Optimize your homepage

Based on Make Your Homepage Hit Home: 5 Optimization Tips to Drive More Leads & Conversions by @guy_yalif

Business benefits

Make website visitors comfortable and more likely to explore your site.

Think about the key content that you want visitors to see as soon as your homepage loads in their browser. Place this above the fold so they don’t need to scroll to view it.

When deciding which content to display above the fold, ask questions like:

  • What do we want the visitor to see? For example, key product images, videos, and metrics.
  • What do we want the visitor to learn? For example, who your brand is and how your products can benefit them.
  • Which CTAs do we want the visitor to engage with? For example, demo requests, free trial signups, or content downloads.

Test multiple variations of each of these elements in tandem so you can serve the right combination of variations to the right visitor.

Example of using the above-the-fold area well: Sumo Logic

Sumo Logic’s homepage has a lot of key elements above the fold. First and foremost, they captivate their visitors with a compelling statement about how Sumo Logic addresses a key pain point – faster monitoring and troubleshooting. They also have two prominent CTAs where visitors can opt to start a free trial, and include several customer logos as immediate social proof for a prospective buyer.

Tailor the customer logos that you display to a prospect based on their industry, audience, or location.

By tailoring your customer logos to reflect a visitor’s industry – or even show their competitors! – you’ll instill a sense of confidence that your solution is a good fit for them. When you know what a prospect’s industry, role, or interests are, you can showcase the most relevant logos you have to pique their interest.

For example, you’ve identified your visitor as a Verizon employee. You can then deliver personalized logos that match their industry to show that their competitors have seen success with your solution, by personalizing the displayed logo farm to include Sprint, T-Mobile, and Vodafone.

Personalize elements of your homepage based on the visitor’s industry or role, the size of their company, and their previous behavior on your site.

Take the visitor’s journey thus far into consideration to make sure your personalized messaging resonates with them. For example, treat returning visitors differently to new visitors. Welcome them back to your site and serve them a relevant CTA that matches where they left off the last time they visited. This small gesture makes your prospect feel recognized and welcome and helps you meet your prospect where they’re at in their journey with you. You not only delight them but are helping increase their chances of converting.

Example of personalizing homepage elements: Drift

Drift tailors their homepage messaging to welcome back a returning visitor in the marketing industry. They serve up a CTA to See Drift on your site. This kind of CTA creates a sense of urgency for the returning visitor who is further along in their journey and getting ready to convert.

If your prospect has arrived at your homepage directly from an ad, be sure that the page mirrors important elements of your ad content in the look and feel, messaging, and CTA.

Don’t make them regret clicking on your ad – create a seamless experience that meets their expectations and reaffirms they’re in the right place.

Add social proof to communicate to visitors that your product does what it’s supposed to do.

Social proof:

  • Instills confidence that your visitor is in the right place by showing them that their peers and competitors are succeeding with your product – and creates a sense of FOMO.
  • Shows your visitor that your solution can help their business achieve better results and that it works the way it’s supposed to – that the claims you make in your messaging are backed up with actual evidence.

Case studies or testimonials from your current customers show prospective buyers that your product has met or exceeded their expectations.

Consider personalizing the social proof on your homepage in these ways:

  • Surface content based on your competitors: If your existing customers have used popular competitor products in the past, add case studies and social proof that highlight how your customers have achieved better results with your solution compared to a competitor’s solution they previously used.
  • Speak to your prospect’s pain points: Often a prospect is looking for an alternative because their current solution isn’t giving them the results they need or is difficult to use. Consider showcasing common pain points – and how your solution solves them – in your social proof to grab a prospect’s attention.
  • Refine your content based on the prospect’s industry, role, or interests: This helps you tailor the page to feel more like a personalized landing page to the prospect, where only relevant content is shown.
  • Surface content based on the prospect’s competitors: Displaying social proof based on a prospect’s competitors shows that your product is a good fit for their specific industry.
Examples of social proof: Clio and Snowflake

Clio’s homepage highlights that their legal software is approved by 70+ bar associations and law societies, showing visitors that it is a trusted solution in the industry and instilling a sense of confidence in prospective buyers.

Snowflake showcases a testimonial from HubSpot on their homepage, which discusses how their customers have saved time and money using their platform.

Configure multiple chatbots to address different audiences. Build audiences based on the prospect’s value to your brand, industry, role, the solution they’re interested in, and previous website behavior.

  • High-value targeted prospects: Set up your chatbot with messaging specific to nuances of their industry or company. Show them a CTA that suits them. Make it super easy to connect with your team, offering a phone number, live chat agent, or a discount or special offer they can’t refuse.
  • Lower-value prospects: If they aren’t the right fit for your business or are lower-value, consider guiding them to self-serve options or a solution that is a better fit.
  • Match information and language to what you know about the prospect: For example, a prospect in the airline industry could get a chatbot that includes aviation lingo or specific context-sensitive dialog trees.
  • New or returning visitors: When a prospect is first testing the waters with your company, use a level tone with generic but encouraging messaging that gauges their interest. As the prospect moves down the funnel or repeatedly visits the site and you know they’re more invested and probably have high intent, shift the tone to be more sales-focused.
Example of personalizing chatbots: Gong

Gong’s chatbot, BrunoBot, recognizes returning visitors and swaps out different messages on each return visit to try to engage with the prospect.


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