We can’t say this enough – the first few seconds the users spend on a website are crucial. The website will either instantly captivate them or they will close it and move on to check out one of your competitors. Your home page is usually the first impression the user gets about your website, so it is essential that your website design & web development agency provides you with the homepage design that suits your brand, delights your target audience, and invites conversions. 

Hiring a great Dubai-based digital agency will surely help your business. But while Dubai has many agencies claiming to be web development professionals, you need to carefully consider their approach to see if they will deliver what they promise. For this reason, you should have an idea of what to look for in website design. 

Here are some things you need to focus on:

1. Headings & Subheadings

When a user clicks on the website they want to know two things – who you are and how do you benefit them. Use your headlines supported by subheadings to provide a clear, concise answer. Don’t sound buzzwordy or pompous, respect your reader’s intelligence and give them the reason to be interested in you.

2. Calls to Action

What you want your home page to achieve is to captivate the audience and compel them to act – to visit other pages on your website, contact you, buy a product… Not only is this a direct benefit to your business objective, but it’s great for your SEO – the more time visitors spend on your website the higher it will rank on google.

3. Images & Videos

Humans are visual animals. A great image speaks a thousand words, and an engaging video or a dynamic design element grabs our attention. Consult your branding agency and their graphic design team to select or create images that evoke emotions and compel action, while also reflecting your brand identity. The images and videos need to be hi-res and original to help you stand out, and we always recommend creating your photo and video content rather than using stock. Interactive elements, no matter how small, are proven to prolong the user’s engagement on the page.

4. Colours & Design

Your home page needs to be beautiful and eye-catching. It is advisable to use contrasting colours to highlight certain items (e.g. call-to-action buttons). This makes it easy for the user to understand the page and act accordingly. Use directional cues, avoid clutter (white space is your friend) and apply impactful typography to tell your story. Keep up with the latest web design trends to give your website the fresh look and feel and show that your brand is a progressive leader in the field.

5. Good Copy

Home page with content serves several purposes. It benefits your SEO efforts, it provides the reader with essential information about your company, and it drives them to act in a way that furthers your business objective. A good content writer has to find the balance to best serve all three purposes and come up with engaging, easy to read copy that is relevant to your customers.

6. Highlights

If you have an e-commerce website, pull out your top-selling products. If you’re a service provider, showcase a few shining testimonials from reputable sources. If you’re an agency, include a case study of an impressive recent project. Display the logos of your few most reputable clients, or a highly competitive award. Don’t overwhelm with the content or you will look desperate and the reader will get bored, use the home page to put the spotlight on your very best.

6. Highlights

Your website layout needs to be intuitive, clear and simple, and every page on the website should be just a few clicks away. Your homepage should help the user understand what to look for and where, and encourage them to dig in. Every great website design needs to be UX focused to provide a joyful digital experience and give you results. 

7. Menu & Navigation

Your website layout needs to be intuitive, clear and simple, and every page on the website should be just a few clicks away. Your homepage should help the user understand what to look for and where, and encourage them to dig in. Every great website design needs to be UX focused to provide a joyful digital experience and give you results. 

8. Resources & Support

Your visitor might not be quite ready to act right away, but if you got their interest and inspire trust, they will want to know more. Make sure to offer them resources and contact details which will help them obtain detailed, understandable and clear information, a FAQ page, or a live chat where they can get answers to their questions in real-time. Always offer several contact options because people have vastly different communication preferences. 

9. Mobile Optimisation & Responsiveness

Today this is almost too banal to bring up, but some website developers still don’t pay enough attention to the mobile website. Most of your visitors will be browsing from their phones and it’s not enough to just roughly translate your desktop site to the mobile one, the mobile user experience will require some additional considerations for the site to be effective. 

10. Loading Speed

Don’t lose your visitors just because your homepage took too long to load! Your website development agency needs to optimize your graphics, minify the scripts and group the images together. It is also important to use the right website hosting service.

Conclusion

With all this in mind, you should keep updating your homepage to stay relevant to your visitors and show that your company is thoughtful, adaptable and on top of things. Keep changing the highlights, revamp the design every once in a while, freshen up the copy. 

Sometimes it is good to change your website design & development agency to get your brand out of the rut even if you have a functional website. The world is going digital and being good is not good enough anymore. To impress the audience in Dubai you have some tough competition to deal with. 

What we recommend is finding a full-service branding & digital agency that can look into your brand requirements, design or revamp your website, boost your presence on the social media platforms and use digital marketing (GoogleAds, SEO…) to help your website rank on top. It’s time to invest in your company’s future!

Start growing your business today by contacting a professional website design & development agency in Dubai!

digital marketing methods (social media marketing, GoogleAds…). Make sure they have good content writers too.

Get in touch now, share your business objectives and listen to their suggestions. We hope this blog helped you understand the process better so that you can make an informed decision that will benefit your business.