Developing the Ideal Homepage – 5 Key Elements to Consider

Would you like to attract online visitors easily and reduce your website's bounce rate without purging your purse? Then it is time you got serious with your homepage.

Just for reference, your visitors can land anywhere on your page. However, most people go to the home page first, and you only get one chance to make a good first impression. Most people will go looking elsewhere in less than a minute if your homepage doesn't impress them. This is why it is important to ensure that everything on your homepage is perfect.

So, what makes a perfect homepage for practices offering complementary therapy? Here's a comprehensive guide on the important elements to include in your homepage.

The Importance of a Perfect Homepage

Everyone familiar with e-commerce knows about the 15-seconds rule: most users leave a website within 15 seconds. This is as long as it takes for your visitors to determine whether your website (and you) can help them. It all hinges on your homepage's content.

Your homepage's main goal is to give your visitors a glimpse into your practice. It functions as a guide to the pages with the necessary information.

Think of your website's homepage as a chance to introduce yourself to your potential customers. Tell your visitors what you do and, most importantly, how you can help them. The trick is to do it with some degree of finesse and simplicity to not come off as a hard sell. This is what makes the homepage a make-or-break factor for most of your visitors.

Important Elements to Include in Your Homepage

Simplicity and finesse are the way to go when developing your homepage. Some of the important elements that should feature on the page include:

1. A Simple Hero Message

A hero message is the first statement on the homepage. It is usually written in bold and in a large font to capture readers' attention easily and quickly.

A hero message should show your practice's best side in a nutshell – essentially, it is a short message marketing your practice. It seems simple since it is just a few words, but it often proves tricky – how can you make the ultimate marketing statement in a few words without coming off as a show-off?  

Most people try to be clever and compromise directness and clarity as a result. Being clever may seem like a good way to stand out, but it often comes off as an exaggeration. The best way to go is to be clear and direct. Tell your audience what you do and why you are the best at it in one or two sentences.

2. An Overview of Your Services & Products

What type of therapy do you offer? Are you a yoga instructor or a massage therapist? What types of yoga poses or massages do you offer?

Most of your visitors come to your page with a specific need or want, and they will go ahead to fulfil it if your homepage convinces them of your competence. However, they need to be sure that you offer whatever they are looking for.

Consequently, it is prudent to include an overview of your products and services. The overview should be brief and clear – ideally, your visitors will go to your services page if they want to learn more.

3. Success Indicators

Your website is one among thousands or millions of other websites all offering the same thing. So, what makes your practice unique? More importantly, why should your visitors stick around and purchase your products or services?

Success indicators are not meant to be a way of showing off, and they shouldn't come off as such. Instead, they are designed to show tell your visitors what makes you stand out – and why they should trust you.

Success indicators come in many forms. The most common are honest customer reviews praising your practice. You can also showcase your awards and certifications in your field of practice. Additionally, you can win many of your visitors' confidence by highlighting some of your most valuable clients (usually big brands or popular personalities).

4. Calls to Action

Your homepage's ultimate goal is to get your visitors to become clients. The easiest and fastest way to do this is by including calls to action (CTAs) at strategic parts of the homepage.

The CTAs on your homepage should be easy to spot. However, they shouldn't feel intrusive – the idea is to convince (not force) your visitors to become clients. They can also serve other purposes besides converting visitors into clients – for example, you can get visitors to sign up for your newsletters.

5. Essential Technical Elements

All components on your homepage matter, including technical elements such as the background colour and navigation bar. In fact, these elements usually have a significant impact on your homepage's (and overall website's) SEO, thereby determining how many visitors you will get in the first place.

One of the most important elements is a navigation bar containing links to every page on the website, including your products and services pages. The navigation bar will help make your homepage and website neat and easy to navigate.

Other technical elements to include in a homepage include:

• • Colours
  • Images
  • Graphics
  • Headers and footers
  • Contact forms
  • Social media links

These and other technical elements should be strategically suited to your homepage and website. For example, the background colours should reflect your brand's colours. Additionally, the images and videos should be entertaining, informative, and flow with the tone.

Final Thoughts

These are some of the most important elements to include in your homepage. However, don't limit your homepage to one standard or template – instead, be yourself and show your readers what you have to offer and how you stand out from the competition. However, don't go overboard, as a cluttered homepage will be overwhelming and make you look disorganized – again, it is all about simplicity and finesse.

A good homepage is one of the many elements necessary to having a thriving complementary practice. If you're looking for professional support in 2022, IICT is here to provide membership, insurance, resources and a global community for complementary therapists who work in 1,100+ modalities. Find out how to get professional recognition, credibility and insurance with an IICT Membership.