Top 5 Must-Have Homepage Elements

There are times when you visit a website and you have absolutely no idea what it is about from the homepage. It is vital that you immediately attract the attention of your audience and give your users a call to action to keep them on your website. Regardless of your market, there are certain elements that are vital to help your homepage communicate your brand and your purpose. Below are the Top 5 must-have homepage elements.

Clarity and Organisation

The purpose of your website needs to be clear, above the fold, on the homepage of your website. Many visitors leave a website because they don't know what they are going to get out of the visit. Being brand aware, clear and organised immediately will help you keep visitors of your site and draw them to explore further. Your homepage also needs to be organised and uncluttered. A clean, simple yet professional design will be much more effective and will help your visitors navigate to where they want to go.

Easy Navigation

You want to make life as easy as possible for your users when they get to your website so they don't get confused trying to navigate your website. The last thing you want is for a genuine visitor to leave because they can't find the content they are looking for at your website. You need multiple different routes for people to find content. Some elements you may want to consider are:

Main navigation bar

Sidebar

Search bars

Internal links throughout content

Footer links

Site map

These elements will not only make it easy for your user's to wander through your site but it will allow the internet spiders to crawl over your site and index your website correctly.

Optimized Images

You only have to look at the Apple website to see how effective images can be on a website. They are a very powerful tool and a large part of successful design. You need to ensure your pictures are optimized correctly so that your users don't have to deal with loading issues. Nowadays, users are increasingly checking websites on their phone, so you want your load time to be as short as possible. Search engines also favour faster load times on website in their algorithm. Make sure your pictures are also responsive so your users can view them on all their devices.

Consistent Design

You need to ensure your style and brand image is consistent across your homepage and your entire site. Different styles can get confusing and can confuse your visitors. Simple ways to stay coherent is to keep the font, images and colours consistent.

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Call to Action

Giving your visitors a purpose once they get to your website is vital if you want them to stay and get good conversion rates. Here are some ides about what you can offer your users:

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