Optimizing Your Website’s Homepage
When it comes to websites, we only have eight seconds to win someone over. With so short of time, your messaging needs to be on point.
Take a look at your homepage from a 30,000 foot overview and ask yourself: if I have eight seconds to really win someone over, what are the key things that I really want them to know? What is some key information that you want your audience to take away from it when they go on your homepage?
Those are key things to keep in mind as you read through this blog.
Now, I'm a transparency girlie. Transparency is the tool that allows someone to feel comfortable with you. There are many people offering the same thing, and transparency is the only way of differentiating your offer from everyone else.
Your customers want to know if you are a good fit for what they are looking for, and your homepage should be transparent enough that if they were to only see that page and literally no other page on your site, they would have enough information to walk away and make a purchase decision with you.
So you are probably like, “What should I have on my homepage, then?”
I look at anywhere from 30 to 50 websites per week where I'm assessing, from a customer standpoint, if what I’m seeing is enough to make a purchase decision. These are the core things that I’ve learned are essential:
What service you provide
Your location
Your mission statement
About you
Your approach
Example Work
Reviews
Email opt-in
Contact/inquiry form
WHAT SERVICE YOU PROVIDE
It may be clear to you what your service or offering is, but maybe not to your customers. For example, a lot of photographers that I see will throw a bunch of images on there and expect their customers to know exactly what services they offer.
But maybe they offer elopement packages and wedding packages, and they are only showing elopements. Someone that goes on their website might think, “I want to hire her for my wedding, but all I see are elopements here, so I don’t think that’s possible.”
It needs to be clear both through your imagery and through words what you do.
YOUR LOCATION
I get this question a lot: “I could work anywhere. Why would I want to limit myself by putting a location?”
Here’s why: even if someone were to fly you out to where they're at, they still need to know where you're at so that they can have a general idea of what they're getting themselves into before they reach out.
You're not creating mystery by not including your location. When you do that, you're giving them more work. Then suddenly they must reach out to you to get a full picture.
Help them envision the full experience with you by including your location.
YOUR MISSION STATEMENT
A mission statement is really what allows you to differentiate what you do from other people that offer services like yours.
So, for example, with photographers, there are photographers that have no intention of giving any guidance and direction—and that's okay. But how horrible would it be for someone to hire them thinking that they gave them all this direction, when really their approach was the opposite?
That mission statement is going to be incredibly effective in making sure that there's no confusion about who you are and what you do, what your core values are, and how that can translate into the experience of working with you.
When you convey things in a way that is easy for them to digest, you get more ‘Hell Yes’ clients that book faster—and we like that.
ABOUT YOU
The ‘About You’ section really has been butchered over the last few years, especially with business owners oversharing irrelevant information.
I mean: “I love mac and cheese,” “I love light,” “I love coffee,” “I love hikes.” That's all fine and good, but that's all stuff that you can use to strengthen your client relationship later as you meet with them.
Think about the things that connect you to your work.
It ties back to answering: why the hell are you even here? Why did you choose to do this over something else? What is it about the process of your work specifically that makes you feel aligned with your craft?
Yes, it's about you; but it's about your connection to what you do.
Someone's way more likely to hire you and be more excited about working with you when they know that they're hiring someone that's passionate about what they do, versus hiring someone that happens to mutually like something.
YOUR APPROACH
Maybe you’re thinking, “I don't know what my approach is. I don’t know what that means.”
When you think about your approach, I want you to think about the ways that you show up to each job, the natural opinions and preferences that you have tied into the way that you complete your job.
For me, with my photography business, it was important for me to translate that I'm very Type A, I don't expect anyone to come in front of the camera and know what to do in front of the camera. I give guided prompts and I do this because I personally believe that everyone looks and feels their best when they're told what to do.
You may hate this approach, and that’s okay. Your approach is allowed to be your approach, and you're allowed to be different.
Whatever your natural inclinations and opinions are that you've formed within your line of work, they matter. And they are a way to help get someone really excited about you.
EXAMPLE WORK
It isn't enough just to show a single portfolio image—you have to show a whole body of example work that they can really self-identify with.
This will require you to really look back on your buyer persona. You want to really look at what they are looking for in a purchase from you. What are the questions that come up often when someone's reaching out to you? When you're able to answer that, you're able to consciously cultivate example work with them in mind, versus just sharing a few of your favorite things.
I'll give an example: there's a wedding that we did in Olympic National Park, and it was a wedding where they really leaned into camp vibes, with log cabins and banners and all these kitschy campy vibes.
It was a pretty wedding, however it wasn't my favorite wedding. But I thought about it and I decided, based on the region that I live in and what I know about my audience, I wouldn’t be surprised if there are other people that also want to have a camp-themed wedding.
Guess what the number one seller for me was? It was the camp wedding.
Even though I didn't love that wedding, I was able to get about $30,000 worth of bookings just because I happened to strategically throw the right wedding up there as an example of our work.
THAT’S the power of example work when you do it from a strategic point of view.
REVIEWS
The old way of showcasing reviews of taking a review that you had, typing it up or using a screenshot, and putting it on the website is dead.
The new way of offering reviews on your homepage is providing context on the transformation that the customer achieved above the review.
So let's just say you got a review from Kathy and she said, “They made me feel really comfortable when I photographed with them, I felt really well taken care of.”
What did Kathy experience before and after working with you? Maybe when she first reached out to you, she was kind of nervous to get her photo taken. So the context, in that case, was Kathy was nervous before, but she ended up feeling really comfortable and confident in the photos.
And so in addition to the review, you contextualized the review by saying, “Kathy was someone who was really camera shy and worried about getting her photo taken and now has complete confidence having her photo taken.”
We want to make it easier for your customers to self-identify with the transformation that your experience provides through these reviews. You're immediately elevating yourself above your competition and making it easier for your customers to visualize themselves having an amazing time with you.
One of the questions that I get asked about reviews specifically is: should I share their name?
Unless you get explicit permission from them to use their name, keep them anonymous. Make sure you're making it safe for everyone.
EMAIL OPT-IN
If social media were to go away tomorrow, if SEO stopped working, what would you do?
This is where an email opt-in comes in. When you have an email opt-in—either with a checklist, a guide, a freebie masterclass, templates—anything like that, you are cultivating a list of buyers that you have the attention of, that you can sell to at any time.
Everyone should have an email opt-in. What’s awesome about this is that even if they don’t book you, they’re still looking for a solution. Any email that you send to them, they could still open and see the recommendations you have.
If someone opts in and joins my wedding email list, I will send them wedding planning resources, like some wedding favor ideas that they can use, or some photogenic umbrella’s they can use in case of rain. Each item is an affiliate link, and if they buy that, I can get some side cash from it.
You suddenly are opening your mind from this just being a way to gather emails to being a fun way to get passive income too.
If you don't have one, this is your sign to go do that.
CONTACT/INQUIRY FORM
Finally, they’ve read through everything, and they’re at the end of your homepage. Ideally, at this point, we want someone to be saying, “Wow, this work is amazing. That's exactly what I want for me. Hell yeah. Let's do it. I don't need to see anything else. I'm on board.”
Having your contact or inquiry form at the bottom of your homepage allows them to immediately submit it to you when they are in that moment. I go into more detail in this blog here, but I always recommend making these 9-12 questions long. This allows you to have all the information you could possibly need to go into the next step fully prepared.
I know this is a lot. I’ve made it easier with this download here of my Homepage Formula:
This download is basically a template for creating your homepage. If you are struggling with when and where to convey messaging, how to incorporate Call-To-Action buttons, or just with visualizing a homepage, this guide is for you.
I also have full trainings and guided workbooks on optimizing your homepage and other pages on your website in The Business Conservatory Membership program. In that program, you get access to all of my trainings, bi-weekly live Hot Seat Coaching calls with me where you can directly ask me questions, access to podcast bonus content, and more! Check it out here, and join for free today.
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