Your home page is the most important page of your website. People will decide within 3-5 seconds whether they want to stay. The goal of the home page is to communicate broadly what you do and to create the right first impression.

5 essential steps to improving your home page:

1 Simplicity
Don’t try to say everything on the home page. This is the most common mistake I see. You have plenty of opportunity to explain what you do throughout the rest of the site, so don’t feel you have to say it all on the ‘front cover’. Look at the best book covers – they entice you to pick up the book and open it.

2 Navigation
Make the navigation simple. I’ve seen so many sites with far too many buttons. Try to rationalise all of your products or services into 3 or 4 broad categories. This really helps the user understand what you do and helps them decide where to go on the site.

3 Content
Use dynamic content to bring the page to life with new information, e.g. latest news, special offers, videos etc. This is also good for Google.

4 Contact details
It pays to display your contact details on the home page, in case people are just coming to your website to get in touch.

5 Brand consistency
Make sure the web design reflects your brand identity. So many sites bastardise a company logo in order to accommodate it as part of a web design scheme. The typography, colour palettes and tone of voice need to be consistent with your offline marketing and overall brand identity.

And finally, the golden rule is to ensure by any means necessary, that your home page makes users stay on your website and click through to something.