Now it’s time to sit down and start mapping out your own homepage. We recommend you keep this checklist nearby to ensure you don’t leave out any of the most important homepage elements.
While the majority of the below points are non-negotiable if you want a homepage that adheres to best practices, compels your visitors, and converts your prospects, this still leaves a lot to your own intuition and user experience (size, placement, language, story, tone, overall page design, and so on). And each of these things should have a flexible quality to it, as the elements you adopt will likely change over time (Indeed, you should change up your homepage with some regularity).
In the meantime, you’ll be A/B testing, heatmapping, gathering data from analytics, and modifying page design regularly to reflect both your current offerings and visitor use. And this checklist should start you out on solid ground.
☐ Before I even sat down to conceptualize my company homepage, I did extensive research to determine my customer persona/s
☐ I also researched the language my target market uses to describe their pain points
☐ Based on that research, I came up with a list of keywords that I dispersed throughout my headline, title tag and meta description, alt tags, and homepage copy
☐ My homepage headline shouts out my company’s value proposition
☐ My homepage describes the benefits of my product or service for my target market
☐ My homepage speaks to the full range of people who visit my website—not just my prospects and paying customers
☐ I offer at least one call to action on my homepage for visitors at every stage of the buyer’s journey (awareness, consideration, decision)
☐ My decision-stage CTA is located above the fold
☐ My homepage (and my website as a whole) is mobile-responsive
☐ When conceiving the mobile version of my homepage, I took into account the different contexts and intentions of my desktop and mobile visitors
☐ My main navigation menu is intuitively categorized and contains no more than seven visible options
☐ Those visible menu options link to my most important pages (i.e. my About Us page, my blog, my portfolio, my FAQs, my Contact Us page, etc.)
☐ My hero image helps my prospects understand the value of my product or service, and allows them to imagine the benefits it will bring to their lives
☐ All the images on my homepage are high-quality, relevant to my offering, and strike an emotional chord with my visitors
☐ My images are legally used
☐ My images are optimized for mobile
☐ I’ve included multimedia on my homepage (videos, infographics, etc.) where I thought it would serve my visitors and help them understand my offering better
☐ I display social proof (testimonials, case studies, statistics, client logos, awards, certifications, press mentions, etc.) on my homepage
☐ Both my signup form and my Contact Us form are conspicuously placed on my homepage
☐ My homepage footer includes social media buttons, trust badges, my privacy policy, terms of use, and sitemap
☐ Throughout my homepage, my color palette and my branding are consistent and tell a coherent visual narrative
