Does your website have an attractive and effective homepage? Does it capture visitors’ attention and drive conversions?
Your website’s homepage can make or break your online presence. A well-designed homepage quickly communicates your site’s purpose and encourages users to explore further. It’s the digital storefront that can either welcome visitors or send them running to your competitors.
Keep reading for homepage design tips from Steve Krug’s book Don’t Make Me Think, Revisited.
Homepage Design Tips
In his book, Krug provides several practical homepage design tips, arguing that your homepage is the most important page on your website to design well. Typically, the homepage is the first thing new users see. If it fails to quickly and clearly convey what the site is about and why a user should stick around, users will get confused and leave.
Krug argues that the biggest mistake designers make when creating a homepage is failing to convey the site’s core purpose clearly and concisely. To avoid this mistake, Krug recommends utilizing three key elements:
- A slogan: a catchy phrase next to your site’s logo that sums up what your site or organization does. Users will typically see this first, so a good slogan is the best way to communicate your site’s purpose quickly and effortlessly.
- A brief site description: one or two sentences that communicate your site’s core purpose in more detail—in case users want further clarification after reading your slogan.
- A comprehensive explanation: a video or extended section of text that gives users everything they need to know about your website if they want to understand more.
For example, if your website is a marketplace where users can buy and sell rare plants, you could use the slogan “Cultivate the Uncommon,” and write a site description that says “The best place to share and discover rare plants.” Finally, you could insert a comprehensive explanation video that explains your site’s mission, what kinds of plants users can find on your site, and the perks of being a paid member.
| Designing a Homepage for Your Business While Krug’s advice is ideal if you want to optimize your website for effortless usability, it’s arguably not enough if you want your homepage to maximize revenue for your business. In Dotcom Secrets, Russell Brunson explains that to optimize your website for business conversions, every page needs to do three things: • Catch your audience’s attention • Illustrate your product’s value • Tell customers what to do next (for instance, sign up for an email list or buy a product) Krug’s suggested elements accomplish some of these tasks: A catchy slogan can grab users’ attention. And a site description and comprehensive explanation are the perfect places to communicate why your product is so valuable. However, none of Krug’s suggested elements necessarily tell users specifically what to do next. Before you know what users should do next, you need a sales funnel—a predetermined path through your website designed to generate sales. The specific call to action you give users will differ depending on what kind of sales funnel you want your homepage to be: If you want to improve your marketing by building a direct marketing channel, you could encourage users to sign up for your email list. If you’re satisfied with your current marketing practices and want to focus on making sales instead, you can provide a product order form on your homepage and nudge users to fill it out. |
