Yesterday we started working on the Bill Keene Website Redesign. Today, we’re jumping into step 1:

Developing a 3-Second Elevator Pitch.

Doing this right will reduce the bounce rate the site has seen to date, because people will know immediately what you do, what they can expect, and where to go next.

This is critically important as we redesign the primary homepage content – what we call the hero section. This is the upper portion of a website that displays above the fold (the area that shows up when your site loads before the user needs to scroll down), and this is prime screen real estate.

Do NOT phone this section in!

Here’s where we started:

Here’s where we’re at after day 1:

Important Points:

• New, more professional logo.
• Cleaner, less cluttered look reduces confusion.
• Clear call to action – giant red button, keeps the “Don’t Panic!” message they love, which is emphasized more than once.
• Quick summary saying what Bill does – what he specializes in (people like to hire specialists, not generalists) and shows experience.
• Took the emphasis off of “cost”, and instead focuses on reputation, honesty & integrity.
• Placed major trust indicator right in the hero – their rating stars from their real Google Customer Reviews.

Sent this over to the client with a little video review – a comprehensive rundown that explained these concepts in an easy-to-digest format. This is something I love doing for any website development project I’m managing.

Tomorrow, we’ll work down the page and figure out what content we should feature, along with any other key items to display on the homepage.

Enjoy the rest of your day, and get some work done!