Businesses
The home page of a website is valuable marketing real estate to brand, build, and boost your locally based business. Follow these home page best practices to maximize your selling power.
Clearly Communicate Who You Are, What You Do, and Whom You Serve.
You have two seconds to capture your website visitor's attention. Make it immediately clear what products and/or services your local business sells. Identify what market you serve (geographically and demographically) to immediately pre-qualify the right customers. Do not be afraid to identify your niche. Use your home page to attract the right customer.
As a locally based business, make it very clear where you do business. Using the local area code with your phone number instantly indicates that you're nearby.
Employ Professional Website Desig
You communicate value not only through your words but also through your design. Don't look at professional website design as an unneeded expense -- rather as an investment that lasts years and sets a tone that supports sales. In addition to graphics, your design can include professional photos of your business location, or even a video introduction.
Trust starts visually. Of course, web surfers scan rather than reading carefully, so design with that in mind.
Have a Clear Purpose and Call to Action
The purpose of your website needs to be designed into your home page. You wouldn't build a house without a blueprint. The same principle applies to your website's home page.
Next, decide what will be your calls to action. Do you want web visitors to call? Join an e-mail list? Visit a certain area of the website? Every local business will have varying purposes and calls to action, so determine what yours are. Don't expect a web designer to know these by osmosis. All of your answers become design criteria that must be incorporated into your home page.
The top right hand corner of a webpage is the most valuable "call to action" area on a website. The upper middle area of a website is most visible for marketing messaging.
Newsletter Sign-ups
Websites have only second to make a large first impression. Sometimes visitors will leave and come back until they trust you. One way to maximize website visitors is to build an e-mail list. Most local business owners do not take full advantage of e-mail collection as a web marketing tool. Add a e-mail signup box is an easy way to get the most out of your visitors.
In today's over-e-mailed world, you need to communicate value in order to increase e-mail signup box conversions. "Sign up for our Newsletter" doesn't cut it anymore. Use your local niche expertise and offer a newsletter with good information. The difference between "Join our e-mail List" vs. something worthwhile like "Get the Insider e-mail for Website Design and SEO". This makes a big difference. When there is something worth signing up for, you will capture more e-mail address that allow you to sell to your website visitors.
Make your home page a "north star" that guides your visitors to where you want them to go. Success begins with that first page. Getting people to your site is only half of the local marketing puzzle, getting people through the site is what makes a real impact.
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