It doesn't take a genius to work out the home page of your website is the most important page, you have a nano-second (well ok maybe a couple of seconds) to make an impression. No pressure then huh?
So how do you make that instant first good impression?
The obvious is a great hero image, (a hero image is just the main image on your page, usually the one people see first), it can be a little video (I put a great hero video on the site tanyapackerstore.com) or it can be a photo of you or a really good stock photo. A word of warning, if I see an image of two men suited and booted people shaking hands I leave immediately, yak staged cold images like that are so 1990s!!). Sure there are times when a formal corporate look is needed but the key is to give it a modern twist (take a look at townleykingston.ie or Exstrat.ie for fabulous examples of this).
Head that up with something catchy - a short phrase or paragraph that entices people to read more.
Make sure your site and especially your home page has your call to action displayed prominently (ie, what do you want people to do when they are on your website - do you want them to sign up for your newsletter or freebie? maybe you want them to book a discovery call etc).
Finally clear navigation is a must. Your visitors need to be able to get to the information they want and need quickly and painlessly using as few clicks as possible).
I've included the home page layout in my new Workbook "Overcome your Web Design Overwhelm" which is available to buy right now for just £17 but the workbook takes it so much further, providing you with invaluable insights and helps breakdown your web design project into manageable chunks.
