The area at the top of the homepage, what people see when they land on your site, is known as “above the fold.” This is the most important area of your homepage because you only have a few seconds to inform people about what you do.

But unfortunately, many business owners who DIY their website miss out on this opportunity by not including any descriptive information about what they do.

This blog post is going to break down the top 3 things you must have at the top of your homepage above the fold.

1. Insert a high-quality photo

This can either be a photo of you or a stock photo. You can size it to take up the whole screen or just partially.

If you choose a photo of yourself, make sure that the text is not covering your face.

If you use a stock photo, it should relate to your business in some way. For example, online business owners typically find photos will some kind of technology - a phone, laptop, keyboard, etc.

You can use sites like Pexels or Unsplash to find free high quality stock photos.

2. Write a Tagline

I know when some people read tagline, they think of a marketing slogan. However, in this instance, a tagline is not your marketing slogan. It’s also not a place where you want to use fancy words or industry jargon. Instead, this should be written out in plain English.

Your tagline should include at least the top two (if not all) of these elements:

• What you do

• Who you serve

• What the transformation is

• What makes you unique

For example, instead of saying you’re a “self reflection coach,” you’ll most likely want to use “life coach” as your title because your audience is more likely to relate to it. Then you can go into detail of how you help your clients overcome their obstacles with self-reflection, among other strategies/activities.

It’s best to break this up into different lines and use different text styles (mix of headings and regular text) to accent your tagline. Instead of using one long sentence, you can display it in fragments.

Here are some examples:

Taylar Digital (mine)

• Squarespace Website Design & Branding (what)

• For coaches and creatives who are ready to start looking like a leader in their industry (who/transformation)

• Get your dream website in just 12 days (uniqueness factor)

Harjot Mann (a former client)

• Coaching & consulting for personal and professional success (what)

• I help entrepreneurs, small business owners, and emerging leaders maximize their true potential through emotional resilience, deep mindset transformation, and cultivating their innate leadership (who/transformation)

Zoe Gillis (a former client)

• Helping creatives & changemakers find their path forward (who/transformation)

• Through therapy, meditation and wilderness retreats (what)

If you’re placing the text over a large banner image, make sure that the text stands out. You might have to add an overlay to the image to make sure that it’s legible.

Remember to keep this in mind:

• Light text = dark overlay

• Dark text = light overlay

3. Add a CTA (call to action)

What a CTA is

This is an action you want people to take right away, and it should go just below your tagline. A call to action could encourage the site visitor to do a variety of things:

• sign up for your freebie

• view your portfolio/case study page

• book a call in your calendar

• check out your products/shop page

Whatever action you want them to take, think about your website goals. What is the #1 thing you want someone to do after they land on your about page? That is where you’ll want to lead them next.

How you should write your CTA

There’s nothing wrong with writing your CTA in plain, straightforward English like this:

• “Grab 5 free meditations!”

• “Check out my latest work”

• “Book your breakthrough call today!”

• “View the shop”

However, you’ll get bonus points if you write it in your ideal client’s language and/or include a transformation so that when they look at it, they’re reading it in first person. Here are some examples:

• “Yes! I want to improve my mindset.”

• “I need that!”

• “I’m ready to have my first $5K month!”

• “I’m ready for my dream website!”

What your CTA should look like

Your CTA should be a button link, not a text link. Button links stand out more compared to text links because they’re larger. Therefore, they tend to have higher conversion.

How it all comes together

Below, you’ll see the few different examples that I mentioned above.

To recap, the 3 things you need at the top of your homepage are:

1. High quality photo related to your business

2. A tagline telling site visitors what you do and who you do it for

3. A call to action in the form of a button leading visitors to the next most important page of your site

Have questions? Drop them below!

Are you looking for a website that authentically represents you and leads to more dream clients? Let’s jump on a call to see if we’re a good fit!