5 things to remove from your homepage like... right now

Fun exercise: Improve your website by removing stuff [View in browser]( Hi there, Gill here. If you just thought "Gill who?"... This is me, Gill Andrews, a copywriter and web consultant. And this is how I look in real life. [Gill Andrews and cat] My assistant and I, shooting you a new video with website tips (have you seen [my YouTube channel](?) You are getting this email most probably because you downloaded one of my website checklists, a PDF with the extra tips, or - gasp! - were so impressed with my content that you shared with me your email address without any incentives. I write to you once a week sharing tips that make your life as a business and a website owner easier. Ok, now when we've sorted this out... Today's website tip is about your homepage (or things that don't belong there, to be exact): 5 things that you should remove from your homepage like... right now 1. Stuff that moves by itself Are you an amusement park? Then carousels - blog post, testimonial or client logo carousels - have no place on your homepage. Research shows that users get frustrated and distracted if they see elements moving without control. And you want to keep your visitors happy and focused on clicking that call-to-action button. 2. Navigation item #8 and after The fewer links you have in your navigation, the greater is the chance that your visitors will click on something. 7 is the maximum items we can hold in our short-term memory. Plus, too many choices can lead to decision fatigue (the same thing that makes you scream "Screw it! I don’t need shoes!" when Amazon shows you 200 images for "black leather sneakers"). 3. Drop-down menus Here’s something counter-intuitive: Your visitors don’t like your drop-down menus. Your prospects find them annoying and are likely to skip main navigation pages because "Hey, some new stuff just dropped down!". 4. Useless words "Welcome to our page!". "Hi there! Nice to meet you". "Thanks for stopping by". You can get all wordy on your About page (you better not though, but it’s a different story). But on your homepage, useless sentences like these are just occupying precious space - space you should use to tell your visitors: - who you are - what you do - how it helps them …instead. 5. Stock images or neutral images with no value Is your product or services produced / delivered entirely by robots? Good. Then show your likable and trustworthy face at your door (and by "door" I mean "homepage"). You need your visitors to get to know, like and trust you to buy from or hire you. And that photo of a forest or a bunch of happy people who are clearly neither you nor for real is not going to get you any trust brownie points with your potential customers. This would be all from me for the week. Warm greetings from Germany, Gill [Website review]( | [Copywriting]( | [📙 My book]( P.S. This email may contain typos, and I'm fine with them because cloning humans is, unfortunately, still impossible. Spending more time proofreading my emails would mean I'll have to share fewer tips with you. And sharing more and better tips is more important to me than sharing tips that are grammatically perfect. I hope that's fine with you, too. [Gill Andrews] [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Facebook]( [Share to Twitter]( [Share to Twitter]( [Forward email]( [Forward email]( Gill Andrews You received this email because you signed up to my updates. Changed your mind? No problem. Unsubscribe using the link below. [Unsubscribe](