First impressions are everything. When you pass a corner store or small shop, the outside appearance can be a significant factor when deciding whether to go inside or not. The same is true for a website’s homepage.

Cluttered, unappealing designs can be a turnoff and could potentially drive away customers. Not only that, but by not applying the latest SEO-related standards, a page could be missing out on traffic entirely. Customers need to be able to find key information about an organization or specific products without jumping through hoops. This is where an optimally designed landing page comes into play.

An e-commerce homepage’s structure can be developed in many ways, and no singular approach is considered best. Why? Because every store offers unique products and has its own distinctive customer demographic. Nevertheless, everyone is encouraged to employ certain page design elements and features.

Below are a few enhancement strategies to streamline user experience and help boost conversions.

Homepage Best Practices and Tactical Features Worth Utilizing

Simplify the Design

One place to start is improving the page layout’s design by making it more straightforward. Having a simple and easy-to-follow route from the homepage to the checkout page can be a major factor in lowering bounce rate. This includes employing clear CTA headers and buttons along with an uncomplicated, keyword-optimized navigation allowing customers to traverse pages quickly.

Another homepage feature to keep in mind is the search bar. Best practices recommend having a prominent search bar that stands out for the customer. This may seem like a small detail, but research shows shoppers are 3x more likely to complete a purchase after using a site search. Go a step closer to optimizing user experience by incorporating Autofill.

Lastly, while keeping the page simple with few distractions is advised, including images of the most popular products is important, too. When visitors land on the homepage, they need to gain a clear understanding of the available products or services to encourage them to investigate further. Images with teaser text are the best approach. Along the same lines is having images or thumbnail images for categories and other internal links. Little details like these can make a huge difference in click and conversion rates.

Optimize for Mobile

With mobile commerce making up the majority of e-commerce sales, designing a site with mobile in mind is imperative. A site’s structure and its features should be built around a seamless, responsive experience on-the-go. Since the screen is small, keeping distractions to a minimum and navigation easy are imperative.

Examples of mobile-friendly features include a “hamburger” navigation button (which opens up into a side menu or navigation drawer), a one-click checkout process and large, tap-friendly CTA buttons. Be sure to perform extensive testing on the site on separate devices and apps. Ensure the processes for shopping and checkout are smooth no matter how customers choose to access the site or pay for the product or service.

Increase Load Speeds

Poor speed rates on a site can have a seriously negative impact on customers’ overall experience and thus, the likelihood of them converting. In fact, conversions can see a 7% reduction with a delay of just 100 milliseconds. A site needs to be optimized for fast load times especially for mobile. This means regulating for prompt loading while on mobile data and even the slowest of Internet connections.

Several factors may be slowing down a site’s operation. Large image sizes, bad plugins and inadequate server performance are some of the factors, so resolving any issues affecting site and page speed is essential. Testing is available through Google and other services to best determine how a site’s rate is being affected. Routinely testing for speed and following through on other steps towards optimization will go a long way in helping a site stand out from its competitors.

Additional Resources

Numerous approaches to boosting organic traffic and conversions work well. Begin by focusing on boosting site speed, refining page layout and ensuring peak mobile-friendliness. Through implementing straightforward improvements in these areas, you will be working toward giving the customer a better, more positive experience and increasing conversion rates.

For further ways to upgrade your homepage features, please see the accompanying resource.

Provided by Straight North