You have 5 seconds!
Good Design is Catchy
If a visitor is intrigued, excited, or curious about your site within the first five seconds, they will probably stick around to check out some more of your site.
Otherwise, they will probably leave without seeing anything but the top of your home page. This is called a "bounce." Your monthly site traffic report will tell you your "bounce" rate - how many visits are bounces.
Your homepage has similar job. It needs to:
I. Show visitors what you have to offer
Modern websites often show their main content offering as a banner at the top of the homepage, in something called a "hero section." This is large, attention-grabbing, and invites further action,
A hero section:
- is at the top of your page
- has a large, high quality image
- has a headline that communicates what your site has to offer
- optionally, a sub-headline that gives further information
- and a call to action button.
Call to action (CTA)
- A call to action is a button, supported by a hero image, or text, that is an invitation to the visitor to view your most important content
- One main Call To Action button per page, that stands out visually.
- Motivate the visitor to engage with this Call To Action with well-chosen images and well-written text.
- The CTA button can be repeated on a long page, once at the top, and again at the bottom. A very long page could even have a third one in the middle.
Example hero section:
II. Make them want to enter and look around
What is the main thing you want a visitor to see or hear on your site?
Offer your most important content high on the page, where it can catch their attention.
Categorize and prioritize your content; for example:
- Gospel videos
- Audio Bible
- Bible text
Give example images, or selections of this content, in the first third of your homepage.
Think about what a visitor is looking for when they come to your site - and offer it to them as one of the first things they see.
Show example content on Homepage
For example:
- Verse of the Day
- One video
- One audio chapter / song
Then, give links to a page with more content.
Verse of the day
He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength.
Isaiah 40:29- John 1:1-34
- John 1:35-51
- John 2:1-12
- John 2:13-25
- John 3:1-21
- John 3:22-36
- John 4:1-26
- John 4:27-54
- John 5:1-18
- John 5:19-47
- John 6:1-24
- John 6:25-51
- John 6:52-71
- John 7:1-24
- John 7:25-53
- John 8:1-20
- John 8:21-36
- John 9:1-12
- John 9:13-41
- John 10:1-21
- John 10:22-42
- John 11:1-16
- John 11:17-57
- John 12:1-19
- John 12:20-50
- John 13:1-17
- John 13:18-38
- John 14:1-14
- John 14:15-31
- John 15:1-17
- John 15:18-27
- John 16:1-15
- John 16:16-33
- John 17:1-12
- John 17:13-26
- John 18:1-27
- John 18:28-40
- John 19:1-18
- John 19:19-42
- John 20:1-18
- John 20:19-31
- John 21:1-25
- Credits
III. Make your site easy to explore and find interesting content
A well-designed menu can help your visitors find what they are looking for, but a well-designed homepage with images and links to content can work even better.
Place links to your most important content near the top of the page, which might be the only part of your site your visitor sees.
Images can be used as links - these can give a taste of what the visitor will see on the linked page, and are good at motivating exploration.
Invite your friends and acquaintances to look at your site, and observe as they interact with your site - do they find the content, or are there parts of your site they do not find?
Speed matters
Making your site easy to explore also means keeping it responsive. Your homepage needs to load fast. A slow site is not easy to use, and is a frustrating experience that visitors won't want to repeat. Remember different users have different download speeds.
- avoid autoplay videos, since your page may be unresponsive until they are loaded.
- your images should be under 1MB - you can resize them before uploading.
- use a concise writing style - visitors won't read long blocks of text.
IV. Build trust
Your website is an ambassador.
- Building trust is very important to keeping visitors, and to conveying your message.
- Visitors evaluate your trustworthiness based on first impressions.
- Is it worth their time to consider your message?
Adding social proof can build trust.
Trustworthiness
Consistency
All elements of the website work together to present a professional appearance, including:
- engaging writing
- quality photography, images and icons
- tidy layout of the page, e.g.:
- all images have the same aspect ratio (use cropping)
Timeliness
A website that looks old, or has dated content that is years old, will not be considered relevant to today.
Social Proof
Comments and testimonials from actual users and visitors, from real members of your community can give weight to your message.
Real images from your community are more trustworthy than stock photos or A.I. generated art.
