The 7-Second Test: How to Make Your Homepage Actually Convert


You had your game plan.


You were getting to put together a homepage that turned visitors into customers. Those customers were getting to become raving fans of your business. they might tell all of their friends, family, and colleagues about you. you'd tell your grandkids about your business success and ride away into the sunset on a horse named ROAS.

It was beautiful, except… it never was.

Your homepage might still be within the construction zone or might be live, but it’s not getting you the results you’d hoped for. you recognize there’s a touch (read: A LOT) wrong with it. You see the pageviews come in—where are the conversions?

Traffic and conversion master, and CEO of DigitalMarketer, Ryan Deiss knows.

In his DM Lab workshop on Crafting a High-Converting Homepage, Ryan breaks down exactly what a homepage must do to urge conversions. seems you don’t need GIFs or a 5-figure per month graphic designer on retainer.

  1. You just got to pass the 7-Second Test.

  2. The 7-Second Test

  3. Yep, this test takes 7 seconds to finish .

There’s one goal with this test: to ascertain what people think your business does. albeit those people aren’t your customer avatar, they’re getting to offer you the intel you would like to make a high-converting homepage make sure the page has there own quality, learn digital marketing in Delhi.

Here’s how you’re getting to run your own 7-second test to ascertain how you'll improve your homepage.

Step #1: Find volunteers (friends, relations , anybody with opposable thumbs) who will assist you audit your homepage

You don’t need the people that audit your homepage to be your customer avatar. If you recognize customer avatars who can assist you , then that’s ideal. BUT, it’s not in the least a necessity to make a successful 7-second test. Ask 5+ people if they will take a fast check out your homepage so you'll find out the way to improve it.

Step #2: Tell them who your business serves

Next, you’re getting to explain what hat the person auditing your homepage goes to wear. Since you simply care a few certain customer avatar’s opinion of your homepage, you would like this person to understand who they’re channeling. The key here is to form sure that you’re not telling them what problem your business solves, just who it helps.

Step #3: Have them review your homepage for 7 seconds

The moment is here. confirm to possess a number of your volunteers review your desktop homepage et al. review your mobile homepage. Give them 7 seconds to review it, with only giving them the context of who it helps. Once the 7 seconds are up, ask them for feedback.

Step #4: Ask 3 feedback questions

With your homepage fresh on their mind, ask your volunteers these 3 questions:

  • What can we do?

  • What problem can we solve?

  • What action can we want you to take?

Write down their responses. It’s illusion to imagine that you’ll remember everything they assert , and this feedback is way too on the brink of gold to forget. you would like every adjective used, confusion point, and even the foremost painful feedback in order that you'll improve.

Step #5: Brainstorm key insights and action items

Time to place your feedback to figure . look around the responses to your 3 questions and see what patterns you discover . Did your respondents easily find out what you are doing , but nobody knew what action they ought to take? Or, did a number of your respondents find out what problem you solve, et al. didn’t?

Figuring out where you’re going wrong on your homepage will assist you avoid looking like Rachel’s Thanksgiving Trifle (unless your customer avatar is Joey, during which case your homepage looks “Goooood”).

3 Critical Questions Every Homepage Must Answer in 7 Seconds (Or Less)

In 2011, Nielsen Norman Group found out that “users often leave sites in 10–20 seconds, but pages with a transparent value proposition can hold

This data is nearly a decade old, which tells us that 10 seconds may be a luxury. People’s attention spans haven’t gotten longer—at best, you've got 7-seconds to make your “clear value proposition.”

That’s why every homepage must answer 3 critical questions… fast.

  • What is it?

  • Why should I care?

  • What now?

Here’s the thing about homepages. They’re hard to create . They’re not like landing pages or sales pages that have a transparent goal. Your landing page asks someone for one action. Your sales page only gives people the choice to shop for .

Homepages don’t serve one purpose or maybe one person. Sometimes they’re serving a bunch of various people—and you've got to work out the way to make all of them happy.

To name a couple of , your homepage is serving:

  • Existing customers

  • A prospect referred by a customer

  • A hot lead able to buy, doing quick research

This is why homepages are so hard to create , and why you’ve been struggling to “get it good .” As Ryan explains in his Workshop, when he made his first online sale in 1999—all you needed was a header and replica . Homepages didn’t even need a logo or branding to form the sale.

Today, it’s totally different. Google’s been studying what makes an honest homepage for many years and they’ve narrowed it right down to the Zero Moment of Truth.

The Role of a Homepage

The First Moment of Truth in retail is when the buyer sees your product on a store shelf. within the digital world, it happens when someone sees it on an ecommerce page or a sales page. the rationale there’s a Zero Moment of Truth comes from people going backward from now .

When a consumer is on your ecommerce page or sales page and purposely goes to your homepage—they just entered the Zero Moment of Truth. They’ve moved backward to try to to research on your company before they buy your product. After they’ve gone to your homepage, they’ll decide if it’s worthwhile to travel back to your product or sales page.

If people see something inconsistent on your homepage, they’re gone. That’s why having a high-converting page matters.

Based on the Zero Moment of Truth, your homepage has 3 roles:

  • Clarify the benefit

  • Establish trust

  • Point the way

You’ll fulfill these roles by deciding what quite homepage you would like . There are 3 sorts of homepages that we’ll mention within the next section and every is meant for specific purposes.


3 sorts of Homepages

Just like with clothing, there's no one-size-fits-all templates for homepages that really fits every business. Those one-size-fits-all templates are getting to fit a number of you. Let’s confirm you’re creating the homepage that matches your business by narrowing it right down to 3 categories.


#1: Transactional Homepages

In a transactional homepage, there’s a call to action designed to elicit action. because the name implies, you’re trying to find a transaction to be made (even if that’s just signing up for a free trial). Your homepage is presumably a transactional homepage, but we’ll show you the opposite options just just in case .

#2: Categorical Homepages

Categorical homepages identify users supported which of your customer avatars they're . These homepages are ideal for marketplaces and businesses that serve different avatars. On a categorical homepage, you’re asking the user to inform you which of them of your customer avatars they're . for instance , Uber serves riders and drivers with an equivalent platform.

#3: Consumption Homepages

The goal of a consumption homepage is to maximise on-page time and readership. Generally, you'll consider media companies having consumption homepages. On these homepages, there aren’t any calls to action and they’re not considered high-converting anymore. Remember back within the day when having your blog be your homepage was all the rage? Yeah… don’t do this anymore.

For the foremost part, you'll specialise in transactional homepages. albeit you serve two different customer avatars, your Categorical Homepage goes to act as a homepage to 2 Transactional Homepages (one for every of your customer avatars).

Quick recap here. So far, you’ve learned:

  • How to run a 7-second test

  • The 3 critical questions your homepage must answer (in 7 seconds)

  • The role of your homepage

  • The 3 sorts of homepages

  • Now it’s time to craft the core message of your homepage.


Crafting Your Homepage’s Core Message

Grab your meditation cushion, get some incense, play that Tibetan bowl playlist, and meditate on your business’s core message. Well, maybe you'll use that point to specialise in your life’s purpose instead. As Wayne Oates so gracefully shared, “Everything you would like , you have already got .” We had no idea he knew such a lot about homepages when he shared such enlightenment with the planet .

It’s true. you really have already got everything you would like to write down a high-converting homepage—just such as you have everything you would like within you to succeed in your goals.

Thanks to your 7-second test feedback, you’ll know if you’ve missed the mark on your core message. Unless you passed the test with flying colours , likelihood is that you would like to require a fast run through your core messaging.

Your homepage’s core message just involves being clear on 3 things:

  • Clarifying your audience

  • Determining your audience’s awareness level

  • Selecting your primary CTA

#1: Clarifying your audience

You can use the Customer Avatar Worksheet to urge to understand your customers better than you ever have before. From their goals and values to their challenges and pain points, this DigitalMarketer created worksheet (yes, we’re bragging) has helped thousands of business owners find out who they’re selling to.

#2: Determining your audience’s awareness level

When someone visits your homepage, they either know they need a drag or they’re evaluating which solution is best for them (sorry to remind you about the competition).

Your audience is trying to find hope and clarity, whether it’s the primary time they’ve made contact together with your website or it’s their Zero Moment of Truth. They’re looking you up and down and deciding if you’re the person they trust to assist them solve their problem.

They want you to offer them the hope that their problem are often solved and therefore the clarity that shows you’re the people for the work .

#3: Selecting your primary CTA

There is no such thing as a Transactional Homepage without a call to action. Your call to action is that the a part of your homepage where you point visitors within the right direction. You’ve skilled the fundamentals of showing them “What is it?” and “Why should I care?” and your CTA promotes “What now?”

Your call to action doesn’t need to lead on to a purchase . It might be for a lead magnet, a free trial, signing up for a free product, etc. Your call to action should be pretty obvious supported your business goals.

It’s time to mention something that you simply cannot forget. Cannot, cannot, cannot. Your homepage must have one primary CTA. Choose the one amazing thing you would like someone to try to to while visiting your website and avoid giving them a bunch of various options of actions to require .

Your homepage is about and prepared to travel live—right? Well, not quite.

Would we even be marketers if we didn’t tell you to check it again? Run your 7-second test again to ascertain what the feedback is. this point around, you’re getting to see *major* improvements from last time and you would possibly even get that perfect feedback.

If you do, go live and make business happen.

If you don’t, go live and keep fixing your homepage as you go (build that airplane within the sky!).

And just like the great marketer you're , keep testing that page. Test your copy, your images, your colors, your buttons…

consultation