The Homepage Interview
By Kim Krause Berg
It's easy to overlook important information that your website visitors
may need when they first arrive to your homepage. While landing pages
are helpful in guiding searchers to your site, eventually even these
folks will find themselves on your homepage. Everyone has the same basic
questions.
These questions revolve around Who, Where, What, When, Why
and How. Answering them is fun, and not as obvious as you might
believe. Using them as guides for credibility, trust, persuasiveness
and desirability is an added bonus for your overall conversion rates.
Don't settle for a brief welcome statement that offers no guidance or
spark of interest. These six words can help you add some zing!
Who
Firstly, who are you? This is a basic question. It’s often answerable
by a logo. A logo is not that exciting, nor is it likely completely
descriptive. Just ask Google. Add a descriptive tagline, which contains
keywords and explains the purpose of the site or points out a valuable
detail.
"Who" is found in your business address. Evaluate whether
it is important to your business to provide an entire business, office
or headquarters address, or simply a whittled down version. Many websites
offer no clues about their country of origin, language and whether or
not it targets a global or local target market. Search engines benefit
from finding a zip code and town, in text, on your homepage. This increases
your page’s chance of coming up in local searches, or whenever
a search engine determines a local result fits someone's search criteria.
Who you are is not enough, however. Who are you selling to? Men, women,
old, young, here, there, and yes, if you offer senior citizen discounts,
don’t hide this fact. Who would benefit from your products and
services? Who is on your staff? Who is your sales representative? Your
visitors want to know who you are. You are much more than your website
or company name.
Where
Your location is important. If you place “Call our toll-free
phone number” on your homepage, it’s helpful to know what
country, at least, your company is located in so that somebody from
half-way around the world understands when to call. If you run a local
business, targeting local sales, is this obvious from your homepage?
Is your site a headquarters with offices worldwide? What is the native
speaking language? This may be important for those who are uncomfortable
doing business outside their own country.
Some site owners know people will not buy certain products, such as
medical supplies or drugs, from outside the USA, for example. Therefore,
they pay for fake addresses, or display addresses that are nowhere near
the company’s true home base. Determine if you need to offer a
map to validate an address, or register with places such as the Better
Business Bureau, to improve credibility.
Small businesses, if you work from home, rent a postal box, or explain
that your home-based business is located in a certain country or province
and leave it at that. There are other ways to prove your credibility
and authenticity, without losing your right to privacy.
Included for “Where” is addressing where your target market
is coming from. There may be instances where your content can address
people from certain towns, cities, countries or schools. This information
offers instant validation to your homepage visitor that they have arrived
at a place that is intended for them.
What
This may be the most obvious point to address on your homepage, and
the most challenging when you truly understand the real question. ‘What”
is more than just what your product or service is. That’s the
easy part.
What also pertains to what action do you want them to take once
you tell them what you do? I’ve been to sites that spend
so much time explaining what they’re about, but forgot to say
if you could order it online. Remember, this is the homepage we’re
focusing on. It’s not helpful to make anyone click around to figure
out what services are offered, or what ways they can buy the cool products
displayed on the homepage.
What credit cards do you accept? What award did you just receive? What
do customers think about your services?
"What" is also where you can offer the value proposition,
features and benefits. Do this by understanding and then addressing
the one big question your visitors have – “What’s
in it for me?”
The more you describe what you do or sell, the more information someone
has to base decisions with. You aren’t wasting their time with
this one. The value and benefit of your “What” may be greater
or more substantial than the competitor’s site, who forgot to
include this part or can’t offer a better deal.
When
This is easily an overlooked element on homepages. Everyone has a “When”
question. It may be “When I call you?” List office hours
or store hours, or when your “live help” person is on duty.
When can orders be taken? When do you ship? When is the sale over? When
is the clearance sale going to start? When will the next shipment of
your hot items arrive? When can they order? That one is easy, and one
reason you should use an “Order or Buy Now” button in some
cases. (There are reasons for its sister button, “Add to Cart”,
too. You may discover you need both.)
I recommend that you walk around your whole site and ask each page
the “When” question. When can they print a page? When does
the confirmation email arrive? When does the next news update occur?
You can go nuts with this one, but the more you answer this question,
the more confident your visitors will feel about you or the company.
Why
Related to “What”, is “Why”. This is where
you lay out the value proposition and marketing content, in more detail
, but be thoughtful and precise. Do you want a homepage that scrolls
forever about why your product or service is the best there is? Or,
can you nail the top-level benefits and link to more of them inside
the site, where additional information and call to action prompts are?
Why will this product make someone smarter, thinner, richer? Why do
3 billion people around the world use it? Why are you so smart,
thin and rich? Why is your book on the New York Times best sellers list?
Why are the gems in your necklaces so special and will rose quartz really
heal? Will being rich make life better, really? Why are the parts on
this product better than the parts on a similar product sold by the
other company? Why are your qualifications important?
Why did you name your website what you did? I have a friend whose
online business has a good reason to answer this question. The site
(and company) name cover two unrelated topics, but the company has combined
them into something unique. Customers want to know what inspired this.
This is not an excuse to go on an ego trip. It’s an opportunity
to show your passion. It’s how you define your offer. Do the homework
for the many people who are still comparison-shopping, and convince
them you have what they want and need.
How
Finally, how do offer your product or service? If there’s a shopping
cart, strong identifiers are a login and cart icon at the top of an
eCommerce website. Other clues are links to “Track your order”,
“Your account” , buy buttons and order instructions.
In addition, your visitors have Time concerns. Timing is vital for
sales. In addition, it communicates your readiness and ability to stay
current and up to date.
Are they limited time specials? How often does your blog update? How
often do you send your newsletter? How many clicks does it take to get
to pricing? You may not address this one via content, but your navigation
or embedded links to “Price Comparison Chart” or “View
our prices” conveys how long it takes to get to vital information
for comparison shoppers. How many products are in inventory? This may
express expertise, for example. How many people subscribe to your newsletter?
This may indicate popularity and length of time in an industry.
The purpose of interviewing your homepage may seem more practical to
you now. Answer the six questions by providing focused content, navigation
links and descriptive labels, bullet points, and small size instructive
text.
They all contribute to your web site’s overall credibility.
Bio and Copyright
Usability Consultant, Kimberly Krause Berg, is the owner of UsabilityEffect.com
(www.usabilityeffect.com), Cre8pc.com
(www.cre8pc.com), and Cre8asiteForums
(www.cre8asiteforums.com/). Her background in organic search engine
optimization, combined with web site usability consulting, offers
unique insight into web site development.
Copyright 2006 Cre8pc.com. All Rights Reserved. Reprint rights by Permission
of the Author