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Webbed Feet UK, web developers in Salisbury, Wiltshire

10 tips to improve your website’s homepage SEO

1. Explain what you do clearly

In a shop people often like to browse and take their time, but on the Internet they need instant results, and if you do not deliver they’ll move on. Users are often impatient and fickle. They will look at your website and decide in literally a few seconds whether it is what they are after, so be sure that it is immediately obvious what you do. For example on our strap line we wouldn’t say “Online solutions for local businesses”, we’d spell it out with something like “Web development and website design in Wiltshire”. Then there is no confusion.

2. Call to action

On each page have clear prompts to engage the user. If you are selling products you need a “buy now” or “add to cart” button, if you have a service you need “find out more”. It is even better if you can use an incentive such as “sign up for a free sample”.

3. Clear contact details

So you’ve convinced someone to buy your product or use your service; you now need to ensure that they can get in touch. Do not hide your contact details on your contact page, make them clear and concise, preferably putting the phone and email at the top of each page.

4. Capture user information

If you are giving something away, try and get something in return. If you have a competition, ensure that you capture a user’s email address or phone number, that way you can use them for future marketing campaigns.

5. Be proud of social media

So many people put Twitter icons on their business cards, yet have no reference of how to find them. We are @WebbedFeetUK, but we could easily be @SalisburyWebDesign or @WebDevelopmentWiltshire. So if you don’t put these details on you card, ensure that the icons are prominent on your home page, and make sure that they link through to your profile. How can people follow you if they don’t know where to look?

6. Use bullet points not block text

Back to my earlier point, people need instant results when browsing websites, so they are unlikely to read paragraphs of text. Use bullet points or small blocks of text to get your points across. If you must have blocks of text, make key words and phrases bold so that they grab the user’s attention.

7. Check your content carefully

On your home page especially, ensure that you are saying the right thing. People fall into the trap of putting their company history on the home page. It can often be useful information, but in the first instant a user is unlikely to care about when your company was founded and the history of its owners.  Keep it short and snappy, and ensure that only the key information is seen first.

8. Divide your content

If you have different kinds of users, it is likely that each one would only be interested in a particular area of your business. So make it clear on the home page what these areas are, and divide them so that a user only sees what they are after. A good example here is a school; here you could divide the website into “Prospective pupils”, “Current pupils”, “News & events” and “The school”. That way prospective pupils could see information relevant only to them, and current pupils and parents wanting to check on the date of the next AGM could easily find it. A series of buttons or boxes on the home page would allow users to move to the appropriate section quickly and easily.

9. Promote feeds and blogs

If you have a blog or news page, or if you regularly use Facebook or Twitter, include one or more of these on your home page. It will demonstrate to visitors that your site is kept up to date, plus of course it’s a great way of showing the personal side behind your business.

10. Put important information first

People view websites on different devices; some on desktop PCs with large monitors, other on smart phones or PDAs with small displays. For this reason users may not see all of your home page in one go, they will only see the top. Therefore put the important information first as this may be the only information that a user sees before clicking away to the next site.

11. User testing

I said there will be 10 tips but have included this final one as it brings the others together. After your home page is complete, print it out (landscape if possible) in colour, and if it overspills onto several pages only keep the first. Then go to some friends and family (or even strangers), without explaining what you do and ask them to look at it. After 5 seconds take it away, whether they have finished reading it or not. Then ask them a pre determined set of questions, asking perhaps for the name of the company, what they do, where they are located, and how you could get in touch. Their answer should be something like “The company was Webbed Feet UK, they are web developers in Salisbury, and I would get in touch by the phone number or Twitter icon on the left”. If they reply with anything less, then rethink your strategy!

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