Your website's homepage is the first impression users have of your brand. It's where visitors decide whether to stay and explore or click away.
By applying a few tried-and-true CRO best practices, you can guide visitors effectively. These practices help direct users toward actions such as making a purchase, signing up, or engaging with content.
A well-optimized homepage is a powerful gateway to conversion. It's not just about appealing design. Strategic placement of elements builds trust, reduces friction, and keeps users engaged. Aligning your homepage with user expectations and addressing pain points can greatly enhance user experience and boost business results.
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Best Practices
1. Add an "About Us" Section
The "About Us" section is often overlooked, but it is crucial for building trust and personal connection. First-time visitors usually seek information about your brand before making purchasing decisions.
By offering transparency about your mission, values, and story, you help customers relate to your brand. This section also distinguishes your business from dropshipping or impersonal websites. Additionally, it increases brand loyalty and encourages account creation.
2. Have a Clear Primary CTA
Your primary CTA should stand out both visually and contextually. Users don’t want to guess what the next step is. They expect guidance.
By making your primary CTA button more prominent through size, color, and strategic placement, you can quickly drive visitors toward key actions. With short attention spans, the faster you can lead users into your sales funnel, the better your conversion rate will be.
"It's important to make sure your primary CTA is clearly noticeable to guide users effectively. One key to enhancing your visual hierarchy is to prioritize actions with varied button styles—size, color, opacity, and placement. I often recommend using a prominent color and size for your primary CTA to maximize visibility, reduce friction, and ideally boost its conversions." - Martick Barogh, Design Manager at Prismfly
3. Do Not Push Pop-Ups Too Quickly
Pop-ups are a double-edged sword. While they can be effective, deploying them too early can frustrate users and drive them away.
Instead of appearing immediately, show pop-ups after users engage with your content. For example, after scrolling 50% of the page. Avoid gimmicks such as “wheel of fortune” pop-ups, which can seem unprofessional and disrupt the experience.
4. Display More Than One Product Carousel
Since most users land on your homepage, providing a broad selection of products is essential. Showcasing multiple product carousels caters to different customer interests.
This increases the likelihood users will find something which captures their eye. An additional product carousel can also encourage users to start their purchase journey sooner. Presenting more relevant options upfront makes it easier for users to make a decision.
An experiment was conducted for a client where an additional product carousel was added.
Results
- Add to Carts: +7.95% uplift
- Purchase Conversion Rate: +23.3% uplift
- Revenue per User: +22.6% uplift
All was achieved with just an hour of development work. This demonstrates how even small adjustments can create significant improvements in user engagement and conversion rates.
5. Do Not Hide Search Under the Hamburger Menu on Mobile
Search functionality is vital, especially for Ecommerce sites with a broad product catalog. Users who leverage search typically convert at much higher rates than those who don’t. Placing the search bar under a hamburger menu adds unnecessary complexity. Make sure the search bar is visible and easily accessible on mobile devices.
Additionally, analyzing search terms can provide valuable insights into what customers are struggling to find. This information allows you to refine your content and offerings to better meet their needs.
6. The Shopping Cart Icon Should Indicate the Number of Products
A small but impactful change is displaying the number of items in a user’s cart on the cart icon. This visual cue prompts users to review their cart and nudges them further down the funnel.
In an A/B test, making this indicator more prominent led to a 5.96% increase in transactions. This shows how a minor tweak can result in meaningful improvements.
7. Optimize Your Images
High-quality visuals are essential, but they shouldn’t compromise page speed. Slow-loading websites can lead to higher bounce rates and a poor user experience.
Ensure all images—product photos, banners, logos—are optimized for quick loading while maintaining quality. A fast-loading homepage improves user experience and contributes to better SEO performance.
8. Show Products in Usage Context
Letting the users assimilate themselves with the products you are selling is essential. Your customers want to understand how your product fits their everyday lives. Don’t make the users think and allow understanding of the whole context.
9. Emphasize Social Proof and Trust
A handful of testimonials in a multicolumn layout is no longer enough to build trust. Users are savvy and expect greater transparency from brands. Simply listing a few testimonials may not be sufficient to establish credibility.
To build genuine trust, highlight metrics which showcase the scale of your customer satisfaction. This includes displaying the number of happy clients, total reviews, or average ratings. Also, feature your Trustpilot profile or other well-known review platforms which potential customers already trust.
In addition to reviews, consider leveraging user-generated content (UGC) and showcasing your Instagram shop. Incorporating trust badges and verified credentials can further enhance credibility. These elements provide additional layers of security, making it easier for users to trust your brand.
10. Have an FAQ Section
An FAQ section can address common concerns potential customers have before making a purchase. It helps build trust and reduces friction by answering key questions about returns, shipping, certifications, and other product details.
Additionally, the FAQ section can address topics related to your customers’ expectations. Ensure your FAQ is clear, concise, and based on real user queries by analyzing your customer support interactions.
Conclusion
These best practices provide a strong foundation for optimizing your homepage and improving conversion rates. However, not all tactics will apply to every website.
Each site is unique, with its own audience, products, and goals. The strategies should be tailored to your specific context. Ongoing testing is crucial to identify what works best for your users. While these recommendations are effective, the most successful CRO efforts are those continuously refined through data-driven insights and experimentation.
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