Your website’s homepage design is very important. It is the first page a customer usually sees and can determine whether or not a visitor will carry on looking through your website. If you have a poorly designed homepage, then what impression does that give? Or if you have a homepage that has no information on it, then how are visitors going to know what you do?

It is good to understand the purpose of a homepage. The homepage is suppose to be a snapshot of the business. Most people will land on this page first, so it is the first thing they see that represents your business.

If it is the first thing they see, you need to make sure visitors can easily identify who you are and where to go next. There needs to be focus and a clear message.

What is on the homepage depends on the type of business you are in, if you sell products you want to make sure visitors are clicking through to the products, or if you are a lead generation website, then you need to make sure they are clicking the form to fill in.

To make the most out of your homepage, we will go through a few easy tips on how to get your homepage looking great.

Less is More!

A homepage needs to have information about who you are and what you do, what you offer. It is a snapshot of the business. However, just because it is doesn’t meant you need to load it with every bit of information.

Keep your homepage looking clean, using a grid layout is a good start and try and keep whitespace around CTAs and blocks. Whitespace is actually a great tool to help bring attention to different parts, such as “Buy it Now” buttons or registration.

Simplify the text, or even use bullet points. Remember you have other pages which can carry more information, so you don’t need to overload it on the homepage.

But nothing is not good either…

Less is more, but nothing is definitely not what we mean! A lot of information can be overwhelming for a visitor, and no information at all is just as bad. If you go to a website and the homepage just has one image and make the company name, what are you going to think? You will probably be a bit confused and click away, maybe think it was unfinished. Not good right? So make sure you include a bit more on your home page!
Obviously, if you are the type of company that is minimalistic, then a minimal homepage may work in your favour - you could be an art house, or something creative in that sense, but if you are a business that offers a service or product, make sure you make that obvious.

You need to have the right balance of contact, enough so the customer knows what your business is about, but not so much that it overwhelms them.

Use complimentary colours and imagery in your homepage design

Once you have the layout of the page sorted, you don’t want to ruin it by using a ton of different colours that don’t go. Make sure to use complimentary colours. You would have decided on a colour palette when designing your webpage, so make sure you stick to this and keep the branding and colours consistent throughout, even the homepage.

If you have sliders on the homepage or CTAs, make sure the images complement each other. You don’t want a cool image on one side and then a bright one of the other side. Keep everything consistent.

The main thing to remember about your homepage is that it is a snapshot of the business and what it provides. Make sure you include necessary information about your main services and products, and leave out things that could be on another page. Keep it simple but relevant.
For some extra design tips, why not check out this handy blog on Big Eye Deers website: Four web design mistakes and how to fix them.