7 Unique Ideas to Transform Your Website’s Homepage
Your website, even if it's doing well, needs a little refresh every once in a while, just to ensure that it still looks pretty good and operates smoothly. Online tech and what people expect changes quickly, so you have to stay up to be competitive. You may want to update your website and content on a rolling basis, such as when customer demand is high or during critical shopping seasons. In this article, you’ll learn to perform a check-up on your site and how to make updates to keep your site appealing and up to date.
So we want to ensure that you have the tools you need, right within your eCatholic-powered website, to spruce up your homepage — and do it both efficiently and beautifully. Even minor adjustments can have a great impact on the appearance of your site as well as the experience visitors have in it.
You might think your website would require an extensive revamp or years of design, but the eCatholic team knows differently! In a recent webinar session, we went head-to-head with our website tools, giving a whole homepage a makeover in well under half an hour. Check out the webinar recording to find out how we did it!
If you love what you see but simply don’t have the time or resources to do a makeover yourself, visit our homepage makeover service. It’s an economical choice for current eCatholic customers looking to reenergize their site.
Step 1: Update your website theme
To quickly give your website a fresh look, consider updating your theme. eCatholic provides a variety of free themes that you can customize with curated color schemes, special font combinations, and more. Plus, we regularly introduce new free themes, so you'll always have plenty of design options to explore!
If you're unsure which theme to go for, here are some helpful tips:
Choose a Section Layout Theme: When you are selecting your theme in Design Studio, filter your results to show only themes that have Sections. That way you'll always have access to the latest eCatholic technology and features!
Show that you are a Catholic: If you are in love with the beauty of the Catholic faith and would like to insert some of it into your website, try themes like Eden, Moser, Tabor, and Sinai. All of these themes come with unique Catholic background images and illustrations of Jesus, Mary, and other saints that will bring a touch of heaven to your creations!
Step 2: Enable Sections Layout
Switching from a Standard Layout (which goes vertically down the webpage) to a section layout will allow you to build horizontal content sections that stack on any point of your page easily. As a result, these horizontal content areas enable a more captivating website browsing experience as you express various content segments and styles for every area.(source)
Also, the one-column layout is optimized to be used on cell phones and tablets. Since mobile devices accounted for more than 60% of web traffic in 2022, implementing a section structure increases your website's look and feel, not just for computer users but for mobile visitors as well.
Step 3: Analyze your homepage content
We get that saying “no” isn’t always easy. Not sure what should you put on your homepage?
Is it possible this content belongs elsewhere on my site? Can I place this module on an internal page, in the footer, or perhaps as a quick link on the navigation bar?
Is it possible that I could have said this a different way? Would it be better to use custom modules or section types like News and Events or Headline Section?
Does this content still matter to our website visitors? How about outright removing this entire module/information
Step 4: Clean up your site map
Site Map is often the area that a website administrator neglects or forgets in the long run after a website is running resulting in cluttered hard to read menu items. Although it comes about involuntarily, it needs to be confronted. Some quick solutions to sort your Site Map:
Lower the number of components in your navigation bar: In some cases, less is more! Look through creative ways or references to other websites, how they consolidate pages, and manage the traffic of the visitors better.
Create Mega Menu Groups: eCatholic gives you the ability to create mega menu groups (Quick Links) to help categorize similar items and maximize the real estate of menu navigation.
We are all responsible for website maintenance, just like cars need an oil change every few months. You should have the confidence now that you'll be able to make these upgrades quickly and without a hitch!
5. Review the user experience
User experience is crucial. It’s all about how simple it is for visitors to use your site. They need to be able to discover products with ease, find information that allows them to make a decision about whether or not to use your business, and then complete purchases seamlessly on e-commerce sites.
Investing in UX is important, as a poor site will lead to many more visitors leaving before converting. Begin by using your website the way a customer would, and solicit feedback from colleagues, friends, and family.
When customers complain about site issues in customer service emails or at other touchpoints such as on Twitter or in live chat, you can also capture customer feedback via surveys. UserZoom and user testing, for instance, also allow you to carry out remote user testing. com, which lets you set tests and watch videos of real people using your site.
6. Images
We all know that updating product images can drive skin cancer, so you want to keep refreshing them.
This gives you a chance to refresh your site by swapping out older images for newer and higher-quality alternatives. And think carefully about how many images you have on product pages. One of the features of Discord is the ability to post several images in one message, and zoom them in and out – this visual context enables us to offer up to 500 shoes all at once, so customers can evaluate them and make their judgments.
Keep in mind, that this applies to all websites, not just eCommerce sites. Update homepage imagery or perhaps even swap out hundred-year-old pictures from your aseptic written space's 'about' page.
Take some time out of your day to look through the type and style of the images you are using and make sure that they fit with what your brand is trying to portray. Search for ways to incorporate additional imagery in your site as this makes it more attractive.
7. Make it Mobile Responsive
Finally, today’s websites must be mobile-friendly. This is quite evident for local businesses where potential customers could be looking on a phone from their car for something close to them. Search engines can negatively downvote a website that is improperly configured for mobile devices. And if your site gets a makeover, ensure that the new design is “responsive,” which means it’s nimble enough to adapt to mobile devices. This also applies if you buy a template.
Summary
All these reviews, refreshes, and updates are also implementation-efficient options for a website’s performance enhancement.
With the online space being such a cutthroat environment, complacency is a killer. Website design & features change quickly, and user behavior and devices, you can never forecast.
It is a simple way to improve website performance rather than putting in huge efforts.
FAQ: Transforming Your Website’s Homepage
1. Why do I need to add new content to my site’s home page regularly?
So, regular updating keeps your website looking versatile, easy to use, and upgraded with the latest trends. A clean homepage increases engagement, functionality, and conversions.
2. How will a new theme change users experience of my website?
A new theme updates and upgrades the design, and navigation, and ensures mobile responsiveness. eCatholic presents completely free themes with custom fonts, colors, and sections to provide the most seamless browsing experience.
3. What is a Section Layout, and Why is It Good?
Sections Layout: Abundant Content Sectioning It also enhances mobile responsiveness, which is essential as over 60% of internet traffic is mobile.
4. What are some tips to make website navigation better?
Limit Menu Items, Quick Links and Mega Menu Grouping A Factory Site Map optimizes Usability and helps visitors navigate.
5. Why are images important to update?
New, high-quality images lead to higher engagement and conversions. This also helps keep your website visually appealing and makes sure business images like product photos, homepage headers, and about page images are up to date.
