In a mobile-first world, where the screens are smaller and the user's attention span is shorter, never before has it been more important to have your website's home page do the lion's share of the work required to convert your users into paying customers.

Besides being found in the search engines, your site's home page has to load quickly and deliver that knockout punch as clearly and as quickly as possible before your user is distracted, or worse yet, moves onto your competitor's website. Do it right, and you'll hit your users so hard that they'll turn into paying customers instantly, but do it wrong, and you'll have users ducking away from your site in seconds.

Know Your Audience

Your home page is your first and often only chance at converting a user into a paying customer, so you better know who they are and how to hit them! For example, what you present on your home page through content / design / structure for a 20-something, always-distracted, on her phone at dinner female will be completely different than what you would to a 60-something, semi-retired, read every word, still getting used to a touchscreen male.

Figure out who your end customers are by researching and building customer personas. Then you'll be able to deliver a home page that hits them in a way they respond to – wherever and whenever they are looking at your website.

Google Bonus: The best part of knowing your audience is that you don't have to rely on Google to bring you hordes of traffic. If you're converting 75 out of 100 users versus 10 out of 1,000 users, you win every time.

The Knock-Out Punch is the First Punch

How do you sell your product or service to someone who is most likely walking around with smartphone in hand? Someone who happens to have come across a link to your page while swiping away...