Although every website will be slightly different, the large majority follow the same basic template. There is likely a section for content, another for purchasing products, an about page to explain the story of the company and a contact form for visitors to interact with the brand.
Most companies will spend thousands of dollars to create the perfect site, yet they often forget about these five pages, leaving them in their cookie-cutter format. Although improving these pages isn’t going to triple your revenue overnight, it helps your brand to stand out and to create long term fans.
If you look at the brands and websites that have cult followings, they often stand out significantly from others in the industry. They’ve done something slightly different so that they represent something more in line with what their customers are looking for.
In this article, we’ll be looking at the five pages on your site that probably suck and showing you what you can do to make them a million times better.
Homepage
Depending on your marketing strategy your customers are likely to land on your homepage or never to see it. Some brands choose to market inner pages exclusively, sending visitors to blog posts, content or product pages. In this case, the homepage might not be super important.
On the other hand, many businesses will often send traffic directly to their homepage because it allows potential customers to navigate the site easier and to understand the companies offerings.
In either case, your homepage should be thought of in the same way as a store front would be. The inside could be the most magical thing that the world has ever seen, but if it looks terrible from the front, it’s unlikely that many people are going to go and deeper and find out.
Perfecting your homepage should be a constant pursuit. You should be regularly changing your homepage to ensure that it is kept up-to-date with the latest information, the newest photos and the most recent blog posts.
Deciding what to put on your homepage should be super simple; what do you customers want to see? If you’ve never heard of the company before, what do you want to read?
For example; if you’re a local cake maker then potential customers are likely to want to see photos of your cakes, testimonials, reviews and location information. It’s probably a mistake to put your blog posts on the homepage, at least not in the prime page locations.
404 Page
The 404 page is likely the most overlooked page on a website because the website owner will hopefully never end up seeing it. With this in mind, many of us forget to do anything with it.
The large majority of websites use their 404 page to tell users that the page no longer exists, but surely there is something better you could do with the page?
It’s far smarter to use the 404 page to direct users to take action, i.e. follow us on Instagram and show the user a bunch of awesome photos from your account. Or, you could use a widget to automatically encourage the viewer to check out your latest blog post.
The idea is to turn a “nothing here” page into a call-to-action that can benefit your brand.
About Page
Your about page probably gets far more traffic than you imagine. Plenty of customers want to know who is behind the brand and what they stand for before they are willing to part with their hard earned cash.
If your about page only includes a small chunk of text, then you’re wasting a potentially powerful page. Your about page should build your brand and turn new visitors into lifetime fans. Include photos of your staff, your company and tell a long story of why you do what you do. Excite the reader and make them buy into your dream!
Contact Us
Contact us pages don’t need to only include a single, dull, black and white form. They can give the viewer far more than that. At the very least you should ensure that you include answers to some of the most frequently asked questions.
Not only does this prevent you having to repeat the answers to generic questions, but it also makes for a far better customer experience that will lead to a better conversion rate.
Careers
Even if you don’t have any positions open at this time, a careers page is critical for any business that is looking to grow. It’s not only a way for companies to fill current positions, but it’s also an opportunity for you to foster future employees.
Your careers page should be templated from huge companies like Google and Microsoft who use motivational videos that excite potential applicants. This is going to allow you to hire far better employees in the future, allowing you to work with people who have bought into your dream.