Have you noticed a trend online? One where websites are eliminating sidebars and implementing Start Here pages? Oh, you haven’t noticed? That’s okay because we’re going to talk about why you need a Start Here page (even if you keep the sidebar) and how to easily set one up for your site.

Why Bother?

If you’re wondering if it’s worth the effort to set up this special page, let me break it all down for you so you can decide.

Easy Navigation

The ultimate reason is that it makes your site much easier to navigate. If a new visitor stumbles across one of your blog posts and decide they want to learn more about what you do and who you are, it helps to have a big button telling them to “start here.” It’s a no-brainer. With a Start Here page, even the least tech-savvy visitors can enjoy your site without being overwhelmed with sidebars and links galore where they would most likely end up on an entirely different site. It definitely helps prevent anyone clicking away from your site – yay!

Summary of Who You Are

Your Start Here page breaks down the different things on your site making it easier for visitors to determine if they’re in the right place without having to click through every page or get overwhelmed with too much information. It can be presented with a short summary of each section, so they can easily decide their next course of action. #winning

You’re in Control

If you take some time to answer the questions floating in your visitor’s heads, you’ll be able to predict what they’ll do next on your site, and you can capitalize on it. Your Start Here page is your place to shine and can be designed so that visitors will navigate where you want them to. If you want them to join your email list, purchase a product, or follow you on social media, simply set up your Start Here page so that it would naturally be their next step. This also gives the illusion that they made the choice themselves.

What to Include

This isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer. A great start here page will vary from business to business, but there are some key elements that will be beneficial to any type of website.

Primary Call-to-Action

The first is to consider what the primary purpose of your website is. Once you have this in mind, you know what should be front and center. This needs to be the attention-grabbing part that is featured “above the fold” and leaves no questions for the visitor as to what will happen if they click on it.

For The Creative Boss, this is used for featuring the latest webinars or an evergreen promotion for an entry level ecourse. But whatever your primary call-to-action is on your site, it should be prominent on your Start Here page.

Easy Navigation

Chances are your site has a lot of info for visitors, and they can quickly feel overwhelmed if they don’t know where to find what they are looking for. By breaking down the key features of your site in easy-to-navigate pieces, you will make it easier for visitors to take the next logical step. Some key features could be your blog, products, services, portfolio – anything that you know would get the visitor’s attention to take the next step.

Brief About Section

As you scroll down the page, a visitor may still be wondering who exactly you are and why they should even click on anything on your site. If they have made it past the fold, then take a bit to give them a brief overview of what the site is all about. This can help them to determine if they are in the right place for what they are looking for.

Secondary Call-to-Action

If you have a lot to offer, you can include a secondary call-to-action for those visitors that aren’t all that interested in your primary offer. This is a perfect way to showcase who you are and what you’re all about. For instance, if you have a Facebook group or another free opt-in offer, this is the place to feature it. Your Start Here page can cover loads of information. The key is to keep it simplified in bite-size chunks so it remains visually appealing and keeps the visitor from being instantly overwhelmed with the wealth of information.

Popular Blog Posts or Categories

If a blog is a crucial piece of your online marketing strategy, this can be a great way to get visitors clicking through your site and finding more information that is helpful for them. Take a space on your Start Here page to feature your most popular blog posts or the major categories that generate lots of traffic. This is where considering your analytics can be helpful. You can tweak the popular blog posts section by the posts that are being landing on via social media, or you can link to relevant posts that don’t necessarily generate much traffic based on those statistics.

There is no right or wrong way to lay out your Start Here page and you may find yourself constantly tweaking it here and there to see exactly what works best for you.

Time to Analyze and Tweak

After you have your brand-new Start Here page published and see it’s generating quite a bit of traffic, it is time to step back and really see how well things are going. Is your primary call-to-action getting the most clicks? Are people scrolling all the way to the bottom of the page? Are they leaving without clicking on anything? Knowing the answers to these questions can help you design your page to better suit your visitors. Constantly evolving will lead to clarity for both your brand and your target audience.

Luckily, there are some easy-to-use tools that can help you determine how things are going on your site.

Check Your Google Analytics

You should already have Google Analytics installed on your site and be checking in regularly to see where you are generating the most traffic from and what pages are popular. But if you dive a bit deeper into your analytics, you can focus in on your Start Here page and really pay attention to how people are getting there and what pages they are landing on after they visit the page. You will even be able to see how long they stayed on this page! If you don’t have Google Analytics installed on your site, add this to your must-do-ASAP list. Seriously, get this done before the day is over. It won’t take you but a couple of minutes.

Use a Heat Mapping Tool

You have invested quite a bit of time creating a beautiful Start Here page and keeping track of how visitors are responding is going to make it even better. If you use a heat mapping tool, you can see exactly how far visitors scroll down your page and what they like to click on. Based on that information, tweak the page to make it even better for them. If you see that no one is clicking on your primary call-to-action, then you know it is time to try something different. If you opt for better graphics or text, be sure to log your changes somewhere, so you can easily go back to your previous version if it ends up making things worse. I would recommend Heat Maps by Sumo.

Take the information that you gathered from analyzing your Start Here page and brainstorm what tweaks you can make to help the page perform better with your visitors. Be sure to track your changes and check in on them after a couple of weeks to see if they are performing better or worse. Another thing to remember is to not overhaul the page every time you make a change. Keep the changes limited to one or two at a time so that you can accurately test how they are improving the page.

Get Your Free Start Here Page Template

Since you have managed to stick around all the way until the end of this post, I have a freebie for you. The exact template that I use for my Start Here page. This template does require that you use either the Divi theme or the Divi Page Builder.