Here at inkmark, I like to see small business succeed and have beautiful websites that sell. With all the terrible advice on the internet, it’s time for a few design tips that actually work and will help you get the message you want your customers to receive so they are more inclined to buy what you’re selling.

1. Start a conversation
Think of your homepage as a reception area, it is where new clients will come and you get to meet and welcome them. You must make sure they have a positive reaction and engaging them with your site. If they like what they see and are able to find what the information they are looking for they will spend more time on your site and intern offer a better chance of becoming a new customer.

2. Say as much as you need to, then stop
The “above the fold” is an out of date holdover from print that does not relate to modern usability or web. No one is saying your website should be a ton of pages long, however, there is no hard and fast rule about length. You should say just as much as you need and give the information a user will be looking for in a concise well-organized way.

3. Display the right action
Users want to know what they can do on your website, they do not want to think about using your site they simply want it to work. Making it extremely important to figure out what actions your possible new clients will want to take, in order to get them hitting those revenues generating goals you have set.

4. Create an objective
Every page on your site can only fulfill one primary objective. You have to be ruthless in deciding what that objective will be, and then remove all elements that are detracting from your main goal.

5. Create a homepage that strengthens your brand
I don’t mean that you make your site look like your business cards or that last print ad you did, your brand is more than just some graphic elements. It’s as much about how someone feels when they see something that reminds them of you. If your brand gives off a quirkiness, then it makes no sense to focus on quality and professionalism, even if that is one of your focuses.

Your website should be an ever-evolving part of your marketing, like everything in this ever-changing tech-savvy world, your site must be updated regularly. Not something that you launch and let sit idol and die for 5 years until you decide that maybe you should look at an update, as people are no longer using a smartphone to look at your site but this new in-eye phone. Knowing that your website is going to be the most viewed piece of marketing material you have, take your time and make sure you’re doing it right.