Your website’s homepage is the most important page on your website. Homepages get more traffic than any other page. The major objectives of your homepage are twofold:
- Tells the visitor who you are and what your business does
- Convinces them to visit other pages on your site
While different website designers will tell you different content that should be included in your particular businesses homepage, here are a few best practices that most will agree upon:
Header and Logo
Your logo should be big enough to make clear who owns your site, but most website design platforms limit its size, which is why it is not always a good idea to include your tagline with your logo on your homepage. The header should include your primary focus keyphrase so that search engines (like Google) will find you.
Navigation menu
Most sites use horizontal menus that collapse into a hamburger icon on mobile devices. It is important to use specific menu items that clearly tell visitors where to find the information they are looking for. Drop down sub-menus should be large and easily clickable. Descriptive navigation labels also tell the visitor where they are within your site and tell search engines what you do.
Call-to-Action (CTA) 
CTA’s encourage visitors to do what you want them to do. In other words, you want to steer them to a noticeable and clear action to perform, which doesn’t always mean bringing the visitor to your contact form. It’s possible that the next step in the user experience should be a services page, a video explaining your product or service or an “examples” or portfolio page.
Hero Section 
The Hero image or video on your homepage is one with the most visibility and is “above the fold” (the user will see it without scrolling down the page). Since it is the largest visual element. on the most popular page, it makes a big impact on a visitor’s first impression of your site and should accurately and succinctly reflect your brand.
Text Content
Does your content answer the reasons why the user probably came to your site in the first place? This is a critical question to answer and one that many website designers miss. Your homepage needs to anticipate visitor questions and provide them answers. If your copywriter does this correctly and employs proper SEO techniques, your pages will convert more effectively.
Testimonials
Customer testimonials offer third-party validation that imparts a human connection that social media cannot always duplicate. While video testimonials are most effective, if video is not practical or available, you can use customer pictures, initials instead of names, and short-subheads of their praise.
Final Call to Action (Before The Footer)
Adding a CTA section right above the footer has become an almost standard design feature for successful websites. You never know when a visitor will decide that they’re ready to reach out.
Make the CTA as strong and visually pleasing as possible. Avoid directing them here to your contact form, but consider directing them to a specific page to further engage them with your strongest possible message.
