The home page is not only about exposure or looking good to the public. They can directly influence your sales in the long run. Think of it as the face of your online store.
There are two aspects to consider when optimizing your store’s home page — SEO and conversions. In this article, we’ll describe, with examples, what you need to do to get both these right.
5 tips to optimize your online store home page
Featured products
A major part of your home page should be a featured products section. Highlight a few products — these can be your best-selling products or new releases. It gives visitors an overview of the kinds of products you sell and they may not need to browse through many product pages to find what they’re looking for. Here’s an example of featured products section on ArtisticIndie’s home page:
Proper navigation
When creating your home page, make sure it has proper navigation. It should act as a central location, connecting all other pages on your website—product pages, about us, shipping policies, FAQs etc
The goal is to get the best, most relevant pages in front of shoppers and reduce the number of times they have to click to find it from the home page.
Your home page is the most authoritative page on your website. In terms of SEO, internal links from one page on your site to another pass what is called “link juice” or “authority” from one page to the other.
So, a site with good navigation from your home page also brings good search rankings. Here is what a good site structure looks like:
Note how the home page is a centre of origin and how it links all your major pages of the eCommerce website, and even some of popular product pages as well. (Online stores made with Instamojo do this automatically!)
While site structure varies for each website, here are some pretty much universal navigation for online stores:
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Logo: Always be sure the logo links to the home page.
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About Us: Write your brand story and make sure it’s linked to your home page
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Contact: Keep your contacts page accessible from your home page or footer
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Checkout/Cart: You want visitors to be able to get to their cart and check out easily.
Optimize for search engines
The next crucial step is to optimize your home page for search engines. This means that you need to make sure that Google understands what your online store sells when it crawls it, and thus ranks it for relevant searches. There are three main elements you should consider when optimizing your home page for SEO — metadata, content, and site security.
1. Metadata
This is data you manually enter which tells search engines what your website is all about and appears in snippets in search results.
The meta titles should be around 60 characters long. Ideally, it should include your brand name, industry, and location if you have a physical store also.
The meta description should be no more than 160 characters and mention the main products/services your offer and your unique selling proposition.
You can enter metadata from the backend of your website. On Instamojo, there’s a dedicated section on the dashboard for SEO where you can optimize different aspects of your store for better search rankings.
Here’s a detailed guide on writing metadata.
2. Home page content
If you’re not adding content to your home page, you’re missing out on getting your site crawled properly. Once you know the keywords you need to rank for, you can easily create content for your home page.
Your homepage (and other pages of your eCommerce website) should have one h1 tag, ideally containing keywords you’re targetting.
Also add text content wherever possible. You can describe your product experience or give an overview of your brand. This is a great way to incorporate your keywords.
For more insights, read our blog on eCommerce SEO.
3. Site security
An eCommerce website should have a secure site certification on the server. Commonly called SSL, it ensures that information transmitted within your site (like contact details, and payment) is secured. Having an SSL-certified website is good for SEO and also gains customer trust. The best place to add your SSL certificate or logo is the home page footer
Make your home page visually appealing
The theme you choose for your online store is more evident on your home page than any other page. So, make sure you choose it wisely. You can also modify the font and colours of your home page to suit your brand image.
Banner images are ‘above-the-fold’ elements and are the first thing that site visitors see. So make sure you get it right to capture their attention. Here’s how to do it right:
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Use high-resolution images and make sure the file size is not too heavy
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Avoid generic stock images
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Use multiple images
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Add alt texts describing what your image is about
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Add a CTA button near the banner image
Extra elements
Now that you know the basic elements to have in your home page, let’s look at some additional elements that will boost the functionality of your eCommerce website and overall user experience:
1. Popups: Catch the attention of first-time visitors with popups showcasing a sale you’re running or a special discount for first orders. You can use a full-page popup or something more subtle like a banner popup.
2. FAQs: Adding a few FAQs at the bottom of your home page might be helpful for new customers. It’s a great way to clear common queries customers may have.
3. Testimonials: Showcase what your customers have to say about you in your home page.
4. Chatbot: Give site visitors a virtual customer support experience with the help of a chatbot. You can easily embed this into your home page and answer customer queries without hassle.
Tip: When choosing elements for your eCommerce website home page, make sure that the page doesn’t get cluttered.
Make the most of your online store home page
Your home page is all about first impressions — both to the visitor and search engines. It can be challenging to modify all aspects of your home page. This would be much easier with an intuitive store builder like Instamojo.
With Instamojo, you can create an online store and customize it easily without any design and coding knowledge. It comes with SEO features, attractive themes, and good store structure. You can also add chatbot widgets, popups, testimonials, and other elements.
