The website design industry has constantly been evolving throughout the years. More and more innovative ideas regarding how to attract and pull more customers have been coming to light. Thus, any business owner who has taken the great opportunity to bring their business online and develop an online presence has much to keep up with and consider as they continuously try to improve and grow their business. One of the primary parts of an online presence is an online website. And the welcome sign or the storefront of this website or online store is the homepage. This implies the great importance of a good homepage design.
10 Tips on How to Create a Homepage
1. Have a Good Hero Image
One of the most proven and tested homepage design ideas is to have a hero image displayed. A hero image refers to the (often) most prominent and most highlighted image that one can see on screen. A good hero image speaks volumes for your website homepage. Ensure that it is appropriate and can accurately and proudly represent your business, your brand, and all you stand for. In creating your homepage design, your hero image would more or less take up the most space in your website homepage. Depending on your business and branding, your hero image can range from simple to extravagant. Note that it doesn’t only have to be an actual photo. It can also be graphical, drawn, or animated. But It can also simply be a picture of your product or service, or it can be a representation of your business or your advocacy. Take a look at the homepage design of Fighting Pretty and see how their hero image evokes emotion. Their hero image is a good representation of what they are promoting on their website. It easily compels those who see it to keep on exploring their site.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
2. Position Your CTA Buttons Right
Your call-to-action buttons are another most critical part of your website homepage. They aren’t supposed to be there just for the sake of being there. Remember that one of the primary goals of your homepage design is to get traffic and potential customers to click this button to lead them to purchase, donate, or connect. You can have one or only a few CTAs. Still, you can also arrange it in a distributed way on different pages or sections of your website. Your homepage design should give great importance and attention to placing your CTA buttons in a position that would optimize their purpose and its usage. You can put one directly below or beside your hero image so that it is easily seen. Or you can add some more all over your website, so your customer doesn't find trouble when they want to click and use it. It is crucial that you carefully consider how it will look on its own and how it will go well with the other elements of your website.
3. State Your Value Proposition Clearly
Your value proposition answers the questions: What are you selling? And why should someone buy from you? Your homepage design should not only contain this. It should highlight it. Your value proposition sums up for your site visitors and customers what you’re all about. Suppose you can provide them with the right and adequate information regarding these questions. In that case, you are essentially telling them all about what you can do for them and why it is the right choice for them to support you. Find inspiration in homepage design ideas from our Strikingly users like this one. Dave Mcleigh Creatives did an excellent job in highlighting their value proposition on their website homepage. It clearly states what they can do for their customers. It is also phrased in a way that is inviting and motivational. Partnered with a good hero image, they also did a great job positioning some of the brands of clients that they have handled before. Thus giving their customers a reason to trust them and believe their credibility.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
4. Your Tagline Matters
You might think, “Can’t the value proposition be our tagline?” It can, but it wouldn’t hurt your website homepage to be home to a tagline attached to your brand or business name. To distinguish tagline from value proposition, consider your value proposition as your introduction and your tagline as your greeting. While it is valuable that your customers and site visitors get to know you, how you say hello is bound to leave a lasting impression on them in the long run. Your tagline, after all, is a one-line statement that summarizes what you’re all about that you can easily find a place for in your homepage design. Think of all the most famous brand names and companies - you’re bound to remember their taglines, right? Your own tagline would probably have the same effect, so why not give it a shot and increase the chances of your business being unforgettable?
5. Decide on an Appropriate Color Scheme
Your homepage design, of course, should not just be composed of different elements. All of this has to come together as one beautiful homepage design. And one of the best ways to accomplish this is by following a specific color scheme for your website and homepage design ideas. Having a uniform color scheme will not only be aesthetically pleasing to the eyes of your visitors and prospective customers. It need not always be out of the ordinary combination of colors. It just has to look right and coordinated. You should also take into careful consideration whether those colors appropriately represent your brand and your business. The screenshot of the homepage design you see below uses simple colors. Yet, it is incredibly pleasing to look at. It also is rightly decided on since their physical store also holds the same color. Thus, a good color scheme should make your website and homepage design look appealing and give customers an idea of who you are and your business.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
6. Consider Your Products and Branding
When developing and exploring the right homepage designs and homepage design ideas, take inspiration from other designs and think of how to apply them to your own business and branding. You have to bear in mind what kind of products you are selling. Your website homepage should do an excellent job of representing and highlighting all your business’s good characteristics and products. Your brand and products comprise your business identity. Therefore, it is necessary to dedicate time and effort to find a homepage design that does not stray away from that identity but rather emphasizes and showcases it.
7. Think of Your Target Audience
Your website homepage would most likely be visited by your target audience. Thus, it only makes sense that you bear in mind what your target audience likes as you come up with your homepage design. Do your customer research and find out what your niche market likes and is drawn to nowadays. You would want to please them and provide them with satisfaction as soon as they visit your website. Take a look at the website homepage below. Their products are pet milestone cards - specifically milestone cards to celebrate dogs. So it is fairly obvious that their target audiences are pet and dog lovers. So what better way to tickle the happiness out of these dog lovers than to fill their homepage design with dogs, right? Truly, this Strikingly website user knows what they are doing and how they could appeal best to their target audience.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
8. Make Sure The Text and Background Agree
Your color scheme won’t be that much of a help if other elements are not coordinated. And conversely, no matter how good your content is, if the background colors and typography of your website homepage don’t agree with each other, then it wouldn’t do you any good. Thus, when coming up with your homepage design, you have to be careful about finding the perfect balance that would best highlight your content without sacrificing your color scheme and background. Besides its colors, you also have to ensure that the font types and the font sizes you will use are suitable for your website and your homepage design. Ensure its readability and its understandability. You want to be aesthetic in your homepage design, but you also have to make sure to get your message across.
9. Take Risks and Be Unique
Don’t be afraid to stray away from those homepage design ideas that you find online. No website homepage is right or best for everyone because every business is different and distinct. You would always want to stand out from the crowd. So if you think of something that you feel is a bit weird or out of the ordinary, don’t be afraid to give it a try. You never know, you might have thought of one of the best homepage design ideas ever, and the world missed it because you didn’t take the risk. You want to use videos for your hero image, go ahead! You want to use pure graphics and cartoon-like design, why not? Take a look at this website homepage from a Strikingly website user. It’s aesthetic, compelling, and very risky, and yet it was indeed worth it.
Image taken from Strikingly User’s Website
10. A Single Screen For Your Header
Our last tip on how to create a homepage is a bit technical. Usually, your homepage automatically extends to the next section of your website. While this is all good and well, sometimes, it helps to highlight your homepage design if you customize it to fill the whole screen once viewed. This would help your site visitors and customers to focus.
Homepage design plays a significant role in ensuring that your site visitors and customers feel welcome as soon as they land on your website. It helps you establish a good first impression and allows you to immediately pull in potential customers. With a few innovative ideas, determination and passion, and the right techniques and tools at your disposal, you can not just be successful in coming up with the best homepage design. Still, you can take it upon yourself to bring the design of your homepage to its fullest potential. Strikingly is one of the best website builders out there that can help you accomplish just that! Let Strikingly be your tool in creating the best that you can, so sign up now!
