5 Things to Avoid on your Homepage

Is your home page really good enough for search engine rankings? Are you losing out on a few spots on search results due to some shortcomings? If yes, then it is high time you fill the gaps to make it as search engine friendly as possible.

Here are 5 common things to avoid on your home page –

1. Considering appearance over user experience –
A good-looking home page can sure attract visitors and have them want to go through your website, but this is not it. Look at it as to how any visitor will use the site. Your home page should provide users with the information they are looking for or direct them to the relevant inner link.

Running an AB test on various designs can help you understand as to which one works best. From the appearance point of view, avoid clutter of content and images. Allow the content to breathe, make room for whitespace so as to give the content the right appeal. A messy site can easily put off a user. Try to achieve a balance of page appearance and smooth user experience, which will bring in higher visitors and also increased SEO rankings.

2.Complicated linking –
The home page is the first thing a visitor sees on your website. Proper spacing out ensures easy tab identification and quick navigation. Over-crowding of links is surely one significant thing to steer clear of. Your home page should only provide enough information that you want the user to know at the first glance. Once you have gained the interest of the visitor, you can carefully divert them to inner links.

Avoid linking complication. If a visitor wants to know about a particular product, link the user directly to that specific page without making the person visit other pages in between. Ensure to have clear SEO optimized links.

3.Slow load speed –
What would you do if you visit a website in which the home page takes ages to load? You instantly stop your search and look for another website that is quicker. This is exactly what your visitors will do if your home page does not load quickly. One main reason this happens is due to stuffing of information in the form of text, videos and images, reducing the load speed. Fast load speed is the first essential to create a good user experience which in-turn will affect search engine rankings.

4.Lack of home page analysis –
Creating a website is just the first step. Understanding what it needs to function well is most important. Neglecting analysis is a huge mistake. Analyzing the home page will give you an idea of what your visitors like and sections that require betterment. You will get an idea of what content visitors do not read and work to either remove or highlight it. This also allows prioritizing tabs based on user needs. Conducting regular analysis and updating content will help maintain or improve your position on relevant search engine results.

5.Lack of mobile-optimization –
Figures suggest, today more searches are made on mobile than the desktops. A site that is accessible on a smartphone is sure to stay on top of search engine rankings. Optimizing the home page to make it look good and function smoothly on mobile devices is a need and not really an option anymore.
Compromising on this aspect will soon make you disappear from search results.

Working on these aspects is good enough to have an attractive and impactful home page that can scale you up on search engine rankings. If you succeed at impressing your visitor on the first visit, you can almost surely count on a new conversion for your business.

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