5 Things Your Homepage Needs to Start a Relationship with Consumers

The saying that first impressions last a lifetime may make you think of dating, however, when it comes to your business, your website is most likely the first direct impression that potential consumers will have. Every successful business is trying to build, maintain, or promote its identity, and what better way to achieve this than putting your best foot forward on the internet.

Often, the first impression of your brand for consumers will be through search engines, backlinks, or social media. Let’s think of these as dating applications. Customers know what they are looking for and platforms will present them with all the suitors, ready to fulfill their needs. It is up to the consumer to swipe through all these suitors and come to a decision. How do they do this? They check out your dating profile, or in this case your website.

Let’s get into five things you can do on your website to start a strong, and long-lasting, relationship with your customers.

Dress to the 9’s

You probably wouldn’t go on a first date in sweatpants and a mustard-stained hoodie (no offense if you would), so don’t present your company as anything less than a perfect ten online. High-quality photos and videos are the best way to dress your site up. Keep in mind who you are trying to attract, and include the types of content that will appeal to your audience.

Start the Conversation

There is nothing more uncomfortable than awkward silence on a date. You’ll never find out if you have a real connection if you don’t start the conversation. It is critical to ensure you have clear, personable, and powerful messaging on your home page. Catch their attention with a short powerful message and then dive into your story. Remember, you are just meeting this person, they do not know all your friends, your parents, or your history, so don’t bore them with all these extra details.

DON’T Take Over the Conversation

You may be attractive, awesome, and funny, but you will risk ruining any form of connection if you take over the conversation. Your home page needs to present what your consumers want to know about you, not just what you want them to know about you. Additionally, you need to make sure that they have a chance to speak, by understanding how to navigate through your site to learn more about you. Broken links, looping paths back to the home page, and missing information, are all red flags. The homepage of your site needs to have a strong menu, sitewide searchability, and, an organized hierarchy of information that will help the consumer get to know you.

Give Them Your Number

Today, you can connect with people through countless platforms. When you go on a date and have a great time, you probably want to see that person again. The only way that is happening is if you ask. It is imperative that your homepage is consistently asking your consumer to stay in touch by joining your mailing list, following on social media, or even providing your business address so they can stop by. There should be some caution taken here, after all, you don’t want to be the creepy date that seems desperate. Make sure if you have pop-ups, that they utilize cookies, so people do not receive that pop-up too frequently, which can lead to a higher bounce rate, or in dating terms, being blocked.

Stay Fresh

Would you wear the same outfit on a first and second date? NO! So why would your website be static? Ensuring you have dynamic content like blog articles, new products, or seasonal promotions, is not just a great way to stay fresh, but is also good for your SEO.

So what are you waiting for? It's time to make yourself digitally dateable.