by Katja Bartholmess
Grace Gerry is a coach/counselor from Victoria, BC. She offers groups, 1-on-1 sessions and workshops to professional women seeking to reduce stress and improve their emotional lives. Of her website, www.gracefulsolutions.ca, Grace says, “I would of course like to attract more clients…As I offer workshops overseas I could see my website being an important way to market myself and future products.”
With these goals in mind, I took a look at Grace’s home page and gave it the Homepage Booster 7 Point Critique with a list of easy-to-implement suggestions that you could get for your website too – click here for more info on the Homepage Booster. My advice is aimed at showing Grace how she can increase traffic to her page and keep viewers engaged till they’re ready to get in touch with her. But I’m sure that everyone concerned with the performance of their website will benefit from reading through it.
Let’s first take a look at Grace’s homepage:
Now let’s get to the Homepage Booster 7 Point Critique:
1. Clear purpose – does the reader know exactly what you’re offering?
- GENERAL CRITIQUE
- The top part of your homepage – the part that will determine whether readers take the time to scroll down to read the rest or click on other links in your navigation – succeeds in identifying the right audience. However, you and your services and solutions remain entirely in the dark
- The real treasures are hidden in the third section of your homepage, but only a few people will scroll down to actually read this section
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
- A simple switch could ensure your website starts with a bang: turn it upside-down and move the section starting with the headline “What if you could…” to the top. Keep your first paragraph (“Are you a professional woman…”), then get right down to business and introduce yourself: “Hi, I’m Grace Gerry, founder of Graceful solutions. I specialize in…” (And keep it in first-person from here on out; see “Clear Language”)
- As it is now, your top section only discusses the problems of your potential client. With a more solution-oriented headline and intro, viewers are much more likely to read on
2. Clear customer benefit – is your copy loaded with evidence as to how the reader’s life will be improved by your products or services?
- GENERAL CRITIQUE
- See the second critique in “Clear purpose”: the benefits are there but they are hidden at the bottom of the page
- Nice work listing specific ways the viewer’s life could improve: marriage, kids, work, etc. Since they’re easy to picture, these balance out the more abstract (and less instantly compelling) benefits: “well-being,” “clarity,” etc. The bullet-points now at the bottom of the page should be among the first things your viewer sees.
- Good job on the testimonial and the free 20-minute phonecall!
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
- “Have the life you deserve” is a strong slogan and perhaps your potential customer’s #1 benefit; but I think “You can have the life you deserve” is even stronger
- The slogan appears only once at the bottom. Move it on up!
- Move the testimonial up so it’s visible right from the start – you may even consider adding more testimonials
- Don’t call the free 20-minute session “complimentary” – that might be confusing to some viewers. Call it a free 20 minute session
3. Onscreen reader friendliness – does your web copy attract the eye and provide “anchors”?
- GENERAL CRITIQUE
- This home page has a scrolling layout: viewers have to actively mouse down the page to get all the info – in order for people to do that you have to engage them from the start (see my suggestion in point 1)
- Thumbs up for the two-column design! Narrower columns are a lot easier to read than endless lines of text. Also: Your text is black, your background is white. That’s nice and easy to read
- More thumbs up for using short paragraphs, bullet lists and a few highlights
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Nothing to add, just keep it up!
4. Clear language – is your copy simple, accessible and welcoming?
- GENERAL CRITIQUE
- For the most part, your language is clear and welcoming. But you are hiding behind 3rd person constructions, a la “Grace Gerry of Graceful solutions specializes in …”
- I like the prevalence of questions in the headlines. They act as a filter: those who answer “No” to them probably won’t be the right clientele for you anyway
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Consider rewriting your copy in the 1st person: “Hi, I’m Grace Gerry, founder of Graceful Solutions. I specialize in…” – That way you’ve already established a dialogue with your potential customers, and they get a feeling that you’re talking directly to them
5. Professional impression – is the layout clean and easy on the eye?
- GENERAL CRITIQUE
- Background is spare and tasteful. It feels light and invites the viewer to read on – good!
- Including a photograph is a great move: your web visitors get a clearer sense of who they will be dealing with
- Images are always hard to pull off. I like the flower, as it goes with the green theme and the theme of growing as a person, but I’m not so sure about the cartoon. Does it really help to make a point?
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
- You could consider replacing the cartoon with a photo of a wilted flower. That would be more consistent and make sense at first glance.
- You could also consider a new photo yourself, one that’s more consistent with the light design of the page. Go a little less formal – for starters, you could work some Photoshop magic and turn the graphite grey background into a lighter color
6. Search engine friendliness – is it written in a way that boosts your site to the top of Google searches?
- GENERAL CRITIQUE
- You don’t give the search engines a lot to feed on. Your page needs a healthy dose of search engine lures: focused headlines, bold type, hyperlinks, and a spot-on title
- The words “coach,” “facilitator” and “counselor” appear in bold only once apiece – and they’re left out of the headlines altogether. “Stress” is another key word, but it only makes one appearance in bold
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
- Start with the title, at the very top of the browser window. Instead of just “Graceful Solutions,” add what you do and how it benefits the viewer in six or fewer words. That’s the first thing search engines will notice
- Think about what your potential clients are looking for: Stress? Work-Life Balance? These are your key phrases. Add them throughout your page and highlight them in a way that search engines can pick up on them: headlines, bold type, hyperlinks
- Links, links, links! Search engines also detect hyperlinks, so think about adding links to other pages within your site throughout your home page. Example: “Want to learn more about coaching for stressed women?”
7. Clear call to action – Will readers know what to do once you’ve convinced them to buy?
- GENERAL CRITIQUE
- You do have a clear call to action at the bottom of the page. Well done!
- WHAT YOU CAN DO
- You could rewrite your call to action in a more engaging way: “Interested? Get in touch with me today!” That way you lower the threshold for people to get in touch with you. After all, people find it easier to contact a person than a company
- page is so long, so you might want to consider sprinkling it with a few more contact links – maybe one after each section
- Consider adding a contact link under your photo
Implementing at least a few of these suggested changes can really improve the performance of your website. Good luck with it!
If you want to improve the performance of your website too, click here to find out how you can get your very own Homepage Booster. It’s really easy!
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