Creating a Homepage that Converts

{Ad} One thing that I talk a lot about on this podcast is the balance between self-care and business. And that's because if we don't take care of ourselves, we won't be able to effectively run our businesses. We can't ignore the conversations that happen around being a business owner, and how that affects our stress levels and mental health. I've seen firsthand how running a business can put a strain on our mental health. And what happens if there's no one to talk to that can help. If you've reached a point where you might be feeling stressed, anxious, depressed or overwhelmed, then my sponsor BetterHelp is here to help you. BetterHelp offers licensed therapists who are trained to listen and help you. You can talk to your therapist in a private online environment at your own convenience and with a broad range of expertise and better helps 20,000+ therapists’ network, you can find access to help that may not otherwise be available in your area, and request a new therapist at no additional charge anytime. Simply fill out a questionnaire to help assess your specific needs, and get matched with a therapist and under 48 hours, schedule secure video and phone sessions. Plus, you can exchange unlimited messages and everything you share is completely confidential. Join the 2 million plus people who have taken charge of their mental health with an experienced BetterHelp therapist. Get 10% off your first month at betterhelp.com/strategy. That's betterhelp.com/strategy. {Ad}{Ad} Are you struggling to find clarity in your business? Do you feel like you're winging it as a solopreneur and lacking the confidence to charge your worth? Are you tired of the never-ending hamster wheel of content creation and marketing? If so, The Strategic CEO Accelerator Program is just what you need. This 90-day group coaching program will take you from struggling solopreneur to savvy CEO with a solid business foundation for success. In this program will cover everything from mindset and time management, to finding your messaging and making marketing that connects with your audience. You'll learn how to think like a CEO and create big picture goals with action plans to make them a reality. We'll help you build a brand identity that gives you the freedom to pick the clients you want to work with and find the work-life balance you deserve. With biweekly coaching sessions, personalized group assignments and feedback, access to a private community, email support and a mind map journal just for business, you'll have all the tools you'll need to build a better business. If you're ready to take your business to the next level, schedule a complimentary strategy session and learn more about how The Strategic CEO Accelerator Program can give you the clarity, confidence and consistency you need to succeed. Let's work together to build a solid foundation for your business and take your CEO skills to the next level. Visit strategybysasha.com/strategicaccelerator to sign up now. {Ad} Welcome to Strategy for Creatives: Business Minus the Bullshit. Whether you're new in business or find yourself in a season of change, get ready to build a strategy, create an action plan and crush those goals. I'm Sasha, host a strategy for creatives. And I help female led businesses grow their brands in authentic, measurable and meaningful ways, without the stress. There's no sugar coated here, I'm serving up real tips and actionable steps you can take to help get you organized, get off the path to burnout and grow your brand like a boss. So go ahead, pull up a chair, grab a notepad, and let's talk business. Welcome to Strategy for Creatives: Business Minus the Bullshit. I, of course, am your host Sasha and today we are going to dive right into it. I've been wanting to talk about this topic for a while, in fact, I even did a live on it in the Facebook group a couple of months ago. And it's all about creating a homepage that converts because I unfortunately, have seen so many home pages that are missing a mark when it comes to really doing the job of what a homepage is supposed to do. A homepage is a visual aspect that is going to drive your online presence and it needs to be able to convey a certain amount of information if we want to be able to have people clicking to other places. And there needs to be a balance between what it looks like visually and how it's going to function. And I know that so many of us... I was there when I was first starting out. In fact, I still do my own websites now. But a lot of us don't have the funds or the knowledge, the technical knowledge when we are creating our websites and so we either DIY it or we maybe buy templates or we hire people for relatively cheap and the homepage might not be doing what it's supposed to be doing. So I wanted to give some tips and tricks about how to really create a homepage that's going to turn these people coming to your website, into actual clients or customers, and things to think about when you're crafting your homepage. So the first thing, your homepage is the visual, aka storefront. Even if you're just a service based business, it is the storefront from your for your business, it is the first impression that you are going to make on any potential clients or customers that are coming to your website. And it's going to play a crucial role in converting people from just a visitor into a paying client. And so a well designed and optimized homepage is a powerful tool for growing your business and attracting the right people. If you can't tell, I'm a big believer in having a website, I know that there'll be some people who say you don't need a website that you can just function off of Instagram or Facebook, I think that your website is the only piece of the internet that you do own and that you can control. And if you are doing the SEO right, then Google is your best friend, then it's really is a place where you can talk directly to the people who are looking for whatever it is that you're offering. But creating an effective homepage is of course not without its challenges you want to like I said balance, visual appeal, and functionality. And that requires a lot of attention to detail that I think people often overlook, you want to be able to capture the attention and engage visitors, visitors, but you also want to have your brand identity and invoke desired emotions out of people. And it has to be functional, intuitive, easy to navigate, you want people you want to direct people to where they're trying to go on your site. And a lot of times that misses the mark. One of the biggest mistakes that I see with home pages is that literally after that top line, you know, at the top line essentially is when you go to website, what you see right at the beginning before you ever scroll, a lot of people put that about me section. And this is a personal pet peeve of mines. No one wants to know about you yet on that homepage, they want to know how you can help them first, they want to know what it is that you offer. And putting that about you. It used to be a big thing that people doing. But there are better ways to take up this precious space that is a homepage and get people to where you want them to go. And maybe that is learning more about you. But that shouldn't be the first thing that people are coming to when you're on your homepage, you want to be able to give them an idea of how you can help them what problem they have. And then how you can solve that and then direct them to navigate to wherever else information you have on your website that you want them to go to. So let's kind of just dive right into it. The very first thing when it comes to creating a high converting homepage is really understanding your target audience. Your target audience, I've talked about this before in previous episodes, they are who you are trying to get to purchase from you. And you want to have, in my opinion as narrow of a niche as possible, because it makes talking to that target audience so much easier. Your homepage should be tailored to speak directly to the needs, desires and pain points of your specific audience. Because when you understand your target audience deeply, you're going to be able to craft a message that resonates with them and compels them to take action. So just as a quick recap, if you haven't listened to the episode about finding your target audience, I'll give you some quick strategies about how to do that. And how that helps you when you're targeting. Or when you're creating your homepage. So that way you can target them to where you want to go. The first thing you want to do, of course, conduct some market research. Look at how you can gain insights into your target audience. And that's everything from demographics, conducting surveys or interviews, you want to look at people like who's following on Instagram, who's following our Facebook, who are the people that you want to be serving? What are their pain points and issues that they are having and how you can help them solve them. The best way to do this is by creating what I what I call your ideal client avatar buyer personas, there are different names for it, but essentially your fan favorite, someone who loves everything and anything about your business. What does that person do? What do they look like? Who is this ideal person that will love your business and you want to try? In my opinion, it's it works best when you pretend that it's one specific person. So create Anna or Susan, or John or whoever, and detail what this person is what are their demographic information? What are their professional goals, their pain points, what do they like to do on the weekends? Who do they hang out with? Are they married? Are they parents are they you know, what is it about them that they like to do that they have trouble with and create a person that is your ideal person and when you create this persona or this ideal client avatar it helps you understand who your target is, how to empathize with them and really how to talk to them more. You also if you already have clients you can listen and engage with them through social media forums, industry events, things like that you can really ask questions of people why they chose to work with you why they didn't choose to work with you what it is that they struggle with, how you can help them pay attention to the questions that they're asking you or the problems that they express that they're having, but more importantly, the language that they're using, because that's going to give you valuable insight into the pain points and needs that they have, and how you can solve them. And once you have a clear understanding of who you're targeting, you can create messaging that resonates with them. And when it comes to creating that messaging, for targeting, specifically on home pages, there's certain things that you want to keep in mind, you want to use empathetic language, so craft your messaging, that speaks directly to your audience's pain points and needs, and shows empathy and understanding of their challenges. And positioning your services or whatever you're selling, as a solution to what they're seeking. And I guarantee, you've seen this a lot on people's home pages, where it talks about I know that you feel like X, Y and Z, you're tired, you're burnt out, you struggle with whatever it is social media, branding, your logo, I totally have been there, I get it. Here's how I can help that's using empathetic language. And it essentially is invoking a feeling and people who are coming to your website for them to say, "Yeah, I do feel like this. Yes, this is me, I can see myself clearly and who they are talking about, how can this person help me", and then you go on to highlight the benefits. So you want to focus on communicating the benefits and outcomes of whatever it is that you're providing, rather than just listing bullet points of features. So instead of just saying, hey, my service means you get an hour of this, whatever it is just the bullet points, you want to kind of communicate, oh, I give you your time back, or I give you more time with family and friends, I give you peace of mind, I give you X, Y and Z the benefits that they get from working with you, versus just the listening because it goes back to that empathetic language, and helps in their mind create a picture of where they could be after they are working with you. So you're explaining how you can solve their problems, make their lives easier, fulfill whatever it is that they're wanting to achieve. In a way that is there's a clear before and after. You always, of course want to make sure that you're being authentic, and relatable by connecting on a personal level with your audience. So that means showcasing your own story. That is things like I've been there before, when I first started in my business, I was just like you, I didn't know how to do X, Y and Z. And that's now why I help people with this right. So share your story, your experience, or how your values might align with them, because it helps establish that trust and build a genuine connection. And then I personally do think incorporate social proof, you will have people have testimonials sometimes on their homepage. But it's good to throw in a couple on that homepage because it shows how you have helped people in similar circumstances. And people can see themselves and other people who are giving testimonials. So that social proof builds credibility, and reassures clients that you can deliver on whatever it is that you're offering. And that it's not just something that you're pitching that you have the results to back it up. So when you understand your target audience, and their pain points, their needs to desires and you're creating that messaging that resonates with them, you're going to be able to craft this homepage that's going to speak directly to what it is they want, what it is they're feeling, what they desire to be like, what their future endgame is. And that connection is what increases the likelihood of conversion and helps foster long term relationships with your clients. So that's key when it comes to building a homepage, you want to understand your target audience. So now let's dive into the actual key components of what a high converting homepage looks like. And I know that obviously, this is a podcast, so you can't really see. But I guarantee you, you've seen websites like this where you can, you'll be able to kind of picture what I'm talking about. And go to your website and see if these things are there. So a high converting homepage, it involves strategically incorporating these key elements that are going to engage your audience with them, but also going to get them to take action to where you want them to go. So there's a Google Analytics stat of like how long people stay at a website. If they're clicking through to other pages, you can follow that journey about where they come in from what other pages are clicking to, but a lot of what your homepage does is create that journey for them. You can direct people to where you want them to go on a homepage. And so designing it in such a way that gets them to like your services page or your about me page or to that book a call or whatever it is that you're trying to get them to do is important. The first thing that people see though when they come to your homepage is a hero section. It's literally in newspapers, it's called what's above the fold. It's that first thing before you start scrolling, and it should grab their attention, and clearly communicate the essence of your brand. And whatever your value proposition is. So you want to have compelling visuals, you want to have concise, so short, keep it short and impactful messaging, and a very prominent call to action, that's going to encourage them to go deeper into your website. So if you were to go to my homepage, my hero image gets straight to the point, it literally says "go from struggling entrepreneur to savvy CEO". That is what I help you with, I'm telling you right off the bat, this is what you get when you want to work with me. And it tells you like, Oh, if you're new in business, or you're going through a change, I help creative women do X, Y, and Z. And then there's a Learn More button, which goes to my services page, because it's meant to pull you in and be like, Yes, I do want to go from struggling entrepreneur to a savvy CEO. I do want to learn more about how you can help me right there. So it has a value proposition, it has a call to action. And it's getting you to go deeper into my website. If you don't know what a value proposition is, it's a just a short statement that communicates the unique benefits or service that you add and the value that your services add to a client's life. So you want to make sure that you can clearly articulate how you help people solve their problems, or fulfill whatever it is they're looking for. You can focus on either on what sets you apart from other people, or how you add value to your clients about why someone should choose you over someone else. But you want to make it prominent, you want to make it so that that's the one of the first things they see. And that it's capturing attention and generating interest. So that's what my value proposition is going from struggling entrepreneur to savvy CEO. And I literally tell you what I do I help creative women entrepreneurs go from stressed out solopreneur to confidence CEOs with measurable and meaningful action planning to help you grow your brand without the stress. And I use certain words for reason. Without the stress. I know that we are all stressed out and business is stressful. But I want you to I want to teach you how to grow your business without being stressed out. So that's a value proposition. So think about how you can help your clients what sets you apart, what it is that really will gain their interest. And then you want to make sure that you're including that. You also, like I mentioned earlier want to have social proof, including social proof on your homepage can significantly increase trust and your credibility, testimonials, things like pictures of screenshots of messages, or people's growth, case studies, statistics, anything like that. showcasing your successes can build that confidence, and potential clients that you are the right person to work with. It demonstrates that you have had positive experience with other people who have worked with you and reinforces that you're the person that they should be working with. We listen a lot to people's testimonials. That's if you've ever ordered from Amazon, you probably look at reviews for things, especially if it's like an unknown company. You know, you want to know whether this product is good. You're gonna look at the reviews about what other people are saying. People do the same thing when it comes to service based businesses, they are going to look at what other people are saying. And yes, obviously, we're cherry picking what goes on to our website, we can pick the best testimonials to put on our website, people know that. But if you have that, they are still going to look and say like,"Hey, these people look happy. I bet I can feel like that too". You also want to make sure you have a call to action, a strong one that strategically placed various places in your on your homepage. So not just one place you want to put it throughout. But you want to make sure that you have a call to action because it's vital in letting people know where they need to go next. So getting them to take that desired action. It can be anything from scheduling consultation, signing up for a newsletter, making a purchase, make sure that your call to action is clear. It's easy to find and use action oriented language that encourages people to click on whatever it is you're doing. So like mine says learn more. And on my services page, it's like sign up for a discovery call, like let them know exactly what you want to be doing or you want them to be doing. And they're more likely to take that action. So I want to give you just a few kind of examples of what this might look like depending on your business. So if you have a photography business, so your photographer, your homepage should have things like visual like stunning images of your work and your the pictures that you have taken because that's going to obviously draw people in. And then maybe you have your value proposition highlights what your unique style of photography is or what your approach is, like how you believe in taking natural photos, or I've worked with a photographer for years, who does our family photos, who only does film based photography. And that's really cool to me, and she highlights that as what sets her apart. So you want to make sure that you highlight what makes you unique. And then of course including testimonials from satisfied clients, and then a call to action that telling people to book a session or inquire about services. So if you're a photographer that's a great homepage, that's going to get people to take further action. If you're a graphic designer, you want to have a homepage that features a combination of eye catching design that you want that you've done, maybe creative typography, logos that stand out. And then a value proposition that's going to emphasize your ability to bring brands to life through innovative design solutions. So things like that, of course, you would have testimonials from happy clients who love the branding, and maybe even show how that branding has helped elevate their business or book new clients. And then a call to action that's going to request a quote or to see your portfolio or to get a media kit, something to that that's going to encourage further engagement and to have people like get on a list with you or to speak directly with you. If you are in the coaching coaching niche like me, or if you're a strategist, then you want to clean design something that's going to highlight you, but also have that value proposition about how you can transform your clients working, what they can expect when they work with you. So I clearly in mind, go from a struggling solopreneur, to savvy CEO. That's that transformation that people can get when they work with me, you want to have testimonials and success stories from previous clients that reinforce the benefits of working with you, I have a whole case studies page that I have on my website. But I also do have just straight testimonials right on the homepage. And then of course, call to action scheduled a discovery call or download this free resources, whatever you want to drive people to is what is where you want that call to action to go. And then, of course, some things to think about when you're creating a homepage and a little bit on the tech side. But most website builders should be able to help you with this, you want to make sure that your website is mobile responsive. So what that means is, what we see on desktop, of course, isn't the same thing that we see on a phone, it needs to be able to resize images and he's to load faster, a lot of people are looking at websites more and more on their phones, of course. So in order to make sure that your homepage is high converting and needs to be able to work on smartphones on tablets that it looks and functions, essentially the same on any platform. And that it loads quickly. Website speed is very important. So slow loading pages are going to lead to what's called higher bounce rates. And that's literally when someone comes to your website and then immediately leaves. If it's taking forever for your website to load, whether it's on a desktop or mobile, people aren't going to stick around for that. Unfortunately, we have very limited attention spans now, and so people aren't willing to wait. So you want to make sure that you are thinking about the speed of your website. And you're optimizing your website by compressing images, if you have a lot of plugins not using too many that are unnecessary, leveraging what's called caching techniques. So that improves the loading times it just compresses everything because a fast website is going to increase people coming to your website, staying on your website, increases engagement, and it's going to increase that chance of conversion. And so having things like an appealing design, optimizing for mobile, and then the speed that your website runs is very important when it comes to optimizing and designing a high converting homepage. So those are the things that you want to think about having your hero section, your value proposition statement, some social proof and a call to action. Notice I didn't say anything and about me, you don't really need that on a homepage. But those are the key elements that high converting home pages have. So one thing that I didn't mention, but that is also just as important is the copy on your website, I have seen so many beautiful websites who when you actually start to read the copy, you don't know what's going on, you have no idea what they're selling, you have no idea how they can help you. And it's just a jumbled mess. And so you want to make sure that along with the visual elements of your website, that you have engaging website copy, because it's going to play a pivotal role in converting people from someone who's just looking at you and potentially looking into your service to someone who's going to book with you. The words that you choose to put on your website, the tone that you choose the clarity of your message, it all makes a significant impact on how you are effectively communicating, whatever your value proposition is how you connect with your target audience. And it's important that you are thinking about how you are speaking to the people you want to connect with. If you can't at all possible some of the best money you can spend is on a website copywriter. Personally if you have to choose between hiring, hiring someone to design your website and hiring a website, copy editor, there are beautiful templates that you can have that you literally just plug and play you the words that you choose matter more. So if you are thinking about spending the money, and you only have the option for either someone to design your website or someone to write the words on my website, I would suggest words pay someone to write for you because it is important that you are clearly capturing the voice of your business that you're able to convey your brand personality, your values, your expertise, when you are able to communicate all of that, you can address the pain points that people are having, it's going to build that connection with people. And well crafted copy can invoke emotions, it's going to inspire action. And ultimately, it's going to persuade people to take action that you want them to take and to become a paying client of yours. So you really want to have the right words for your website. And if you're not good at writing, if you can't understand how to speak to people that you're trying to target, then that's money well spent. writing copy that speaks to your target audience and pain points is a little bit challenging, but you want to make sure that you are talking in a way that gets exactly to how people are feeling. So when you are doing that target audience research, through your that research, you should be able to understand what people's pain points are, what is it that they really struggle with? What are they trying to get to what motivates them to get to that particular point, maybe they want more time back, maybe they you know, want to only work three days a week, maybe if you're a photographer, maybe you know, they want to capture their family mom moments, especially like, let's think about something for real moms. There's not a lot of pictures of moms, in family photos, because we're normally the ones taking the pictures. So maybe my motivation is I want a photographer because I want a picture of me and my family photos. So think about what the pain points the desires and motivations are, and then tailor that copy to address those specific things. But also position you and what you offer as a solution. You always want to make sure you're using customer focus language. And that's things like, you know, I statements don't really work that well on websites, you know, I have it on mine, obviously. But when you want to say like you feel like this like you that way people can feel like they are understood and seen. So like maybe you're tired from working all day, maybe you never get to have family photos, maybe you know, if you're home organizer, maybe you're you're tired of your house always looking like a mess or not being able to find anything. When you do customer focus language, it lets people better sit into the picture that you're painting versus feeling like they are looking at somebody else. You also want to make sure that your copy highlights whatever benefits and outcomes that you and your services offer. So how do your services address their pain points? How does it help them achieve their goals, or enhance their lives like, incorporate storytelling into this so you know, show how Oh, you know, if you work with me, and you're an organizer, for example, and you hate grocery shopping every two weeks and you come home and you you know that you've just bought all this food, and then you open your fridge and you don't know what to make for dinner because you can't find anything right? Incorporate how instead you come home and everything has a place and you can get dinner on the table in 30 minutes because everything is organized now. So think about how you can highlight that after journey and the storytelling into it to showcase how you can help clients get to where they're trying to go that after is a very clear picture of what they want. And then again, testimonials, client services, you know, clients success stories, you want to make sure that you have that social proof, and then persuasive calls to action. So guiding people to the next steps, whether it's contacting you booking a discovery call making a purchase, signing up for a newsletter, whatever it is persuasive calls to action, you want to make sure that you are giving them a reason to click in no give them an email address or fill out a form. Why do they want to do that? You also want to make sure and this is very important, especially you know, if you are a technical type person, that you're using clear language that people understand and things that avoid any type of jargon that maybe is specific to your industry, but not necessarily the people who are buying whatever it is that you're offering. So you simple and straightforward language that's easy to understand. Avoid technical terms that can confuse people. When I think about graphic designers, oh, they do sub marks right? If you're not a graphic designer, you don't know what a sub mark is. It's a secondary logo. It's used in certain situations. So say that instead, right? Say what that means, instead of using the term that maybe the industry is specific you know, knows about. Break down complex concepts, right. And so something that's digestible and that people can understand you know, use analogies for things so for like a sub mark, you know, you can say you offer some marks or you offer alternative logos or secondary logos to be used in XYZ situations. Let people know exactly what you're talking about, and it makes it more accessible to them and more engaging to your audience. The big thing that SEO likes and I'll talk about this more in a moment, is headings. Subheadings, bullet points. This just helps with readability. Helps people scan content and copy more easily and allows people who are coming to your website to kind of quickly gas what they are trying to figure out those key points, finding the information that they seek right away. You want to make sure that you're keeping paragraphs short, that you're not running on too long. Nobody wants to come to a website and read paragraphs and paragraphs of stuff. Your homepage can have a lot of copy. But if you break it up in a way where it's just like, you know, heading subheading, a quick little paragraph image, like when you break it up like that, it doesn't seem as if it's so long, and it allows us for quicker reading, and people are going to keep scrolling. Versus if you come onto a homepage, and it's just like three paragraphs full of stuff, people are not going to read that. So you need to give them a reason to keep scrolling. So you want to just keep things short. And make sure that you are keeping visually, the focus is balanced between images, and then how much it is that people have to read. The last thing that I kind of want to talk about when it comes to optimizing your homepage is SEO, search engine optimization. It's important to do these types of things. It does help your website get found and it really just helps grow your website and get your website in front of the right people. I'm not an SEO strategist, I understand SEO like on a fundamental level, and I know how to implement it relatively well. But there are certainly people that you can hire that are going to be able to help you with these types of things. If you want to increase your visibility, though, then having SEO optimized is going to help with that. And there are certain things that you can do that are going to help your SEO. The number one thing you can do is keyword research. So do keyword research to identify terms and phrases that your target audience is using when they are searching for people like you. So whether that's photographer in Austin, Texas, or maternity photographer in Austin, Texas. One of the things I look for when I wanted to have a maternity session done when I was pregnant, was I wanted a photographer who did want like the whole first year. So I searched for like, you know, one year photography, maternity one year photography, and there are certain photographers that offer that where you know, they come into your, your maternity session, and then they do a newborn shoe. And then they do like the one year shoot a six month shoot, I think I had like four sessions done with my photographer and she's now my family photographer, because I love her so much. So think about what it is people are searching or googling when they are looking for businesses like yours, there are tools you can use like google keyword planner, or SEMrush, mild Keyword Planner, that are going to help you figure out what popular and relevant keywords there are, you want to focus on long tail keywords. So instead of just like photographer, you want to talk, you know, newborn photographer, Austin, Texas, small business graphic designer for beauty and wellness, like long word things that are more specific and more aligned with your niche are going to be better keywords that are going to target your audience more. You also want to make sure that your page is optimized your homepage so that that means a meta description and title tags that incorporate those keywords. So what are meta descriptions? When you go into Google if you search for something, and it comes up like the website title, and then it has that little description underneath, that's a meta description, it provides a brief summary of whatever's on that page, and let people know what they can expect if they go to that page. And then of course, the title is clickable. That's the headline that appears in the searches. So you want to make sure whatever that title is, relates to some sort of SEO word that you're using. And then that description that meta description also has SEO content in it, because that's what Google and search engines are looking at. And it's going to entice people when they see a pop up on Google to click through to your wage. So you you can do various things for this. So I on WordPress, I use Yoast a plugin that helps me write meta descriptions. It helps it tells you whether it's a good SEO optimized one or not based on whatever your keywords are. So there are definitely plugins that you can use for this. But you want to make sure that you are doing meta descriptions for every page of your website. But especially for your homepage. You also want to create quality content. So creating high quality content that's valuable on your homepage is essential for SEO. So it should include the pain points, the needs of your target audience. But it also wants to have like those SEO words, that keyword research you have, you want to make sure you're including those somewhere on your homepage, because that's what's going to show up in search engines. But throughout your website, you want to make sure that things like blog posts or article guides, any things that you're offering on your website has those targeted keywords, because that's going to make sure that it's going to pop up when people are searching for it. And then you also want to make sure that you have you've thought about your user experience and your stripe your site structure, because that is something that SEO looks like. So you want to make sure that your homepage and your website in general, are user friendly, that people can see where they're supposed to go that it's easy to navigate that the loading speed is fast. So that's going to help improve with that bounce rate that I talked about earlier. You want to make sure that you're organizing your content with headings, subheadings bullet points, Google loves things like that. It's just easier to scan when you're reading and it makes it there There's a readability score that that works with SEO. And if it's easier to read, it's more likely to get pushed forward and search content. So that's important to have that user experience in mind and that your site is structured in a way that is easy to navigate and make sense. I already talked about mobile friendliness, but making sure that your site is optimized for mobile is a part of SEO, you want to make sure that your homepage is responsive, that it adapts seamlessly to different screen sizes. And you want to make sure you're testing this. And there, again, are plugins that can do it most website creators, you can flip through a desktop view, a mobile view, and it'll show you exactly what it looks like. But you want to make sure that that is optimized for mobile, because it's an important part of SEO. And then there is such a thing as backlink building. So backlinks are when, essentially another website is pointed to yours, or you're pointing to another website, because it makes you look more reputable. for SEO purposes, when more people are referencing your website, or you reference other people's websites, Google's like oh, this is real. So you want to think about opportunities that you can have with either guest posting or collaborating with other industry influencers, participating in relevant online communities where you can post links back to other content, or they can post link back to your content, because that's just going to increase your website's visibility. And it's going to make your website sound more authoritative, which Google likes it, Google feels like you know what you're talking about. And more people are pointing to you as a frame of reference, then they think that your website's more credible, and therefore are going to increase it in the search rankings. So just a couple of things to think about when it comes to SEO. So I know I talked about a lot when it comes to converting a homepage into something that converts customers. But it is important the key things I want you to remember, a hero section, value proposition. Make sure you have testimonials, make sure you have good calls to action. Think about having a copywriter, if you can, and then creating copy that's going to speak directly to your target audience, because that's very important. Make sure that you are thinking about SEO, that you're balancing the visual aspects of what your website can do, versus what it is that it's actually saying, if you take anything from this episode, one thing you can do look at your website, think about how the lines with all of the key things that I discussed, make a list of maybe where areas you can improve, prioritize it based on importance. And then you can slowly work through that to kind of improve your homepage. And it could be anything from updating whatever your value proposition statement is, adding those testimonials, making sure that your website is optimized for speed or for mobile use, look at what your website is now and then kind of figure out how you can make small changes to make it better. And then if you haven't done so take some time and research those keywords that I talked about for SEO, and think about how you can optimize your homepage for better search results. So updating your meta descriptions, doing title tags, including key words into your copy. And that's just going to help with SEO and make you easier to find on Google. So I hope that I know this, this show was a little bit longer than I normally do. But I really wanted to dive into homepage and what it takes to make a high converting homepage because there's so many people who have, like I said, visually appealing websites, but the copy might be horrible. Or the website is geared towards the homepage, especially says you know, here's who I am. And this is what you know about me. No one cares about that when they are coming to your homepage. Remember that people are coming to your homepage because they want to learn what it is that you do, how you can help them how you solve their problems. Anything other than that is just extra speaking to that is how you can get people to go from people who are visiting your website to people who become clients through your website. So think about how you can speak to pain points how you can talk about what it is that you saw that clear before and after visual of here's where you are right now, here's where you are after you work with me is going to convert more people into your website. So I hope that you found this episode useful. And that you've been able to take a couple of things back, you can look at your websites and figure out how you can just make small tweaks, small changes to make a homepage that's going to convert better. Happening next week on the Strategy for Creatives podcast, I'm talking to Jessica Connelly, founder of the Creatives Apprentice, and we're talking about how to simplify your business so that way you have the brain space to create more. So make sure you tune in next Tuesday to catch the episode. Thanks for tuning in to the latest episode of the Strategy for Creatives podcast. I hope you enjoyed the insightful discussion, and hopefully found valuable tips that you can put in your business today. If you found the podcast helpful, I'd love it if you take a moment to rate and review the show on your favorite podcast platform. Your feedback helps me make a better show and reach more listeners like you. And don't forget to share the podcast with your favorite business owner who could benefit from the strategies and insights I share on the show. New episodes come out every Tuesday, so make sure to subscribe and stay up to date with the latest trends and techniques for growing your creative business. If you want more don't forget to join the Strategy for Creatives Facebook group, or you can follow me on Instagram @strategybysasha. Have a topic suggestion or a question you want to hear answered? Email me at hello@strategybysasha.com Thanks for listening, and I'll see you next week with another episode of the Strategy for

Business Minus the Bullshit podcast. Part of the Boundless Audio Podcast Network