How to structure an effective homepage / Web design strategy

Summary

In this video, Gil Huybrecht shares insights on structuring an effective homepage, emphasizing the importance of differentiating between conversion and supporting pages. The homepage, being a supporting page, should guide users towards the conversion page by utilizing strategic sections such as the hero section, problem statement, and product showcase. These sections help in addressing user needs and highlighting the transformation the product offers. The rest of the homepage links to other supporting pages, enhancing website navigation and SEO. Gil concludes by demonstrating these principles on a sample website, inviting viewers to engage and explore more on his platforms.

Highlights

• Understanding the structure of a homepage and its importance is crucial for any web designer 🎨.
• A homepage is a supporting page and serves to direct users towards the conversion page 🔄.
• The first three sections of a homepage should hook the user and guide them naturally towards intended actions 👀.
• Hero, Problem Statement, and Product Showcase are vital to an effective homepage strategy 🏆.
• Linking to supporting pages boosts SEO and site engagement 🌐.
• Gil Huybrecht reveals his tried and tested framework after seven years of experience 🕰️.
• A well-structured homepage can significantly improve user experience and conversions 🤝.

Key Takeaways

• A homepage is primarily a supporting page guiding users towards conversion pages 🚀.
• The hero, problem statement, and product showcase sections are essential for driving user engagement on a homepage 💥.
• Effective homepage design not only presents product benefits but also transforms user perception for better conversions 🎯.
• Linking between supporting pages helps in boosting SEO, making your site more discoverable 📈.
• A well-structured homepage improves user experience and keeps visitors longer on your site, increasing chances for conversion ⌛.

Overview

Creating an effective homepage is an art and a science, balancing design with user psychology. Gil starts by explaining the distinction between conversion and supporting pages. Conversion pages are the heart of your website designed to lead visitors to become customers while supporting pages, such as the homepage, guide visitors towards these conversion pages. Understanding this dynamic is fundamental to structuring a website that not only looks good but also performs well.

The homepage is your guiding star, and according to Gil, you should focus on its first three sections. These include the hero section, the problem statement, and the product showcase. It's crucial that these sections are carefully crafted to address user pain points, offer clear solutions, and prompt them to take action. In essence, these segments aim to transform user interest into genuine engagement, funneling them seamlessly towards conversion objectives.

Gil wraps things up by discussing the rest of the page. These additional sections link out to further supporting pages, reinforcing user navigation and increasing the chances of meeting conversion goals. Not only does this help with user flow, but it also benefits SEO by keeping users on the site longer. By showcasing these strategies on a live website, Gil demonstrates the effectiveness of a well-structured homepage, pushing designers to push boundaries.

How to structure an effective homepage / Web design strategy Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 you're about to start work on a new web design project but you're not sure about the structure you've put down for the home page you're asking yourself what content is more important than others what does the user want to see and how do I incorporate business objectives inside of this page so that I'm not only making a well-designed page but also a while converting one well it took me almost seven years before this was clear to me and today I would love to share with you the framework that I use and how I structure an effective home page so here are the things we're going to go over in this video first we'll have a look at the different types of pages there are now we'll see what type the
• 00:30 - 01:00 home page is after that we'll get into the first part of the structure which are the first three sections of the page followed by what to do with the rest of the page lastly we'll combine them and have a look at an example so let's start out with the different types of pages there are so to understand how you can structure a home page in the most effective way it's important to first have a look at what type of pages there are a web page can have one of two different types for me the first types what I call conversion pages and the second one are supporting Pages let's first have a look at what conversion pages are so usually this will almost
• 01:00 - 01:30 always be a sales page where you explain the the value of your offering or the product these kind of pages are the heart of the website meaning there should more often than not only be one of these pages on your site to have the highest possible conversion the they're structured and designed in a way to convert the user into a paying customer hence the name conversion pages so if we look at this in a more visual way this would just be a site map with all the web pages but I want you to start looking at it more like this where you see all traffic from supporting pages is
• 01:30 - 02:00 going towards the conversion page lastly for this chapter let's quickly cover what supporting pages are for me these supporting Pages only have one main goal get people towards the conversion page okay now that we know what type of pages there are let's get into the homepage with more so now that we know there are two types of pages what type do you think the home page is that's correct it's a supporting page now let's get into why I clicked on this video the structure of an effective homepage I always divide the home page structure into two separate parts the
• 02:00 - 02:30 first three sections and the rest of the page let's talk about the first three sections the main thing we want to do in these three sections is funnel the users towards the conversion page of the site we do this by talking about the problem and the main emotional benefit or transformation people don't buy products or Services they buy transformation that the product or service will bring them always keep that in mind so let's get into what these three sections should be first we have the hero section then we have a problem statement section and the third one is where we show the product
• 02:30 - 03:00 or the services these three sections would link off to the main conversion page with a clear call to action so let's talk about the first one the hero section here you need three things to create an effective one the main value proposition or emotional benefit what the company does and who they do it for and of course a clear call to action towards the conversion page when we scroll towards the second section we get to the problem statement section logically here we talk about problem we're solving with the product or service by mentioning the problem we create a
• 03:00 - 03:30 feeling of reassurance for the visitor where they know they're in the right place and will be more likely to navigate over to the conversion page this section becomes even more powerful When you mention the solution you have try to do this with benefits of the product or service I do usually two or three if a visitor Scrolls past the problem statement section we try to get them towards the conversion page one last time in the third section where we show the product or the services provided this can also be a transformation highlight where you show the results of past clients for design
• 03:30 - 04:00 agencies this can be showing case studies for example so let's look at a quick overview of what we just talked about so we start with the hero section where we have the value proposition what we do for who together with a clear call to action then we have the problem and solution statement where we mentioned the problem we're solving we use benefits to highlight a solution and once again we have a clear call to action and lastly we have the product services or transformation highlight these three sections are definitely the
• 04:00 - 04:30 most important parts of the homepage so focus on getting these down to complete the home page we have the rest of the page here we will link towards other supporting pages of the website in order of importance one thing I always do is put in a section that will link to the about page as the last one since it has the least amount of value for the visitor closing of the page we of course have the footer so to visualize this let's have a look at how I applied it on the crystal website the first section below the product is where we talk about how it works this links enough to the outworks page beneath that we have a
• 04:30 - 05:00 section that talks about the app and is then of course links off towards the app page and before the footer we have a section that links off to the about page the main reason we do this on the home page is to funnel users towards these other supporting Pages which in their turn will funnel them over towards the main conversion page linking between the pages is also good for SEO in the long term and linking off to the supporting pages will ultimately increase the amount of time people spend on the website now that we went over the two
• 05:00 - 05:30 parts that make up the full structure of the home page let's do a conclusion and then look at how I apply this to the custom website so in our conclusion we can see what we will try to do in the first three sections is funnel the users over towards the conversion page we do this by mainly talking about a problem and solution and the rest of the page we link towards the supporting pages so now let's get into our example where you can see how I applied it on the custom website so I have the custom homepage loaded up here and let's have a look at
• 05:30 - 06:00 how I apply the structure that we just talked about and how I applied it here on this page so we start off with the hero section here where we have a clear value proposition with a clear call to action when we scroll down to the second section we see this section where we talk about the problem as you can see spending time looking for your parcel around the neighborhood is a thing of the best or clearly stating the problem here that we get into two benefits of the product where we mention the solution then we have the third section where we
• 06:00 - 06:30 show the product so like I mentioned before this is our last chance of having the visitor convert over to the conversion page and then we get into the rest of the page where this is the first section that talks about how it works which links off to the how it works page now we get into a section that talks about the app and I'm after that we get into a section that talks about the about page so here we link up to the about page and then we have the footer so that's it for this video If something wouldn't be clear or you would have any
• 06:30 - 07:00 questions about this feel free to leave a comment and if you want to see more of this content around digital strategy and design feel free to subscribe I post a lot of my design stuff over on Instagram and I have a monthly newsletter where I share more tips like this everything is linked below so with that being said thanks for watching peace