Homepages over the years have gone back and forth from being the most viewed pages to the least. Even if not all your viewers catch your home page, it is important to have one that will help them to navigate your website and find the information they need. Never have such amazing design elements and features been made available to have such an interactive and all-inclusive home page until now.
A website homepage is important because of the number of viewers it receives. Homepages receive the greatest viewership. It also is the first impression of your website and helps to redirect viewers to find answers to their questions and dive into a deeper exploration of the website.
According to a study conducted by Pew Research, of 25 websites studied, 21 of those websites showed the homepage to have the most viewership (Source). Homepages are very important because of the features they provide and the interest which they evoke in the reader. People almost always return to a website’s home page over and over again just to explore its contents further whenever they need you.
What a Homepage Provides
Homepages are not only where the viewers will land and come back to if needed, but they also are vital in the recognition of your company, navigation, and brand. Some homepages are bound to give you the most viewership, and this can be fostered through great design and creation.
A homepage provides a place for your brand online so that it is easily recognizable to visitors. If you visited an airline website with no clear logo and branding in sight, how would you know if it’s Delta, United, or another airline? You wouldn’t!
This is why it is essential to have your logo in sight. Not just so people know where they are but know where they can return to if they need more information in the future.
A homepage provides a place to navigate to and from to look for the general answers people are looking for. Even if they land on a page within the site, they will have the chance to click on a logo and go back to the homepage in search of general information and guidance on where to go next. In fact, “36% of visitors click a company’s logo to get to the homepage” (Source). This means that people are trafficking back to the homepage even in the highly technologically advanced world we live in today. With SEO and social media, people are able to jump directly into an interior page within the website.
Your homepage can not only provide deeper connection and higher viewership within your site but can also link people to social media and increase followers and interaction there. This way you are able to increase the traffic on all of the platforms you use.
This is possible by connecting your social media pages right to your front page. Add a Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn, Instagram, or Twitter link so that people who see your homepage can directly connect with you on social media.
If you want to learn more about what a homepage provides, hold up. I wrote an article all about how and what a homepage does and it’s purpose that I encourage you to read!
Elements of a Homepage
If homepages have high viewership, then it is increasingly important to ensure that the homepage contains the elements that viewers want to access to further explore their questions and search your site. These elements are crucial to help visitors continue to spend their time on your site.
Menu & Search: A good menu is crucial to making a good website and doubly important on the homepage because that’s where they’re looking for other pages. Using a search bar is just an easy way to help visitors to narrow down where their answer would be and provide a better experience.
Purpose (Value & CTA): Be sure to establish the purpose of your website with a tagline and a call to action button right at the top that shows visitors your purpose.
Reviews(Social proof): Show the viewer what other people have said about your products or company.
Benefits: Show the results your website and business help your visitors achieve that benefit them.
Features: Explain how your website and business provide those benefits. Outline the things you give your visitors to achieve the benefits.
Footer: Whether in the footer or another place, always be sure to add contact information or a section where they can sign up to receive help and get answers for further questions.
Design: Color and visuals capture the attention of the viewer and establish your brand. Good design is also essential in making the website a great user experience and aesthetically pleasing.
Visuals (Photos, videos, etc.): Images create a visual appeal so people can feel comfortable on your site and gain a greater understanding of what you do. Videos on the website are not only helpful but add to the content. As a matter of fact, “the average internet user spends 88% more time on a website with video than without.” (Source)
The Importance of these Elements
Those elements may seem overwhelming for the homepage you might be imagining, but simple is always better than cluttered. Do your best to include the elements Each of these elements can be essential on a homepage because they are what people are looking for.
Steffany Falmo, a university professor at Brigham Young University – Idaho said, “Not only is it the visual hook for the viewer, but it also is the first and sometimes the only part of a website that someone will see. It’s especially important that the homepage is mobile-friendly because more people are visiting websites on a mobile device than a computer.”
The design element of a website is extremely important. It needs to be visually pleasing so that it will keep viewers on the page and interacting with the website. The design should be simple and easy to look at, but also eye-catching and full of visuals like pictures or tables. These make information easier to understand. Most people pay close attention to design. Almost all first impressions are related to design.
“Once on a company’s homepage, 86% of visitors want to see information about that company’s products/services”
Source
Not only do people want the site to be appealing to the eye, but they also want to find what they are looking for. Most of the time, people come online looking for products and services, and so your website must clearly display that to hold their attention.
Another thing people want to see on your homepage is the contact information necessary to talk to a real person. There are quite a few people out there who simply use the internet as a means to connect with people face to face in real-time. You can capture even those viewers who are looking for ways to talk to you by posting your contact information in plain sight or by setting up a way for them to submit information to you right on the website. 64% of viewers want to clearly see contact information on the homepage.
In conjunction with contact information, most viewers want “About Us” information on the homepage as well. This goes right along with the importance of telling people your purpose and helping them accomplish theirs. Tell them who you are, why you are there, and how you can help them.
Below is a table that explains the elements viewers rated they want to see most on homepages. Notice that the top preferences for homepage elements were products and services and contact information, while the elements people valued least on the homepage were pricing and blogs. Written content is often overwhelming, therefore too much of it on the very front page will be daunting to people and cause them to leave your site.
Element | % of people wanting to see it on the homepage |
Products and Services | 86% |
Contact Information | 64% |
About Us / Company Information | 52% |
Testimonials | 27% |
Marketing Collateral | 23% |
Social Media Icons | 12% |
Blog & Written Content | 8% |
Pricing | 2% |
Data about Homepages
I have shown you the numbers associated with the importance of the homepage, and the importance of which elements you choose to put on a homepage, but now I would like you to see for yourself just how important a homepage is. Homepages were rated to be the most important page within a website.
I conducted an Instagram poll to ask the general public what they thought of the importance of homepages. 50 people responded, and of those 50 people, 93% of them categorized the homepage as the most important page within a website. They also each had the opportunity to explain why they found the homepage to be the most significant, below we will look into a few of their responses.
- “If I cant figure out the homepage, I give up and move on.” – Lauryn Birkeland
- “Even if you have the best content on your website, if your homepage is messy people will not stay around long enough to see your good content.” – Asa Carlson
- “It is not only the first place you see but the place you always come back too.” – Elizabeth Sweat
- “It is the first thing everyone sees! You have to make a good impression.” -Makaiya Nunn
There have also been quite a few great comments made by people on Quora.com about the importance of a homepage within a website, their answers line up well with the responses above and the principles we have talked about throughout the article.
“You can’t control what all those other sites look like that mention you, but you can control what your own Home Page looks like.” – Carolyn Breninger
“Your home page is more valuable than I can define in words… The homepage is the cover to your book. The quality of its contents will be judged as the quality of your services and products.” – Usman Khalid
“Take a look at websites such as Apple, Mailchimp, Todoist, etc. Very simple, clean designs, easy to figure out navigation, and some sort of call to action. You know right away what they do and how to get started.” – Scott Gardiner
“It’s the first page visitors see, and many people will decide in mere seconds whether they want to spend any more time on your site. That means you need to pitch it towards people who don’t know what your site is for, but who might want to know.” – Paul Tomblin
“It is important. Even when the visitor comes to your other pages at the end they would like to know more about your site and the first thing they are going to do is to see your home page.” -Shahram Eivazi
There also proved to be people who thought otherwise, however, and Solomon Thimothy brought up a great point when he said “It used to be that the homepage was the most important part of your website since a majority of page views were driven to the main page. Today, a variety of changes in search algorithms have placed a lot more importance on more specific landing pages, as search engines favor the most relevant information to what people are seeking.”
This is also true. Times have changed, and often other parts within a site are brought up by search engines because they are more applicable, but that does not mean that the Homepage lacks value. It is still essential for all the characteristics mentioned above and help people to understand how you can help them, and gives them a place to toggle to in search of more relevant information.
Conclusion
There are a variety of purposes and elements for a homepage, but when it comes down to it, it is the most important part of the website because it holds some of the most valuable information for your viewers about the company/website you are running. An appealing and useful homepage will help enhance your viewership and encourage them to invite more of their friends to your site and services.
Never underestimate the value of a good appearance, design, navigation, contact information, and interactive elements. University Professor, Steffany Faldmo, also said that the best way to make sure that your homepage stands out to all your viewers is to ensure that it has “great photos, a unique and simple design, clear information, and an easy-to-use navigation menu!”
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