As you may well know, your website is often your first chance to make a good impression on potential new customers. This is the place they will make a decision to convert, whether that be converting to a customer or a database subscription.

It’s obvious that there are certain pages on a website that are more important than other pages. What’s not so obvious is what a small business would need to do to capitalize on the traffic coming through to these pages. Knowing what pages to have on your website isn’t rocket science. Knowing how to optimise these pages for a better user experience and conversions takes a little more thinking.

If you’re no stranger to website analytics you may see there are certain pages on your website that always perform better than others. And more often than not these top-performing pages are the more important on your website. Why? Read on and I’ll explain.

homepage

This is a no brainer. You already know this page is important. It’s often the very first place users land when coming to your website. It’s also the most important page Google looks at when determining the function or purpose of your website.

It’s important to remember though, your homepage should be talking to the user. It should be addressing what they need to know, and what they are looking for. Your homepage should be helping a user get to where they need to go, quicker and with no confusion or hoops to jump through.

Things to optimise on your homepage:

I’ll say it again, it’s all about the user. Your website is an online shop front for your business, yes. But your message should be all about the user. What are they looking for? How did they come across your website? What do they really need? Your homepage needs to answer these questions the moment someone lands on the page.

Headline

The headline you use on your homepage should explain why the user is even on your site. Let’s look at the ActiveCampaign homepage as an example. Someone lands on the homepage because they are looking for a solution to their email marketing and automation problem. The headline on the page clearly talks to this problem and the users’ reason for being on the site in the first place.

Go beyond e-mail marketing with true marketing automation - Website screenshot.

Call to action

The next most important part of your homepage to optimise is your call to action. What’s the next step you want a user to take? The key here is, less is more. The more options you give to the user, the less likely they are to make a decision. Using the ActiveCampaign example, the next step they want their users to take is quite clearly to sign up for a free trial. Not only are they one step closer to making a sale, but they have also captured data for future nurturing and marketing purposes.

about page

If you have won them over with your homepage, the next page a majority of users will look at is your about page. They want to know what you do. How you do it. If your business is on the level. If you specialise in any particular niche or industry.

This is where you can talk more about your brand and your story. Think of this page as more of a soft sell to the user. You’re not selling them on your products or services. You’re convincing them that you are the right fit for them. Focusing on things like your unique selling proposition, experience and what makes you unique will connect with users and create more aligned buyers. You need to be giving the user a reason to trust you.

Things to optimise on your about page:

Let’s take a look at ActiveCampaign again and their about page. I believe they have done a stellar job at telling their story, convincing users they are the right solution for them [depending on the needs of the user], and creating aligned buyers.

Starting with their mission statement, they set the scene by saying why they do what they do. With the accompanying imagery of the team working with customers, this relates to the growing business owner who needs the support to connect with their own customers in a more meaningful way.

Mission statement - Help Growing Businesses Make Meaningful Connections with Their Customers.

They then go into more detail about who they work with, and the solution they bring. Many business owners struggle with this kind of technology. Sometimes it can become too complicated. And ActiveCampaign know and appreciate this. This is why they believe what they believe as they talk about in this section of their about page. You will notice they are starting to more clearly define who is their ideal customer, creating that alignment.

Here's what we believe. Web page banner / section example.

 

A video is always a nice touch. A brand video that talks to the culture and leadership within your business will go a long way in connecting with potential customers. It shows them the humans behind the brand. It doesn’t need big production value but certainly needs to be to the quality users expect in the modern world.

Alternatively, you could publish a video on the product, focussing on the features and benefits of your solution.

Here is ActiveCampaign’s video:

contact page

Again, another obvious one. I’m sure you’ve experienced a time when you were on a website and can’t figure out how to get in touch with them. A lot of people will default to scrolling to the footer in the hope an email address or phone number will be present. But a contact page should be the next step after a user has consumed any of the content on your website, whether that be a blog or your about page content.

Things to optimise on your contact page:

It’s important to make it easy for a user to get in touch with you and cater for different communication preferences. Some people will want to call, some may want to email. Others like to fill out a form on a website’s contact page. If you really want to get techy and have the resources to handle it, offer a live chat feature. Make it clear what each option will do with your calls to action. For example:

  • Email us
  • Call us
  • Chat with us

blog

Websites with a blog tend to have 434% more indexed pages. A very important factor of SEO is for search engines to have a lot of content to crawl and index. In simple terms, if you have a blog on your website with lots of content, Google will look for it and rank your website accordingly.

We all know the concept of content marketing – Attracting, converting, nurturing and closing customers by providing relevant information and education online. Should a user consume the content on your about page, they may then move to your blog to see if you have something that can help them solve a problem themselves. This is where you continue to build trust with your users.

Things to optimise on your blog:

CTAs

Include calls to action so users can subscribe to your blog or to download any of your content offers you have produced, like ebooks or whitepapers. You don’t want to push this on a user but you should still position these call to action sections in prominent places on your blog, and the individual blog posts themselves.

Organise your blog correctly

Users appreciate a blog that is organised correctly. By date. By topic. Even by content format. Ensure you have your posts organised in a way that is easy to navigate and consume.

Publish, publish, publish!!

A good blog needs to be updated regularly with fresh content. If users land on your blog and noticed your last post was circa 2015, they may start to doubt if you are still open business! Next thing you know they are moving onto the next potential service provider or product. Keep publishing content that is relevant to your ideal buyer and promote that content through your other platforms to drive traffic back to your blog.

It’s easy now than ever before to create a website. With all the page builders like Wix or Squarespace, business owners can easily create one over the weekend! Don’t just jump at the opportunity to create a website. Think about these pages first and the information you have on them. Think about the goals for each page and how you can optimise them accordingly.

Do you think you need some help with building a new website or updating your existing one? We build beautiful WordPress websites designed to showcase your brand in the best light and convert users into customers. Get in touch with us and let’s talk about your website project!

 

Originally authored by Tyson Cobb.