Does the term ‘Search Engine Optimisation‘ make you break out in a sweat?

Well, we’ve got good news for you.

We can help.

SEO doesn’t need to be scary or confusing. When broken down into meaningful chunks of information and explained in plain English, SEO can be easy and accessible.

That’s how we like to see it anyway. This is why we’ve created this SEO Tips for Beginners Guide to help you optimise your own website for search.

So if you’re just getting started with SEO and don’t have loads of technical knowledge, this beginners’ guide to SEO is perfect for you. We’ve kept things simple and avoided including over-technical points that might just overwhelm you and make you want to scream. We’re nice like that.

The article is broken down into easy-to-consume sections to help you get going with optimising your website. We recommend you focus on each aspect at a time before moving on to the next, and we promise it’ll be easy enough. And worth it!

We’ve split this blog post into a few handy sections for you:

1. Tracking your website traffic.
2. Basic keyword research.
3. Main SEO considerations for your website
4. Technical SEO (don’t worry – technical doesn’t mean complicated! Not in our book anyway!)
5. Website pages.
6. Blog articles.
7. Website images.

So, are you ready to go?

1. Tracking your website traffic

How do you know if you’re doing well if you have no idea where you are right now?

Before you get going with your website SEO, you need to figure out what your starting point is. Let’s call this tracking your website traffic. And all it is is a way of monitoring the number of visitors to your website.

Why does it matter?

Because it helps you understand your existing and prospective customers and how they interact with your website. For example, what pages or blog posts are the most read on your website? Where do your visitors spend most of their time when on your website?

This is invaluable information for you because it tells you what works and what doesn’t. And once you know this, you can do more of what serves you well and tweak and change what doesn’t.

So, before you start your SEO efforts, track your traffic. Create some sort of starting point view or baseline that you can refer back to once you’ve gone through each of the sections in this beginners’ guide to SEO. By measuring your traffic before you get started and then after implementing the strategies in this blog post, you’ll be able to measure how effective your efforts have been.

So how do you measure your website traffic?

Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a fantastic free web analytics tool that helps you analyse your website traffic. It lets you see who visits your website, how they found you, what content they tend to consume the most, and how they behave when they’re on your site.

Pretty handy, right?

Without getting too technical, let’s just say that the tool works by placing several lines of tracking code into your website. But there’s some good news here.

You don’t need to worry about any of that!

Once you create an account and link it to your website, you’ll be able to access easy-to-read reports that will give you great insight into how your users interact with your website.

If you want to find out more about the tool, Google has a great free course on how to get started with Google Analytics.

Google Search Console

Another similar tool is Google Search Console. It’s a free service that gives you access to information about your website performance and your users.

Compared to Google Analytics, Google Search Console gives you more internal information. For example, things like who is linking to your website, or which queries your website is appearing in the search results for. It also flags any problems with your website that might be holding you back from ranking better.

Signing up is free and easy, and you can read more information on getting started with the Google Search Console here.

Google page speed

Google page speed is another great tool to help you check how quickly your website loads, or your website load time.

This is an important metric when it comes to SEO – the quicker your website loads, the better. The recommendation is a page load time of under 2 seconds, but the faster the better.

Why does it matter?

Because as you know by being one yourself, internet users have little patience. And if a page takes around 3 or more seconds to load, chances are your visitors may start doubting the trustworthiness of your website.

And when they lose trust, they click the back button and go looking for something else.

You can easily test your page speed with a free tool called GTmetrix. It gives you a performance report for your website and highlights any issues you might have, so you know what to look into and improve.

If you want to know more about checking your rankings, you can always check out our blog post – 5 ways to check your search rankings. 

So now that you have a baseline and know exactly where you stand, it’s time to pull your sleeves up and get your teeth into the first meaty bit of SEO for beginners – keyword research.

2. Basic keyword research

Okay, we’ll admit this doesn’t sound very exciting. But actually, it’s not as bad as you think!

So what is keyword research, and why does it matter?

Keyword research is the process by which you look for terms and phrases that people search for on the internet. This exercise is an important step for SEO because once you have those terms and phrases at hand, you can strategically include them in your content.

In other words, this exercise allows you to create content around topics that interest your ideal clients. If you sell holiday packages to Iceland, you wouldn’t dream of writing about ‘how to fill in your tax return’, would you?

Hopefully not. Because that wouldn’t help your business at all.

But keyword research would tell you that people actually look for terms such as:

• Iceland holidays 2021.
• Iceland holidays Northern lights.
• Cheap holidays to Iceland.
• Best Iceland package deals.

You get the gist.

Once you know exactly what terms and phrases people search for, you can produce content around these topics and increase your chances of ranking higher in the search engine results.

Notice that although this process is called keyword research, I talked about terms and phrases. This is because when we run a search on Google we don’t just look for the word ‘Iceland’. That wouldn’t give us what we want at all! The term is too broad and generic, and the results would be useless.

Instead, we type or ask actual questions. These chunks of words are known as longtail keywords, and they help us narrow down our search results.

So how can you use this to your advantage? Where do you find the longtail keywords to include in your website content?

Here are a few tools that might come in handy…

Keywords Everywhere

Keywords Everywhere is a free Chrome extension that helps you with keyword research, and it’s a great tool to start with. Once you install it, it shows you:

• Trend data and search volumes for that keyword.
• Related keywords to the search term you selected.
• ‘People also search for’ suggestions.

A paid-for version is also available if you want more information on monthly searches and competitor analysis, for example. But if you’re just getting started with SEO and want to keep things simple, the free version will do the trick for you.

Answer the public

Answer the public is another awesome keyword tool that helps you visualise search questions through an image called search cloud. Simply enter your topic, and the tool produces a visual diagram full of real questions that people have asked when searching for that term.

Once you decide on a topic for a blog post, for example, you can use the information from the search cloud to decide what to cover in each individual sub-sections. It’s free, easy to use, and a fantastic way to keep things super simple when it comes to SEO. Answer the public is free with an option to upgrade for businesses who need to run multiple keyword searches per month.

KWFinder

KWFinder is a paid-for tool that allows you to find the best longtail keywords to include in your content.

You can even see how competitive and profitable keywords are. What you want is to find keywords that lots of people search for but that not many other content creators are already using.

More competition means fewer chances for you to be found online. But if you do your homework and pick keywords that aren’t overused but still searched for on a regular basis, then you’re winning.

KWFinder offers affordable plans depending on the number of keyword searches per month you need and also has a FREE 10-day trial.

3. Optimising your website for SEO

Okay, so you’ve got your keywords. Now how do you go about optimising your website? Whether you’re planning or re-designing your website, here are 3 activities I’d recommend:

• Plan your website structure.
• Focus on niche topics.
• Limit the content on your Homepage.

So what does it all mean?

Plan your site structure

Have you thought about the way you plan to organise information on your website? For example, what will your users see from the main menu? Will you have sub-pages dropping down from under your main pages?

Making sure that your overall site structure is user-friendly and easy to navigate is important.

Why?

First of all, it tells your readers how and where to find information. But it also tells Google where your most important content is. Because Google isn’t a person – it crawls websites through bots, following links between various pieces of content. This is how it determines the relationship between different elements of your website.

So the way you structure your content (in pages and blog posts) can influence which content will rank highest in the search engines. If you don’t plan this through, your visitors might struggle to find what they’re looking for and leave your website too soon for your liking. This indirectly tells Google that your website isn’t user-friendly, and you don’t want that!

I recommend you take some time to plan it all out. And if you need more information on how to organise your site structure, check out our article: The Ultimate Guide to a Perfect Website.

Focus on niche topics

And no, this doesn’t mean you have to write about obscure topics no one knows anything about! Phew!

It’s quite the opposite, actually.

You want to write content that people search for.

So when researching keywords and planning content for your web pages or blog posts, narrow your topics down. Instead of being broad and generic, be specific and niche.

So in the example of our Iceland holiday provider, if you cater for family holidays, you might want to create content around:

• ‘Best family hotels in Iceland’.
• ‘How to make the most of Iceland with kids’.
• ‘Self-drive itineraries for Iceland with kids’.

People want specific answers to specific questions. And when you create specific content, you’re helping your ideal clients understand exactly what you do and how you help. This puts you in a better position to capture all those specific searches with longtail keywords.

Limit content on your Homepage

Writing content for your Homepage is a big job. And one that a lot of website owners get a bit wrong.

Why?

Because they tend to cram way too much information onto it. And that’s not what your Homepage needs to do for you.

Your Homepage isn’t the place to tell your visitors everything there is to know about you and your products or services.

Instead, think of it as the reception area of your website. Its job is to direct users where they need to go, quickly and efficiently. So don’t overload it. And don’t overwhelm your visitors with content.

You should then have dedicated pages set up for your products and services. And if you’re a service-based business – a page for each service where you go into detail.

If you want more tips on what to include in your Homepage, head over to our blog post: What You Should Put on Your Homepage to Increase Conversion.

4. Technical SEO tips for optimising your website

Although I promised this beginners’ guide to SEO didn’t need to be technical or complicated, there are a few key technical considerations that impact SEO.

And the ones I’d like to talk you through are:

• Improve your page speed.
• Ensure your website is responsive.
• Install an SSL certificate.

Improve your page speed

Did you know that your page speed affects your SEO efforts too?

But first thing first, what even is that?

Page speed is a measurement of how fast the content on your website takes to load. So when someone lands on your website, how long does it take for the information to appear on their screen?

You probably guessed that you want that number to be as small as possible. If the page takes too long to load, your visitors might hit the back button and leave. You don’t want that.

Plus, if your website is slow, you have less chance of ranking well in the search results.

So what can you do to improve your page speed?

• Only use plugins that are absolutely necessary. Too many plugins will slow your website down.
• Compress and optimise your images (more on that later).
• Keep redirects to a minimum. Every time you redirect your users to another page, you add to the overall waiting time.

Ensure your website is responsive

Does your website look good on mobile and tablet?

With more and more users accessing content on their smartphones or tablets, your website needs to look good no matter what device your visitors are using. And that’s exactly what a responsive website is. One where the layout is easy for your visitors to read and navigate.

This gives your readers a better user experience, and when someone finds your website easy and enjoyable to be on, naturally, they’ll want to spend more time on it. And without getting into too many details, that’s a great indicator for Google too.

So if you want to boost your chances of ranking well in the search results, think about design and user experience too.

Install an SSL certificate

Before you run for the hills at the use of yet another acronym, let us explain.

SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. But you don’t need to get bogged down into all that.

All you need to know is that SSL protects your website data. It turns your website into a secure environment – for you and for your prospective clients. Because without one, there’s a risk your visitors’ personal data might get stolen. Plus, an SSL certificate protects your website too – from phishing scams, data breaches, etc.

And what’s that got to do with SEO, I hear you ask?

Well, Google and other search engines tend to favour websites that they perceive as secure. And without an SSL certificate, your website will be flagged as ‘non-secure’.

If you’re not sure whether you have an SSL certificate or not, finding out is super easy. Simply check whether your website URL shows as http (no SSL) or https (that means you’ve got SSL!).

To get an SSL certificate for your website (in case you don’t have one) simply contact your host. Most reputable WordPress hosting companies offer one for free and can show you what to do to turn yours on.

5. Your website pages

So now that we’ve looked at some of the work you need to do around the structure and layout of your website, it’s time to look at your website pages.

By these I mean, your About page, your Service or Product pages, your Contact Us page, etc. So what kind of things do you need to pay attention to when it comes to optimising your website pages for search?

Title tags

A title tag (or page title or HTML title) specifies the title of your website page.

But where does that go?

When you do a search on Google, the title tag is the clickable headline that tells you what the page is all about. They help us make that initial decision as to whether we want to click on a link or not.

Unfortunately, I see a lot of business owners who forget to attach meaningful title tags for their web pages.

Please don’t be one of them!

Use the title tag to say what the page is all about and include the keywords you found during your research. Make them relevant to your niche and business, and, if applicable, to your location.

For example, if you’re an accountant in Manchester, the title tag for one of your Service pages might read, ‘Tax return for small business owners in Manchester’. Or something along those lines. It’s niche and specific. And says what it does on the tin.

Meta descriptions

The meta description is the text that displays underneath the clickable headline when you get results through Google.

Why does it matter?

Now, think about your own behaviour as a user. When you do a search, you quickly scan through the results, and if something looks interesting and relevant, you might go and read the 3-4 lines of text that sit underneath. Just to make sure you want to click on that.

That’s the meta description.

Just like with title tags, a lot of website owners forget to fill that in. So don’t make that mistake.

Use those 3-4 lines of text to tell the reader exactly what the page is about. You want to entice them to read.

If you want more detail, check out our blog post on how to optimise your blog posts.

Headings

Hopefully, your web pages aren’t just a great wall of text, right?

They have lovely sections and sub-sections that guide your readers through the content of the page.

Great.

Those sections have headings. And you probably know the drill by now – make sure you pick meaningful headings.

The headings on your pages tell your readers what each section is all about. But they help with SEO too, so make sure you include your keywords in there.

Just a quick word of advice. When you do include keywords in your headings, try and make them look organic and natural. Don’t force it. If a keyword doesn’t fit that section, it doesn’t. The last thing you want is for your page content to read a bit odd and put your prospective clients off.

For more information on how to create an awesome service page for your website, head over to our article, The 9 Essentials of a High-converting Service page.

6. Your blog articles

Everything we talked about in the context of web pages and including relevant keywords applies to blog posts too.

So, for example, if you want to optimise a blog post for ‘portrait photographer in greater Manchester’, include that long-tail keyword in:

• The blog title.
• The Alt Text of your images (more on that later).
• Your sub-headings.
• The main text of your blog article.

But when it comes to blog posts, a few other things are worth thinking about, including:

• Word count.
• Internal links.
• Sub-headings.

Word count

Now, this might not sound like great news. But it’s the truth, so here it goes.

Short 200-word articles don’t cut it with Google anymore.

This used to be the case 10-15 years ago, but not anymore.

Why?

Because Google’s job is to serve its users. When you do a search on Google, you want to see great and relevant content. You don’t want to sift through links and links just to find that none of them answer your questions. Because that’s frustrating, right?

But longer and more in-depth pieces (just like this one) probably have the answers you’re looking for.

And let’s face it – competition on the internet is huge. Lots of companies and business owners just like you produce loads of content on a daily basis. And if you want your business and your content to stand out, in-depth and detailed pieces of content are the way to do it.

HubSpot did some research around this too. Finding that 50 of their most-read blog posts in 2019…yielded an average word count of 2,330. 

So when writing blog articles, we recommend at least 1,200 words or more. This might sound hard to do, especially if you’re not too keen on writing.

So pick topics you know about and that your prospective customers want to read about. Show off your knowledge and expertise, and you’ll start to build trust with your readers while encouraging them to spend more time on your website. This tells Google that your website is worth visiting and gives you better chances of ranking higher in the search results.

If you need some inspiration around what content to create, head over to our article, How to Plan 50 Pieces of Content in 30 Minutes.

Internal links

Internal links are links that you include in your own blog post that send your users to other pages or articles on your own website.

Why do they matter?

Because they tell both Google and your readers how your content links together. Remember that Google isn’t a person! Google reads your content through bots – they don’t see your website the way we do. They read lines and lines of code. And internal links help search engines understand how various bits of information on your website relate to each other.

Plus, internal links are great for user experience. By linking to existing content you’re giving your readers more information. But you’re also inviting them to spend more time on your website. This is called dwell time, and the higher it is, the more Google sees your website as trustworthy and interesting.

So as you write your content, think about ways to organically include links to other relevant pages or articles you created before. You’ll notice that we’ve done this in this article too!

Sub-headings

When writing blog posts (and especially longer pieces), it’s always a good idea to break the information down into sections and paragraphs.

A sub-heading is the bit of text that introduces a new section of your blog post. In WordPress, you can format your sub-headings as Heading 2, Heading 3, Heading 4, etc, depending on how many sections and sub-sections you have.

Each of your sub-headings gives you a chance to include your relevant keywords, which (you guessed!) helps your SEO efforts.

So once again, look at the list of longtail keywords you found while doing your research and include them organically in your sub-headings. Be creative but don’t force it! If you use the same exact keyword in each of your sub-headings, that might look a bit odd to your readers!

For more information on how to write killer blog posts, head over to our article, How to Write a Blog Post that People Will Actually Read.

7. Website images

And last but not least, a few words on images. Your website visitors don’t expect to come to your website and just read text. Imagine how boring that would be! Images play an important part in your website user experience and SEO efforts.

You’ll use a few on your website pages and possibly even more in your blog posts. Because remember – your readers don’t want to see walls and walls of text with no interruptions! Think about their visual experience too by leaving plenty of white space on the page (to let the text ‘breathe’) and by adding relevant pictures.

I always recommend you use plenty of photographs of yourself and your team if you have one. But if you need more images and pictures for your web pages or your blog posts, you can find plenty of free or paid-for stock pics on websites like Pixabay, Unsplash, or Pexels.

Re-sizing your images

Before adding images to your website, you should always re-size them. If your images are too big, they might slow down your website and impact your page speed.

For example, images on this blog post are no bigger than 1200px wide. There’s no reason for them to be huge (like 4000px).

You’ll also need to compress your images so they load quicker. To do that, you can use a free online tool called tinypng. This will help you compress your images without losing any quality.

Optimising your images

Whether you add images to your Homepage, your Service or Product pages, or your blog posts, don’t miss the chance to optimise them. You can do this by accessing the file properties and including your keywords in the image title and the Alt-Text of the image.

The Alt-Text is a bit of copy that’s used to improve the accessibility of your images. You can think of it as a chance to describe to someone who can’t see what’s in the image.

But this bit of text also helps Google bots ‘see’ that image. Because the only way they can do that is through text, it’s important you include your relevant keywords in there too. Doing this gives tells Google that a particular piece of content is relevant for someone searching for that term.

What Now? Grab the SEO Starter Pack!

And there you have it – the Ultimate SEO Tips for Beginners Guide.

We hope you enjoyed our SEO for beginners tips, but if you want to really invest in SEO, then check out our SEO Starter Pack. Perfect for non-techie business owners, it’s a practical, easy-to-understand bundle of resources to help you get higher search rankings and more website traffic.

The SEO Starter Pack includes:

• a video library that walks you through how to do SEO step-by-step,
• a comprehensive SEO checklist for every web page or blog post you create,
• keyword research training,
• an interactive SEO planner,
• and lots of added bonuses too!

Martin & Lyndsay

The post SEO For Beginners: The Ultimate Guide appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

They’re the trickiest to write. 

They have a BIG responsibility. 

And it’s difficult to know what to actually put on them as everyone’s homepage is so different. 

Well, worry no more. 

Because this blog post will go through the 7 key things you should put on your homepage. 

But first, let’s get this out of the way, shall we? 

What’s the biggest mistake we see people make on their homepage?  

Giving too much information. 

That’s it. We often see people cram in as much information as possible on their homepage, in an attempt to get their web user to buy straight away. 

But people do not buy after reading the information on your homepage (sorry about that). 

They need a little more warming up. And you might have to encourage them onto your email list before they even buy from your website (depending on what you offer). 

What should a homepage do? 

Your homepage is not the place to go into great detail about your products or services or all about you as a company. 

We like to think of the homepage as the reception area of your website. Your homepage should direct users where they need to go quickly and efficiently. 

People land on your website wanting different things: they want to know more about you, they want to know about a specific service you offer, they want your contact details, they want to read your blog etc. 

And you need to efficiently signpost everyone – making it clear which direction to head in. 

Essentially, the main job of your homepage is to get someone to the next page of your website as quickly as possible. 

What is Bounce Rate?

You may have heard of ‘bounce rate’ – this is the percentage of people who visit your website and leave without taking an action (like clicking on another page or filling out a form). It means your visitor bounces off the page. It can be an indicator that your page isn’t working well. People are landing on your website, and (for various reasons) are leaving without doing anything.

Getting your homepage right will help prevent this problem and ultimately, increase conversions.

What should you put on a homepage? 

Below, we go through the 9 essential elements of a homepage that will get someone to the next page of your website.

1. Your website’s tagline/statement

As soon as someone lands on your website, they should gain a good understanding of what it is you do. 

That’s why you should add a tagline or statement about you or your company above the fold (i.e. what is visible on the page without scrolling down) on your homepage. 

Unfortunately, if you’ve ever had to write one of these statements you’ll know that it is THE MOST DIFFICULT SENTENCE TO WRITE IN THE WORLD.

This is why I’ve added some tips below to help you. 

#1 Make it clear what you do 

The problem is, a lot of these statements are often complete fluff that don’t actually say anything at all. 

If you saw this as soon as you landed on a  website, what would you think this company did? 

‘Adapt, transition, innovate…’ 

???

No?

That’s an IT company. 

But you wouldn’t have a clue, right?

Don’t assume that people who land on your website know exactly what it is you do. You need to make that clear. 

#2 Focus on Your Reader and Not on You 

Another mistake that business owners make with this statement is focusing on themselves rather than on the reader. 

To put it bluntly, people don’t care about you. They care about themselves and their problems. 

That’s why, when you land on our website we say ‘get more leads and sales from your website’ and not ‘we are websites specialists with over twenty years combined experience.’ 

The first one actually tells the reader how we can help. The latter is just plain dull! 

#3 Don’t Obsess over Benefits 

Finally, try not to go overboard on the benefits so that it isn’t actually clear what it is you do. 

Can you guess what this company does? 

‘Enjoy more time doing what you love…our products will help get you there.’ 

No? 

That’s for household cleaning products. 

This usually happens when someone takes the mantra ‘sell the benefits’ a bit too far and doesn’t actually make it clear what on earth they do.  

So remember: 

• Make it clear what you do 
• Make it about the reader 
• Don’t go too far on selling the benefits so what you actually do becomes unclear! 

If you want a little more guidance, check out our blog post which tells you the 9 different ways you can write your company statement. 

A Good Example of A Homepage That Does This Well

Janine is the Queen of keeping it simple and clear. There’s no question of what it is she does or who she helps. Sometimes, companies try too hard to sound clever. But clear trumps clever every time.

Col owner of Pixels Ink also does a great job with his big, bold statement. It’s clear what they do, and he also adds a memorable subheading about transforming ‘ordinary brands into extraordinary ones’ – really nice touch!

2. Your CTA 

Right after the company statement, you will typically see a call to action. A call to action is usually a button that gets your web visitor to do something e.g. click to visit another page, or download a freebie etc. 

This is always a tricky one to get right because it’s difficult to know what will work. And sometimes it requires a little testing to see what resonates with your web visitor. 

But, here are some tips that will help you decide on that all-important CTA button. 

#1 Book a Call Doesn’t (Usually) Work 

We mentioned previously that people don’t buy from your homepage, so it’s unlikely they will book a call with you right off the bat. 

Again, people need a little more warming up than that. Even if you offer a free twenty-minute call that can be quite a daunting prospect for someone who doesn’t really know much about you yet. 

Plus, from your point of view, do you really want to fill up your diary with unqualified people who have just landed on your homepage with potentially no idea who you are or how you work. 

Nope. 

#2 Make it Stand Out 

The one key thing to remember about your CTA is to make it stick out like a sore thumb. 

Okay, well you don’t have to make it too ugly. But definitely don’t make it blend in. Put it in a different colour and/or put a border around it. 

We often see CTA buttons that blend in and look pretty. But this is not what you want, you want your CTA to capture your web visitor’s attention!

A Good Example of A Homepage That Does This Well

Denise Cowle does this fantastically. She includes a stand-out CTA that leads to a page about her service. There’s definitely no missing it!

FitRoots Martial Arts School do something a bit different. They include two CTA buttons that direct two slightly different audiences to the right place – people who will want to use their face-to-face martial arts school and people who want to join their online academy. This is a good example of how you can use your CTA buttons to direct multiple different audiences where they need to go.

If you appeal to multiple audiences, you learn how more about how to do this in our blog post: how to use your website to help two different audiences.

3. Your Promotional Area 

The promotional area is the area just underneath your hero section. 

This is where your homepage should work hard at getting your website traffic to where they need to go. It’s the ‘traffic cop’ of your homepage!

Here are some tips that can help you nail the promotional area. 

#1 Don’t make it too busy

Imagine a road sign which gives you directions. You see the word museum, but then there’s whole load of text underneath telling you all about the museum and why you should visit. It would be a bit confusing right? Especially if you’re driving past it at 50mph! 

This works the same as your promotional area. You don’t want too much here. Usually, you will one word that sums up your service, like we do on our homepage. And if that doesn’t give enough detail, include a brief sentence. But don’t have paragraphs and paragraphs of text. 

#2 Don’t have too many options 

Do you ever feel that when you’re faced with too many options you just don’t do anything? 

Yup, this is a common problem we see in promotional areas. Some people will have 6/8/10/12+ services and they’ll try to get their web traffic to pick one. 

But that’s a lot for our human brains to handle. Remember, they’re on your website. And when we use websites, we don’t like to think too much. And going through 12 different services trying to decipher which one is best for us is a bit too much. 

That’s why we recommend you have a maximum of three-four services or links in your promotional area. 

A Good Example of A Homepage That Does This Well

Clare Murthy is a baby photographer based in Surrey. Her website’s homepage is so clean and clear, especially the promotional area. She clearly directs people where they need to go based on what kind of photography they need.

4. The Opening Paragraph 

The second hardest thing to write on your website is the first paragraph or section on your homepage. 

That’s because it feels like you have so much to cram in about who you are and what you do in a very short space. It’s understandably difficult. 

But, here’s our one big tip about that first section on your homepage…

#1 Don’t make it about you 

Ever see this on a homepage? 

Welcome to my business! 

My name is x, and I have been in this business for x years. I do this. I do that. I. I. I. 

It’s a common mistake. And if this is you right now, this isn’t a criticism. As we said earlier, it’s incredibly difficult writing this paragraph and it feels natural to talk about yourself. After all, someone is on your website, right? 

But the biggest mindset shift when it comes to your website is that…it’s actually not yours. Or at least, it shouldn’t be. 

It’s actually all about your visitor. It’s about what you can do them. 

So when it comes to writing your first paragraph, put the emphasis on your web visitor and then introduce what you do. 

A Good Example of A Homepage That Does This Well

I love Debbie Ekins‘ opening paragraphs on her home page. She shows that she understands her audience and what they need, ‘You don’t have time to do all this marketing work,’ and she also explains how she can help. It’s a great combination of focusing on the reader, highlighting your own skills and getting your personality across.

5. Further sections of text 

You don’t want your homepage to be too long (as we said before, the main aim of the homepage is to get someone to the next page of your website as quickly as possible.) 

But you may want to include some other sections on your homepage to help you achieve this. 

This includes:  

#1 An About section

You may have a section on your homepage that talks a bit about you and how you help your customers. This section normally has a call to action button that leads to the ‘about page’. 

#2 A product/service highlight  

You may also have a section on your homepage that highlights a particular product or service. This section will have a call to action button that leads to that particular product or service.

A Good Example of A Homepage That Does This Well

Alex Pemberton does this really well on her website. Her about section explains what she does, but it still makes it about her reader too.

6. Your Lead Capture 

On your homepage, you can include a lead magnet (or freebie) to entice someone to pop in their contact details such as their email address. This is a good thing to do before someone leaves your website–as often, people will leave without buying! 

We’ve all heard the stat that someone needs to see your message at least seven times to buy from you – and you can’t guarantee people will keep coming back to your website. So collecting their email address and emailing consistently is the key here. 

#1 If your lead magnet is a newsletter, make it sound interesting 

Don’t just say, ‘sign up to my newsletter for the latest news’ because, well, that sounds boring!  Actually tell someone what they’re going to get and make it sound interesting and beneficial. 

If you want to understand more about promoting your freebies or newsletters, we have some tips in our blog post: creating lead generating websites. .

#2 Show the ‘lead magnet’ – make it tangible 

If you’re offering a free lead magnet such as a cheat sheet or guide, actually show what it looks like. Yes, it’s not a tangible product, but make it tangible! Make it look meaty and feel like an actual product. This is a sure-fire way to increase sign-ups!

A Good Example of A Homepage That Does This Well

The Membership Guys do this really well on their homepage. They show a screenshot of the video so it’s clear what you get. And they have a clear call-to-action button to sign up.

7. Social proof

You want your homepage to build trust and authority with your web visitor. There are two main ways you can do this – using testimonials or logos from the places you’ve been featured or awards you’ve won. 

#1 Avoid the bland testimonial 

Suchabody is so professional and friendly! 

Try to avoid this kind of testimonial. Professional and friendly isn’t exactly exciting – it’s kinda the minimum we should expect from a business. If you’re going to feature testimonials, make them interesting. Include stats about what was achieved. Showcase what it was really like to work with you. 

If you want to learn more, we also wrote a blog post on how to get amazing client testimonials.  

#2 Don’t go overboard on talking about awards 

You’ve won an award. Yay! 

It’s exciting when this happens. Of course, it is. But your customer’s level of excitement and your level of excitement is entirely different. 

Your level of excitement is: HOLY CRAP I WON THIS AWARD I’M OVER THE MOON!!!!! 

And your customer’s is: ‘Huh, they won that award. That’s nice. Anyway, back to me.’ 

Yes, feature the logo of the award you’ve won but don’t harp on about it on your homepage. 

A Good Example of A Homepage That Does This Well

Gavin Bell does this well on his website. He showcases where he’s been featured quite prominently on his homepage, but the section is also quite subtle too. You’ll recognise the logos as soon as you see them (and this builds trust) but he doesn’t go on about it at great length!

Don’t Forget This Homepage Design Tip!

Something to remember about your homepage design…

Section everything up!

Make sure your promotional area is in its own section.

Make sure your first paragraph of text and image of you is in its own section.

For example, look at the difference between the two below.

The top one has a testimonial next to the introductory text and image. The bottom image separates these two items out. One section is for the about. Another section is for testimonials. This avoids it looking too messy and overwhelming.

Download the Homepage Blueprint

You can download our homepage blueprint below. This is an in-depth guide into exactly how to create your homepage step-by-step so that you can build trust and increase conversions.

Lyndsay Cambridge

Owner at Jammy Digital, Digital Marketing Specialist and Writer of Young-Adult Fiction.

jammydigital.com

The post What You Should Put On Your Homepage To Increase Conversions? appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.

A lot of these mistakes occur on the homepage. Most people spend the majority of their time thinking about their homepage design, how it will look and what impression they want to give. But they forget the simplest rule:

The purpose of your homepage is to get your user to the next page.

It’s rare that someone will land on your homepage, pick up the phone and buy from you. Your homepage should act as a hub for your website. A reception area, if you will, which is designed to guide your user to the places you want them to go.

So, with this in mind, what are the most common errors we see on homepages?

1. You don’t make it clear what you do

This is the number one error we see. You haven’t told us what you do and why we should care.

The second we get to your homepage you need to clearly describe what it is that you do.

We call this a BIG BOLD STATEMENT.

Thinking of one for your business is harder than it sounds, so I’ve included some great examples below.

Freshbooks

Freshbooks say they offer ‘Small business accounting software that makes billing painless.’

You gain so much information from this one statement alone: their target audience (small businesses), what they do (accounting software) and their USP (painless billing).

Imagine if they didn’t have that statement and you had to figure out what they did from their business name?

Content Marketing Academy

CMA asks, “Ready to grow your business with content marketing?” and their sub-headline is “At the CMA we teach forward thinking business people and marketers to master content marketing, get better customers and increase revenue.”

Again, you get so much information from their statement: their target audience (forward-thinking business people and marketers), what they do (teach you how to master content marketing) and their USP (help you get better customers and increase revenue).

Users are lazy and impatient, and I can get away with saying that because I’m the worst. If I don’t see what I’m looking for within the first 3 seconds, I’ll hit that back button and go to another website. Don’t lose potential customers through something as simple as not explaining what it is you do!

How to fix it

A handy little tip to create a big bold statement for your business is to think about your products or service as a solution to your prospective customers’ problems.

We help [these types of people] get [this solution] by [feature of product]

We help [kids] get [more exercise] by [making it fun]

We help [business owners] get [invoices paid on time] by [sending reminders automatically]

There are many ways you can come up with your own statement, but the most important thing is clarity. Do you make it obvious who you can help? And how you can help them?

2. No Call to Action

Remember what I said earlier about your homepage acting as a reception? We’ve come across so many websites that give their users no clear direction.

I’m not talking about the top navigation bar; I’m talking about the pages you want to show your user. It’s best to keep these call to actions above the fold, so your users know where to go once they land on your homepage.

You could send them to service or product pages or your latest blog post. But think about the buying cycle. Don’t just shove your about page there because you feel that’s where it should go. Your user is on a journey and your aim is to shimmy them along to the end.

Good examples of this include:

SEO Moz

SEO Moz does a fantastic job of this. They combine both a call to action and clear instruction. As soon as you land on the homepage you have two options: one, ‘Get Started with Moz’ and two, ‘Get my free listing score’ – a very tempting call to action, especially with the word free!

They’ve clearly thought about their user’s journey, which goes a little something like this…

Homepage ——– Get Started With Moz ——— Start My Free 30 Day Trial

And that’s it. 3 steps and they have your details (including your card details).

Hotel Chocolat – ‘Exam Success’ Call To Action

Marks and Spencer ‘Back To School’ Call To Action

I always hear how e-commerce websites are different to ‘standard sites,’ but there’s no reason e-commerce businesses shouldn’t be directing their customers to their preferred web pages.

Both Hotel Chocolat and Marks and Spencer do this well. On their homepage, they’re predicting what their users will need. It’s Summer holidays, so both have identified that ‘exam success’ chocolates and ‘back to school’ supplies, will be something that their users will be looking for. Instead of having to traipse around the site, the user is presented with exactly what they want on the homepage.

Of course, getting a designer to design new images and then uploading them to your site can cost time and money, but it’s worth it.

How to fix it

Think about the one thing you’d like your users to do when they visit your website. How will you convince your visitor to take the next step with you?

Ideally, it would move them closer to becoming a customer, e.g., book a free consultation, check availability, etc., but at the very least your call to action would allow them to build up more report with your business and help them to consume more of your content.

3. No Lead Capture

Your website users will very rarely buy from you straight away. You’ll need to build up some trust before they do. This is why it’s a good idea to offer them something in return for their contact details.

This could be in the form of a tempting offer such as a discount on the first order, free delivery, free trial, free e-book/video, etc. Not only do you get their contact details but you also build trust, getting them comfortable with potentially making that first order or enquiry.

Good examples of this include:

Hubspot

Like Moz, Hubspot instruct what they want their users to do with an attractive call to action, offering free access to their products with a clear ‘Get started’ button. From here, they capture your details, and you’re now in Hubspot’s (very helpful) email machine!

If I could only critique one thing, it would be to make the text, ‘Free versions of every HubSpot product. Start now and upgrade as you grow’ larger, as I didn’t spot it right away. But, hey. They’re Hubspot. They know what they’re doing!

Also, notice how they also use the same, ‘Get Started’ button on the top right and bottom left? As the user’s eyes roam the page, they’ll be hit with both call to actions loud and clear.

Mum’s Meal Planner

We did a similar thing when we designed the Mum’s Meal Planner website. We crafted the words ‘Weekly Meal Plans Straight to Your Inbox’ along with a tempting lead capture offering a free sample in exchange for the user’s email address.

Notice again how there are buttons to sign up on both the top right and bottom left? Similar to how Hubspot does it, and yet they look completely different.

How to fix it

To be able to capture your prospects contact information, you can use anyone of these popular email marketing tools;

Aweber – Free Trail
ConvertKit
MailChimp

Each of these services will allow you to add an email signup form to your website and start gathering contact information.

Don’t forget to tempt people with a freebie of some sort in exchange for their information. And yes, it does need to be more appealing than “join our newsletter”!

4. Contact details

How would you like your customers to contact you? A phone call, contact form, carrier pigeon?

Whatever you decide, you need to make it obvious for your website visitors. I can’t tell you how many websites get this wrong.

If you want someone to pick up the phone and give you a call, put your phone number in a very prominent position on your homepage (and on every other web page for that matter).

Good examples of this include:

Jammy Digital

On our website, we feature a clickable phone number and option to contact us for a ‘quick chat’ via our contact form.

You have to be careful not to overwhelm people with too many ways of contacting you, but it’s a good idea to feature two or three. This is because some people may prefer phone or skype, but they might like to email instead.

How to fix it

You need to respect your visitors time, and making them scour through your website to find your details is going to frustrate them. This goes back to your call to action. Make your intentions clear and direct people without pissing them off.

Get your web designer to add your contact details on the top of each page including your homepage. 50% of searches are now completed through a mobile device. So please, make it easy for people on the go! Display your phone number clearly (as text, not an image) and make it clickable for people to call you

5. Attack of the logo

Logos are important. There’s no doubt about it. They encompass everything you are as a brand. People are proud of their logos, and I get that. But your web user is looking for information fast. You don’t need a humongous logo on your homepage, taking up all that valuable space!

Have a look at the brands below with logos hailed as the most iconic logos in the world. Look how small they are in comparison to the rest of the website. That’s exactly how logos should be displayed.

Good examples of this include:

McDonalds

FedEx

BMW

How to fix it

Speak to your designer or web developer about resizing your logo if it’s too big. Our logo at the top left is 317px by 65px.

It’s big enough to see and read but not too intrusive.

6. No Unique Selling Points

Yeah, I know, industry jargon. But highlighting your unique selling points is a grand idea. You don’t have to do this high up necessarily but have it somewhere on your homepage. And actually think about what makes you different from others. This does NOT include the following:

• Delivers excellent customer service
• Have been in business for over fifteen years
• We provide solutions to your problems

Think about what makes you stand out from your competitors and list them on your homepage.

Good examples of this include:

Grammarly

Take Grammarly, for instance. They state that they’re far better than a normal word processor and they that they can correct your grammar and spelling in email and everywhere across the web.

How to fix it

Think of what will appeal to your target audience and what concerns they may have about working with you – address those concerns head on.

You’ll need to think about what you do that no one else in your industry does and shout about it.

7. Social Proof

The term ‘social proof’ is not to be confused with social media. Social proof is about influencing people in a positive way. In business, social proof is used to make your potential customers feel more comfortable investing in you. It’s about gaining trust by providing proof that your product or service will be valuable to your audience.

Good examples of this include:

Social Media Examiner

Social Media Examiner uses some compelling phraseology to get you to sign up to their free report. They say ‘Join more than 620,000 of your peers’.

How powerful is that? It’s the kind of thing to get you thinking, well if so many other people like me have joined, why shouldn’t I? It’s a hugely influential phrase, added in bold for extra oomph!

Marie Forleo

Okay, so it might not be possible to get a photograph with Oprah Winfrey or Richard Branson. But Marie Forleo does a great job at presenting her social proof on her homepage.

If you can gain the attention of industry leaders, then it’s certainly a good idea to feature them on your homepage. This also goes for big companies you’ve worked with too.

How to fix it

There are many different kinds of social proof you can feature on your homepage, including:

• AUTHENTIC Customer testimonials
• Links to case studies
• Feeds from review websites such as Tripadvisor or Trustpilot
• Think about what will build trust in you and your business and showcase this prominently.

Summary

These are just a few examples of common mistakes people make on the homepage of their website.

However, please be aware that we’ve barely scratched the surface!

If you’d like us to tell you what costly mistakes you’re making on YOUR website, then book a website critique and receive a 30-minute, personalised video.

Over to you

Have you encountered any of these mistakes on your website? Or, is there anything you think we’ve missed? Let us know in the comments below…

Martin Huntbach

Web designer & marketer for small businesses. Martin is an experienced search engine and web design specialist, with over a decade of experience working with large corporations to small businesses.

jammydigital.com

The post 7 mistakes you’re making on your homepage and how to fix them appeared first on Content Marketing & SEO Agency | Get More Sales From Your Website.