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• Fintech Content Marketing : 10 Best Practices & Growth Strategies

  24 juillet 2024, par Erin

  Content marketing is an effective strategy for growth and building trust. This is especially true in the fintech industry, where competition is intense and trust is crucial. Content marketing helps you strengthen customer relationships, engage your audience, and differentiate yourself from competitors.

  To get the most out of your fintech content marketing, you need to develop the right strategy.

  In this guide, we’ll cover everything you need to know about content marketing for fintech companies so you can expand your reach and grow your business.

  What is fintech content marketing ?

  Fintech content marketing is creating content around financial topics on the internet to attract, engage, and convert audiences.

  Fintech companies can use a content strategy to drive leads by creating educational content.

  

  While financial content is important, it’s easy for it to feel boring, unrelatable, or confusing. But, when done right, fintech companies can educate their audiences with great content marketing that helps their audience understand financial topics in-depth.

  Fintech companies can create written, audio, or video content to inform their audiences about financial topics they’re interested in.

  From there, each piece of content can then be distributed to different mediums :

  • Blogs
  • Website
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Other websites
  • Apps
  • And more

  Once content is distributed, fintech companies can then analyse how effective the content is by tracking web analytics data like search engine traffic, social media engagement, and new customers.

  7 reasons fintech companies need content marketing

  Before we dive into fintech content marketing best practices, let’s recap why fintech companies need to lean into content to grow their business.

  Here are seven reasons your financial company needs to deploy a robust content strategy :

  

  1. Reach new audiences

  If you want to grow your fintech company, you need to find new customers. Creating content is a proven path to marketing yourself online and attracting a larger audience.

  By using search engine optimisation (SEO), social media marketing, and YouTube, you can expand your audience and grow your customer base.

  With content marketing, you can find new audiences without needing a massive budget, making scaling easier.

  2. Engage current audience

  While content can be a powerful method to reach new customers, it isn’t the only thing it’s good for.

  If you want to grow your business, another way to leverage your content is to keep your current audience engaged.

  You can create financial content to educate, inform, and add value to your current audience who already knows you. Repurposing content between the different platforms your audience is on keeps them engaged with you and your brand.

  It’s a simple way to capture and keep the attention of your audience, build trust, and convert more prospects into customers.

  3. Build relationships with customers

  You should leverage content marketing in various spaces, such as social media, your website, a blog, or even YouTube. Creating content on different channels allows you to build relationships with your customers on autopilot.

  The general rule in marketing is that the more touch points you have with your customers, the more you’ll sell. Creating more content means you always have new opportunities to increase those touchpoints, build deeper relationships, and sell more.

  4. Grow authority in a space

  If you want people to trust you and your financial tech, you need to be seen as an authority. How can someone trust that your app or web platform will help them with their finances if they don’t trust you’re a financial expert ?

  You should use informative content to become a thought leader in your space. You can post content on social media or your own platforms.

  You can also spread your authority by leveraging other brands’ or influencers’ audiences through guest blog posting and guest podcasting.

  5. Drive new leads

  Content marketing isn’t just a fun hobby for businesses. It’s one of the smartest ways to drive new leads.

  You should be crafting content for your top-of-funnel marketing strategy to attract potential customers.

  Creating content consistently is a great way to bring in new audience members into your funnel.

  Once you grow your top-of-funnel audience, you can convert them into leads by getting them to join your email list or trial your financial software.

  One tip to get more out of your content strategy is creating evergreen content to continually drive leads. For example, create “set-it-and-forget it” blog posts or YouTube videos that will continue working for you daily to attract new audience members searching for helpful financial information. Then, provide a call to action on that content to join your email list (by leveraging a lead magnet).

  6. Convert prospects to customers

  When you have a continual flow of new top-of-funnel prospects, you always have a fresh cycle of prospects you can convert into customers.

  Content is primarily used to attract new audience members and engage your current audience at the top of your funnel. But it can also be used to convert your audience into customers.

  Try mixing up your content types to drive conversions :

  • Educational
  • Entertaining
  • Promotional

  Don’t just show off educational content.

  You should also mix in “authority” content by displaying case studies of user success stories and calling to action to sign up for a free trial or request a demo.

  7. Lower Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)

  On the business side, if you want a marketing strategy that will keep expenses low long term, you’ll want to invest more in content.

  Content marketing has a great return on investment (ROI) for your time and effort.

  Why ?

  Because the customer acquisition costs (CAC) are so low.

  You can create content that can bring in leads for months if not years.

  If you only use Google or Facebook ads to drive new leads, you always have to “pay-to-play.” When you turn the advertising tap off, your leads dry up.

  But, with blogs and videos, you can create content that can bring in organic customers on repeat. It’s like a snowball effect that keeps going long after you’ve completed the initial work.

  10 fintech content marketing best practices

  Here are ten best practices to establish a strong content marketing strategy as a fintech company :

  

  1. Set SMART goals

  A good content strategy starts with goal-setting. You’ll never get there if you don’t know where you’re going.

  To make sure your fintech content marketing strategy is a success, you need to set SMART goals :

  • Specific
  • Measurable
  • Achievable
  • Relevant
  • Time-bound

  For example, you might set a goal to reach 20,000 blog visits in one year and convert blog visits at a rate of 3%.

  Setting clear content goals will streamline operations, so you stay consistent and get the most out of your efforts.

  3. Be transparent

  Transparency is crucial for fintech companies, as they handle sensitive financial data and, in many cases, monetary transactions.

  It’s essential for you to be open and clear about your products, services, and data practices. By being honest about privacy and security measures, fintechs can build and maintain trust with their customers.

  This transparency not only helps in establishing credibility but also ensures customers feel confident about how their financial information is managed and protected.

  

  4. Take an education-first approach

  Content isn’t just about “hooking” or entertaining your audience. That’s just one aspect of a content strategy.

  The best approach to building authority and converting leads from your content is to take an education-first approach.

  Remember above, when we touched on understanding your ICP ? You need to know your ICP’s interests and pain points inside and out and then map your product’s strengths to those that are relevant.

  Always start with your ICP, then build the content strategy around them based on your product.

  Find connections and identify how your product can address the ICP’s interests and pain points.

  For example, let’s say your ICPs are Gen Z consumers. They’re interested in independence and saving for future goals. Their pain points might include lack of investment knowledge and managing student debts and other loans.

  Let’s say your product is a personal finance app. Some of your benefits might be budget tracking and beginner-friendly investment options. You could create a content strategy around budgeting in your 20s and investing for beginners.

  Content strategies will vary widely based on your ICP. For instance, content for a fintech company targeting those approaching retirement will need a different focus compared to that aimed at younger consumers.

  Remember : practical, step-by-step, value-driven content performs best regarding conversions.

  5. Leverage the right tools

  If you’re going to succeed with content, you need to lean on the right tools.

  Here are a few types of tools you should consider (and recommendations) :

  • Project management (i.e., Asana)
  • Content management system (i.e., WordPress)
  • Content scheduling (i.e., Hootsuite)
  • Design (i.e., Canva)
  • SEO (i.e., Ahrefs)
  • Web analytics (i.e., Matomo)

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  6. Promote your content on different platforms

  You’ll want to promote your fintech content marketing strategy on different channels and platforms to get the most out of your fintech content marketing strategy.

  Start with one core platform before you pick a few platforms to promote your content. You should leverage at least one social media platform.

  Then, create a blog and an email newsletter to ensure you create multiple touchpoints.

  Here are some tips on how to pick the right platform :

  • Consider age range (i.e. TikTok for a younger audience, Facebook for an older audience)
  • Consider your preferred content type (YouTube for long-form video, X for short-form written content
  • Consider your competition (i.e. go where competitive fintech companies already are)

  7. Track results 

  How do you know if you’re on pace to reach the SMART goals you set earlier ?

  By tracking your results. 

  You should dive into your data regularly to ensure your content is working. Make sure to track social media, email marketing, and web results.

  Keep a close eye on your website KPIs and track your conversions to ensure a return on investment (ROI). For more detailed guidance on monitoring your website’s performance, check out our blog on how to check website traffic as accurately as possible.

  Remember, a data-driven approach is the best way to stay on track with your content goals.

  8. Establish a content leader

  Your content marketing needs a leader. You should establish someone on your marketing team to oversee your content plan. 

  They should ensure they collaborate well with different teams, understand social media and SEO, and know how to manage projects.

  Most of all, don’t forget that they’re in charge of tracking your data and reporting to higher-ups, so they should be comfortable with web analytics and know how to track performance well.

  9. Optimise for SEO

  It’s not enough to create a weekly blog post. You could craft the most valuable content on your website, but nobody will find it online if it isn’t optimised for SEO.

  Your content leader should analyse SEO data using a tool like Ahrefs or SEMrush to analyse different keywords to target in your content. 

  A web analytics tool like Matomo can then be used to track results. Matomo offers traditional web analytics, including pageviews, bounce rate, and sources of traffic, alongside features like heatmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing.

  These advanced features provide deeper insights into how users interact with your site and content, helping you pinpoint areas for improvement. Improving the user experience based on these insights can then positively impact your Google rankings.

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  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

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  10. Stay compliant

  Fintech is a highly regulated industry. Keeping this in mind, you need to ensure you take the necessary steps to ensure you remain compliant with all applicable laws and regulations.

  Non-compliance can result in severe penalties.

  Given these high standards, it’s crucial to ensure that user data remains private and secure. Matomo helps with this by providing a compliant web analytics solution that respects user privacy. With Matomo, you can confidently manage compliance and build trust with your customers while also reliably tracking the performance of your content marketing.

  

  Drive your content marketing strategy with Matomo

  Leaning into content marketing can be one of the best ways your fintech company can attract, engage, convert, and retain your audience.

  By creating high-quality content for your audience on social media, YouTube, and your website, you can establish your brand as an authority to grow your business for years to come.

  But remember, you need to make sure you’re only using privacy-friendly, compliant tools to protect your audience’s data.

  Thankfully, Matomo has you covered.

  As a privacy-friendly web analytics tool, Matomo ensures that your website data is tracked and stored in compliance with privacy laws.

  Trusted by over 1 million websites, it offers reliable data without sampling, guaranteeing accuracy. Matomo is designed to be fully compliant with privacy regulations such as GDPR and CCPA, while also providing advanced features like heatmaps, session recordings, and A/B testing to help you track and enhance your website’s performance.

  Request a demo to see how Matomo can benefit your fintech business now.

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• 16 Website Metrics to Track If You Want to Grow Your Business

  9 avril 2024, par Erin

  Conversion rate.

  Bounce rate.

  Sessions.

  There are dozens of metrics to keep up with in web analytics. It can be confusing at times trying to keep up with everything.

  But, if you want to improve your website performance and grow your business, you need to know what they are and how they work.

  Why ?

  Because what you measure gets managed. This is true in your personal life and business. You must track various website metrics to help your business reach new heights.

  In this guide, you’ll learn about the most important website metrics, why they’re important and how to track them to grow your brand.

  What are website metrics ?

  Your website is your digital headquarters.

  It’s not a static place. Instead, it’s a vibrant, interactive hub your visitors and customers can engage with daily.

  Every time a user interacts with your website, you can track what’s happening.

  Website metrics help you measure how much your visitors and customers interact with your website. 

  These engagement metrics help you understand what your visitors are doing, where they’re coming from, how they’re moving on your website and how long they stay. They can even give you insights into what their goals are.

  

  If you aren’t tracking your website metrics, you won’t know how effective your website is.

  By paying close attention to your key metrics within a web analytics platform like Matomo, you’ll be able to see how well your marketing is doing and how your visitors are engaging so you can improve the user experience and increase conversions.

  16 website metrics to track

  Here are the top 16 website metrics you need to be tracking if you want to grow your business :

  1. Pageviews

  A pageview is the number of times a web page has been viewed. 

  Many pageviews can indicate a successful search engine optimisation (SEO) or marketing campaign — it can be used to show positive results for these initiatives.

  It can also help you determine various issues on individual pages. For instance, performance issues or poor website structure can cause visitors to get lost or confused while navigating your website.

  

  2. Average time on page

  Average time on a page is simply the time visitors spend on a specific page (not the entire website) ; tracking users’ time on various pages throughout your website can give you insights that can help you improve certain pages.

  If you get tons of traffic to a particular page, but the average time a visitor stays on that page is minimal, the content may need some work.

  Tracking this data can help determine if your website is engaging for your visitors or if you need to modify certain aspects to increase your visitors’ stay. Increasing the average time on the page will help boost your conversions and search engine rankings.

  3. Actions per visit

  Actions per visit is a key metric that tracks the average number of actions a visitor takes every time they visit your website. This data can help you track your audience engagement and the effectiveness of your content across your entire website.

  An action is any activity performed by your visitors on your website like :

  • Outlinks
  • Downloads
  • Page views
  • Internal site searches

  The higher your actions per visit, the more engaging your audience finds your website content. A side effect of increased actions is staying longer on the site and more likely to convert to your email list as a subscriber or pay for products as a customer.

  4. Bounce rate

  Like a bouncy ball, your website’s bounce rate measures how many users entered your site and “bounced” out without clicking on another page. This metric can be extremely helpful in determining user interest in your content. 

  You might be getting many visitors to your website, but if they “bounce” after visiting the first page they land on, that’s a great indicator that your content is not resonating with your audience.

  Remember, this metric should be taken with a grain of salt. 

  Your bounce rate may indicate that visitors are finding the exact information that they wanted and leaving pleased, so it’s not a black-and-white metric.

  For example, if you have a landing page with a high bounce rate, then that’s likely not a sign of a good user experience. But, if you have a knowledge base article and they just need to find some quick information, then it could be a good indicator.

  5. Conversions

  The first step in tracking conversions is defining what a conversion is for your website. 

  Do you want your audience to :

  • View a blog post
  • Purchase a product
  • Download an eBook
  • Sign up for a consultation call

  Determine what that conversion is and track how often users take that action on your website.

  This helps you understand if your marketing and content strategies are working toward your pre-defined conversion goal.

  

  6. Conversion rate

  A conversion rate is the percentage of visits that triggered a conversion. Knowing this metric lets you plan, budget, and forecast future growth.

  For example, 5% of your website visitors take action and convert to customers. With this information, you can make better informed financial decisions regarding your marketing efforts on your website to help increase traffic and future conversions.

  While there are basic conversion rate benchmarks to strive toward, it ultimately depends on your goals and the specific conversions you decide to track that are best for your business. 

  That being said, Matomo has some best practices to help you optimise your conversion rates, no matter what conversion metric you are tracking.

  7. Exit rate

  While “bounce rate” and “exit rate” are similar, “exit rate” is the percentage of visits to a website that ended on a particular page.

  Knowing which pages have the highest percentage of visitors exiting your website gives you key information on the pages that may need to be improved.

  If you see that your “exit rate” is highest on pages before the checkout (or other CTA’s you have established), you will want to dive into what’s causing visitors to leave from that page. For example, maybe it’s the content, the copy or even a broken link.

  This is a great metric to help determine where you have breakdowns between you and your visitors. Improving your exit rate can help guide visitors through your website funnel more easily and boost your conversion rates. 

  

  8. Top pages

  The top pages on your website are the pages that receive the most visits. Understanding what your top pages are can be crucial in planning and guiding your marketing strategies moving forward.

  Your top pages can help you determine the most engaging content for your audience. This can be extremely helpful in guiding your visitors to certain pages that other users find more valuable.

  It also helps you determine if you need to focus more attention on different parts of your website to increase user engagement in those areas.

  For example, maybe your most-viewed pages have less copy and more photos or videos. Understanding this lets you know that incorporating more media into other pages will boost future engagement.

  9. Traffic sources

  Your traffic sources are the channels that are driving visitors to your website. The four most common traffic sources are :

  • Direct Entry : Typing your website URL into their browser or visiting via a bookmark they saved
  • Websites/Referral : Clicking on a link to your site from another website
  • Search Engines : Using search engines (Google, Bing or Yahoo) to find your website
  • Campaigns : Visitors directed to your website through specific marketing campaigns, such as email newsletters, Google Ads, promotional links, etc.
  • Social Networks : Visitors accessing your website by clicking on links shared on social media platforms like Facebook, X (Twitter), LinkedIn, etc.

  Understanding where your visitors are coming from can help you focus your marketing efforts on the traffic sources with the highest conversion rates. 

  Suppose your email marketing campaign isn’t driving any traffic to your website, but your ad campaign is responsible for over 25% of your conversions. In that case, you might consider doubling your advertising efforts.

  10. Form average time spent

  Forms are a crucial part of your website’s marketing strategy. Forms can help you :

  • Learn more about your visitors
  • Gather feedback from your audience
  • Convert visitors into email subscribers
  • And more

  Form average time spent is the average amount of time a visitor spends on a specific form on your website. The time is calculated as the difference between the first interaction with a form field (for example, a field focus) and the last interaction with a form.

  Want to convert more visitors into leads ? Then, you need to understand your form analytics better. Learn more here.

  11. Play rate

  If you want to keep your audience engaged (and convert more visitors), you need to publish different types of media.

  But if your video or audio content isn’t performing well, then you’re wasting your time.

  That’s where play rate comes in. It’s calculated by analysing visitors who watched or listened to a specific media after they have visited a web page.

  With play rate, you can track any video, podcast, or audiobook plays.

  You can easily track it within Matomo’s Media Analytics. The best part ? This feature works out of the box, so you don’t need to configure it to start leveraging the analytics.

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  12. Returning visitors

  Returning visitors are users who visit your website more than once over a specific time.

  You will want to measure the number of returning visitors to your website, as this information can give you additional insights into your marketing strategies, company branding and content.

  It can also help you better understand your customer base, giving you a clearer sense of their top desires and pain points.

  13. Device type

  Device type tracks the different devices visitors use to visit your website. These could be :

  • Tablets
  • Mobile phones
  • Desktop computers

  Knowing what your visitors are using to access your website can help you improve the overall user experience.

  For example, if 80% of your visitors use mobile phones, you could think about optimising your web pages to format with mobile devices. 

  

  14. Top exit pages

  Top exit pages are the pages that a visitor leaves your website from the most.

  Each web page will have a specific exit rate percentage based on how many people leave the website on a particular page.

  This can be quite helpful in understanding how visitors interact with your website. It can also help you uncover and fix any issues with your website you may not be aware of.

  For instance, one of your product pages has the highest exit rate on your website. By looking into why that is, you discover that your “Add to Cart” button isn’t functioning correctly, and your visitors can’t buy that particular product, so they exit out of frustration.

  15. Marketing attribution

  Marketing attribution (multi-touch attribution) helps you see which touchpoints have the greatest impact on conversions.

  Within Matomo, revenue attribution involves assigning credit for revenue across multiple touchpoints that contribute to a conversion.

  Matomo’s multi-touch attribution models use different weighting factors, like linear or time decay, to allocate credit to each touchpoint based on its influence.

  Matomo’s multi-touch attribution reports provide insights into how revenue is distributed across different touchpoints, marketing channels, campaigns, and actions. These reports allow you to analyse the contribution of each touchpoint to revenue generation and identify the most influential interactions in the customer journey.

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  Get the web insights you need, without compromising data accuracy.

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  16. Event tracking

  Every website has multiple actions a user can perform called “events”. These could be downloading a template, submitting contact information, signing up for a newsletter or clicking a link.

  Tracking events can give you additional context into what your visitors are interested in or don’t care about. This allows you to target them better through those events, potentially creating new, unique conversions and boosting the growth of your business.

  It can also lead to discovering potential issues within your website if you notice visitors aren’t taking action on certain CTAs, such as broken links or lack of content on certain pages. By uncovering these issues, you can quickly fix them to increase your conversions.

  

  Start tracking your website metrics with Matomo today

  There’s much to consider when creating and running your website, such as the design, copy and flow. 

  While these are necessary, tracking your website’s data is one of the most important aspects of running a site. It’s crucial in helping you optimise your site’s performance and create a great experience for your visitors.

  Every interaction a visitor has on your site is unique and leaves valuable clues you can use to improve all aspects of your site experience. 

  Understanding what your visitors like, what website performance issues they’re running into and how they interact across your website is crucial to improving your marketing and sales efforts.

  While tracking this much data can feel overwhelming, having all your key metrics in one place and broken down into easy-to-understand benchmarks can help alleviate the stress and headache of data tracking. 

  That’s where a web analytics platform like Matomo comes in.

  With Matomo, you can easily track, store and analyse every piece of data on your website automatically to improve your site performance and user experience and drive conversions. 

  With Matomo, you can take back control with a platform that gives you 100% data ownership.

  Used on over 1 million websites in over 190 countries, Matomo gives you :

  • Accurate data (no data sampling)
  • Privacy-friendly and GDPR-compliant analytics
  • Open-source access to create a custom solution for you

  Try Matomo for free for 21 days now. No credit card required. 

  Try Matomo for Free

  21 day free trial. No credit card required.

  
  

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• Homepage Design : Best Practices & Examples

  5 octobre 2022, par Erin

  Did you know users spend about 50 milliseconds deciding if they like your website’s homepage design or not ?

  With billions of websites and scrolling often done on the go, you have to make a strong first impression because the chances for a once-over are slim. 

  Learn how to design magnetically-appealing website homepages from this guide. 

  What is a homepage in web design ?

  Homepage is the front page of your website — a destination where users land when typing your website URL address. It’s located at the root of the website’s domain (e.g., matomo.org) or a subdomain (e.g., university.webflow.com).

  Design-wise a homepage has two goals :

  • Explain the purpose of the website and present overview information 
  • Provide top-level navigation to lower-level web pages (e.g., blog, sales pages, etc.) 

  Separately, a homepage is also the place where users will return each time they’ll feel stuck and want to start anew. Thus, your homepage website design should provide obvious navigation paths to other website areas.

  6 Must-Know Website Homepage Design Best Practices

  Behind every winning homepage design stands a detailed customer journey map. 

  A customer journey is a schematic representation of how site visitors will move around your website to accomplish various goals. 

  A good customer journey map lists different actions a user will take after landing on your website (e.g., browse product pages, save items to a wishlist, register an account, etc.) — and it does so for different audience segments. 

  

  Your homepage design should help users move from the first step on their journey (e.g., learning about your website) to the final one (e.g., converting to a paid customer). At the same time, your homepage should serve the needs of both new and returning visitors — prospects who may be at a different stage of their journey (e.g., consideration). 

  With the above in mind, let’s take a look at several website homepage design ideas and the reasons why they work. 

  1. Use Familiar Design Elements

  Whether you’re designing a new website or refreshing an old one, it’s always tempting to go “out of the box” — use horizontal scrolling, skip header navigation or include arty animations. 

  Bold design choices work for some brands, mainly those who aren’t using their website as a primary sales channel (e.g., luxury brands). 

  But unfamiliar design patterns can also intimidate a lot of shoppers. In one observational study, people were asked to guess where specific content (e.g., information on international calls) would be placed on a telecom website. 75% of users picked the same location. This means two things :

  • People already have expectations of where specific website information is typically placed 
  • Yet, one in four users struggles to identify the right areas even within standard website layouts

  So why make the job harder for them ? As UX consultant Peter Ramsey rightfully notes : 

  The truth is : designing the best experience isn’t about being unique, it’s about being easy. And guess what feels really easy to use ? Things that feel familiar.

  Therefore, analyse other homepage layout designs in your industry. Pay attention to the number and type of homepage screens and approaches to designing header/footer navigation. 

  Take some of those ideas as your “base”. Then make your homepage design on-brand with unique typography, icons, visuals and other graphic design elements.

  Take a cue from ICAM — a steel manufacturing company. Their niche isn’t typically exciting. Yet, their homepage design stops you in your tracks and tinkers your curiosity to discover more (even if you aren’t shopping for metalware). 

  

  The interesting part is that ICAM uses a rather standard homepage layout. You have a hero image in the first screen, followed by a multi-column layout of their industry expertise and an overview of manufacturers. 

  But this homepage design feels fresh because the company uses plenty of white space, bold typography and vibrant visuals. Also, they delay the creative twist (horizontal scrolling area) to the bottom of the homepage, meaning that it’s less likely to intimidate less confident web users. 

  2. Decide On The Optimal Homepage Layout 

  In web design, a homepage layout is your approach to visually organising different information on the screen. 

  Observant folks will notice that good homepage designs often have the same layout. For example, include a split-view “hero” screen with a call to action on the left and visuals (photo or video) on the left. 

  

  The reason for using similar layouts for website homepage design isn’t a lack of creativity. On the contrary, some layouts have become the “best practice” because they :

  • Offer a great user experience (UX) and don’t confuse first-time visitors 
  • Feel familiar and create a pleasurable sense of deja-vu among users 
  • Have proven to drive higher conversion rates through benchmarks and tests 

  Popular types of website homepage layouts : 

  • Single column – a classic option of presenting main content in a single, vertical column. Good choice for blogs, personal websites and simple corporate sites. 
  • Split screen layout divides the page in two equal areas with different information present. Works best for Ecommerce homepages (e.g., to separate different types of garments) or SaaS websites, offering two product types (e.g., a free personal product version and a business edition). 
  • Asymmetrical layout assumes dividing your homepage into areas of different size and styles. Asymmetry helps create specific focal points for users to draw their attention to the most prominent information. 
  • Grid of cards layout helps present a lot of information in a more digestible manner by breaking down bigger bulks of text into smaller cards — a graphic element, featuring an image and some texts. By tapping a card, users can then access extra content. 
  • Boxes are visually similar to cards, but can be of varying shape. For example, you can have a bigger header-width box area, followed by four smaller boxes within it. Both of these website layouts work well for Ecommerce. 
  • Featured image layout gives visuals (photos and videos) the most prominent placement on the homepage, with texts and other graphic design elements serving a secondary purpose. 
  • F-pattern layout is based on the standard eye movement most people have when reading content on the website. Eye tracking studies found that we usually pay the most attention to information atop of the page (header area), then scan horizontally before dripping down to the next vertical line until we find content that captures our attention. 

  User behaviour analytics (UBA) tools are the best way to determine what type of layout will work for your homepage. 

  For example, you can use Matomo Heatmaps and Session Recording to observe how users navigate your homepage, which areas or links they click and what blockers they face during navigation.

  

  Matomo can capture accurate behavioural insights because we track relative positions to elements within your websites. This approach allows us to provide accurate data for users with different browsers, operating systems, zoom-in levels and fonts. 

  The best part ? You can collect behavioural data from up to 100 different user segments to understand how different audience cohorts engage with your product.

  3. Include a One-Sentence Tagline

  A tagline is a one-line summary of what your company does and what its unique sales proposition (USP) is. It should be short, catchy and distinguish you from competitors.

  A modern homepage design practice is to include a call to action in the first screen. Why ? Because you then instantly communicate or remind of your value proposition to every user — and provide them with an easy way to convert whenever they are ready to do business with you. 

  Here’s how three companies with a similar product, a project management app, differentiate themselves through homepage taglines. 

  Monday.com positions itself as an operating system (OS) for work. 

  

  Basecamp emphasises its product simplicity and openly says that they are different from other overly-complex software. 

  

  Asana, in turn, addresses a familiar user pain point (siloed communication) that it attempts to fix with its product. 

  

  Coming up with the perfect homepage tagline is a big task. You may have plenty of ideas, but little confidence in what version will stick. 

  The best approach ? Let a series of A/B tests decide. You can test a roaster of homepage slogans on a rotating bi-weekly/monthly schedule and track how copy changes affect conversion rates. 

  With Matomo A/B test feature, you can create, track and manage all experiments straight from your web analytics app — and get consolidated reports on total page visitors and conversion rates per each tested variation. 

  

  Beyond slogans, you can also run A/B tests to validate submission form placements, button texts or the entire page layout. 

  For instance, you can benchmark how your new homepage design performs compared to the old version with a subset of users before making it publicly available. 

  4. Highlight The Main Tasks For The User

  Though casual browsing is a thing, most of us head to specific websites with a clear agenda — find information, compare prices, obtain services, etc. 

  Thus, your homepage should provide clear starting points for users’ main tasks (those you’ve also identified as conversion goals on your customer journey maps !).

  These tasks can include : 

  • Account registration 
  • Product demo request 
  • Newsletter sign-up 

  The best website homepage designs organically guide users through a set number of common tasks, one screen at a time. 

  Let’s analyse Sable homepage design. The company offers a no-fee bank account and a credit card product for soon-to-be US transplants. The main task a user has : Decide if they want to try Sable and hopefully open an account with them. 

  

  This mono-purpose page focuses on persuading a prospect that Sable is right for them. 

  The first screen hosts the main CTA with an animated drop-down arrow to keep scrolling. This is likely aimed at first-time visitors that just landed on the page from an online ad or social media post. 

  The second screen serves the main pitch — no-fee, no-hassle access to a US banking account that also helps you build your credit score. 

  The third screen encourages users to learn more about Sable Credit — the flagship product. For the sceptics, the fourth screen offers several more reasons to sign up for the credit product. 

  Then Sable moves on to pitching its second offering — a no-fee debit card with a cashback. Once again, the follow-up screen sweetens the deal by bringing up other perks (higher cashback for popular services like Amazon) and overcoming objections (no SSN required and multi-language support available). 

  The sequence ends with side-by-side product comparison and some extra social proof. 

  In Sable’s case, each homepage screen has a clear purpose and is designed to facilitate one specific user action — account opening. 

  For multi-product companies, the above strategy works great for designing individual landing pages. 

  5. Design Proper Navigation Paths

  All websites have two areas reserved for navigation : 

  • Header menu 
  • Footer menu 

  Designing an effective header menu is more important since it’s the primary tool visitors will use to discover other pages. 

  Your header menu can be :

  • Sticky — always visible as the person keeps scrolling. 
  • Static — e.g., a hidden drop-down menu. 

  If you go for a static header and have a longer homepage layout (e.g., 5+ screens), you also need to add extra navigation elements somewhere mid-page. Or else users might not figure out where to go next and merely bounce off. 

  You can do this by : 

  • Promoting other areas of your website (e.g., sub-category pages) by linking out to them 
  • Adding a carousel of “recent posts”, “recommended reads” and “latest products” 
  • Using buttons and CTAs to direct users towards specific actions (e.g., account registration) or assets (free eBook)

  For instance, cosmetics brand Typology doesn’t have a sticky header on the homepage. Instead, they prompt discovery by promoting different product categories (best sellers, bundles, latest arrivals) and their free skin diagnostic quiz — a great engagement mechanism to retain first time users.

  

  Once the user scrolls down to the bottom of the page, they should have an extra set of navigational options — aka footer links. 

  Again, these help steer the visitor towards discovering more content without scrolling back up to the top of your homepage. 

  Nielsen Norman Group says that people mostly use footers as :

  • A second chance to be convinced — after reading the entire homepage, the user is ready to give your product a go.
    
  • The last resort for hard-to-find content that’s not displayed in global header navigation (e.g., Terms and Conditions or shipping information pages).

  As a rule of thumb, you should designate the following information to the footer : 

  • Utility links (Contact page, Terms & Conditions, Privacy Policy, etc.) 
  • Secondary-task links (e.g., Career page, Investor Details, Media contacts, etc.) 
  • Brands within the organisation (if you operate several) 
  • Customer engagement link (email newsletters and social media buttons)

  The key is to keep the area compact — not more than one standard user screen resolution of 1280×720. 

  6. Show Users What’s Clickable (Or Not) 

  A homepage invites your site visitors on a journey. But if they don’t know which elements to click, they aren’t going to get anywhere.

  Good homepage design makes it obvious which page elements are clickable, i.e., can take the user to a new page or another segment of the homepage. 

  Here are several must-know homepage design tips for better on-page navigation : 

  • Use colour and underline or bold to highlight clickable words. Alternatively, you can change the browser cursor from a standard arrow into another element (e.g., a larger dot or a pointy finger) to indicate when the cursor hovers over a clickable website area. 
  • Make descriptive button texts that imply what will happen when a user clicks the page. Instead of using abstract and generic button texts like “see more” or “learn more”, try a more vibrant language like “dive in” for clicking through to a spa page. 
  • Use a unified hover area to show how different homepage design elements represent a single path or multiple navigation paths. When multiple items are encapsulated in one visual element (e.g., a box), users may be reluctant to click the image because they aren’t sure if it’s one large hit area leading to a single page or if there are multiple hit areas, leading to different pages. 

  Homepage of BEAUSiTE — a whimsical hotel in the Swiss Alps – embodies all of the above design principles. They change the cursor style whenever you scroll into a hit area, use emotive and creative micro-copy for all button texts and clearly distinguish between different homepage elements.

  

  How to Make Your Homepage Design Even More Impactful ? 

  Website homepage design is roughly 20% of pure design work and 80% of behind-the-scenes research. 

  To design a high-performing homepage you need to have data-backed answers to the following questions : 

  • Who are your primary and secondary target audiences ? 
  • Which tasks (1 to 4) you’d want to help them solve through your homepage ?

  You can get the answers to both questions from your web analytics data by using audience segmentation and page transition (behaviour flow) reports in Matomo. 

  Based on these, you can determine common user journeys and tasks people look to accomplish when visiting your website. Next, you can collect even more data with UBA tools  like heatmaps and user session recordings. Then translated the observed patterns into working homepage design ideas. 

  Improve your homepage design and conversion rates with Matomo. Start your free 21-day trial now ! 

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