The five essential elements of your website homepage

for online, service based business owners

Photo by Domenico Loia on Unsplash

One of my first entrepreneurial endeavours was a blog called 'The Tiffin Box'. At the time I was really into cooking, spending evenings on the settee pouring over recipe books, taking trips out to obscure supermarkets for one niche ingredient, whipping up elaborate feasts on a school night. The blog showcased some extremely dubious quality photos of my home recipes accompanied by (mostly accurate) instructions on how to recreate them. 
 

The crazy part is that I didn’t know at the time that website builders such as SquareSpace and WordPress existed. Over the course of several months I set about teaching myself html and was able to build a complete website from scratch, using only code.

When I finally shared the result with my friend her response was “Eh, it looks great…..but not quite finished, if you know what I mean…” She had a fair point - the images did a little disco dance every time you scrolled or resized a page and overall it had 'school project' style vibes. 

The reason I share this story is that I am not a business owner who is put off by the techy side of running a business. I will happily spend hours lost in the backend of SquareSpace, trialling my own custom code for a special font or particular palette of colours, because I enjoy it.

And yet, I know plenty of other business owners who really don't want to get involved in websites or learning new softwares or setting up their mailing list for lots of different reasons. 

Whatever side of the pendulum you swing to when it comes to all things web design, it’s a must have for online business owners. On top of that, there are only a few seconds in which to make a first impression, so it’s important to be intentional in your choice of what to show.

With that in mind, here are the 5 things I think the front page of every website should contain:

1, A clear headline

This is the first thing someone will see when they land on your website that makes it clear why they might want to hang around and find out more. This is most commonly a statement of the challenge you help people overcome.

2, A reference to who you help

Letting people know whether you have designed what you do with them in mind. Sometimes even just letting people know that they are not alone in their challenge can be a help in itself.

3, Your personal ‘why’

This speaks to why you care about what you do and what lead you to this point. In my experience, having some shared values with your clients is a strong foundation for what comes next.

4, What you offer and how to buy

I see it as our responsibility as business owners to make it easy for people to see what is on offer and how they can buy from you.

5, Ways to stay in touch

This can be a great way of building relationships, whether or not someone decides to buy from you. There are lots of ways to serve the people you want to help, without having to sell to them.

And there we have it, the 5 things I think every website should have.

I’m curious to know your thoughts. Do you have any tips of your own to share? Comment below and let me know.