Stop wasting homepage traffic [3 big mistakes backed by 10+ years of data]

As organic traffic shrinks and many consumers turn to AI for comparison shopping, some marketers go so far as to predict the end of homepages.

With 10+ years of studying human behavior, senior UX researcher Angela Gomez couldn’t disagree more. She says AI isn’t killing the homepage, but it is raising the stakes.

“Users who land on your website are gold. They didn’t stumble in. They chose to go deeper.”

Which means it’s important not to waste that opportunity. So when her research found that HubSpot was making three big front-page mistakes, it was time to make some fast changes.

Here are three crucial, data-backed homepage optimizations you need to make, plus tips on how to not waste your homepage traffic.

Mistake 1: Not answering “Is this for me?” fast enough.

Angela’s research shows that most visitors don’t leave because the product isn’t a good fit. They leave because they can’t tell if it’s a good fit.

“If you don’t show value in the first 30 seconds, you will lose them.”

And she says this problem is getting worse as companies race to cram AI-related buzzwords into their copy.

“What visitors understand from [terms like] ‘agentic customer platform’ is that it uses AI. But that’s it.” This leaves your audience wondering, “What’s the difference [between that and] Claude or ChatGPT?”

Chasing the latest jargon may feel cutting edge, but it can confuse visitors and crowd out the selling points they respond to.

“Users scroll to about mid-page and that’s it. If they don’t find something valuable, they abandon after maybe 50% of scrolling.”

The Fix

• Use comparisons they already understand.
  “Don’t use a lot of words. The formula that works is, ‘Here’s the pain you recognize. Here’s what we offer instead.’ That resolves the question ‘Is this for me?’ in seconds.”

• Cut the crap.
  Be real, fellow marketers: We fall in love with our own cleverness. But cleverness isn’t as important as clarity.
  
  “I don’t want you to tell me [marketing fluff], because that’s what every company says,” Angela explains. “Tell me something that actually helps me with a problem that I have.”

• When in doubt, just ask.
  “You don’t have to be a researcher to get customers’ feedback. Platforms like Hotjar let you track users’ navigation patterns. Or you can add a survey asking, ‘How did this page meet your expectations?’ If you have a little more budget, interview five to 10 participants and compensate them for their time.”

Mistake 2: You don’t say what happens after  the CTA.

“Get a free demo” seems like a pretty straightforward CTA.

But Angela points out all the questions that that simple CTA leaves in your users’ minds.

“Am I going to be reached by a human or a bot? Will this happen today, tomorrow, in three hours? If I click this, am I going to get an email offering me products every day?”

You’ve probably spent most of your copy talking up your product or service, trusting that the CTA will be self-explanatory. But that lack of context could be killing your conversion.

“In one controlled test, adding a single line of context beneath a demo CTA increased conversions by over 36%.”

The Fix

• Set expectations quickly.
  “‘Get a demo’ is scarier than ‘See a two-minute walkthrough.’ Same action. Completely different cognitive load.”
  
  The latter tells the visitor exactly what they get and how long it will take, at the cost of only two more words.

• Show value quickly.
  “They want to know if the effort is worth it. ‘Okay, I’ll fill out this form, but will it get me something I need? Or is this just to get my data and send me emails?’
  
  If your CTA is just a generic ‘Sign up’ or ‘Learn more,’ you’re only conveying what you want them to do. Not what they get out of the deal.

• Address fears of cold calls and spam.
  “Users don’t like to be asked for their phone number or address. If they can only put their name and email, they’ll be happy.”
  
  If you need that info, being very specific can help defuse fears. For example, “You’ll be contacted by a sales rep within one business day” implies a one-time, time-bound interaction.

Combining all this, a quick context statement might look like: “Schedule a free, live video consultation today. No email required.”

Mistake 3: You don’t help those who help themselves.

“Every time I evaluate a website, users say, ‘I don’t want to be contacted by a sales rep, I want something I can do by myself.”

The catch is that those same users will still click ‘Get a demo.’ They just don’t mean what you think they mean.

When Angela flat-out asked visitors what a “demo” meant to them, “78% of participants expressed a preference for a self-serve walkthrough.”

But if your business model centers on a physical product or in-person service, you’re not out of luck. Consider things like:

• Product selection quizzes that guide customers to the right model.
• A self-service meeting scheduler for a free consultation or trial class.
• A 360-degree product viewer or “build your own” tool.
• Practical demonstration videos that show real customers using your product or service.
• Before-and-after galleries that users can flip through at their own pace.

In fact, just implementing a self-service meeting scheduler increased demo requests by over 95%.

The Fix

• Put everything they need on the page.
  Even better than making demos accessible is making demos unnecessary. If you can provide everything a customer needs to make a decision on your page, you’ve reached your prospects before they can bounce.
  
  An example of this is using embedded videos, rather than linking to YouTube.
  
  “Users don’t like to be redirected, they like to remain on page. They don’t actually click on YouTube videos.”

• Consider animations so they don’t even have to hit play.
  “Animation can be better [than video], because they don’t even have to click.”
  
  A good animation can showcase a physical product, a service in action, or even software being used. But Angela stresses that your animations should be informative, not decorative.
  
  “If they don’t add value to users’ understanding, skip them and use a screenshot [instead].”

• Shorter is better.
  Whether you choose a self-guided walkthrough, a video, an animation, a quiz, etc., just be sure to keep attention span in mind.
  
  “More than one or two minutes, they won’t watch. Even small amounts of friction shave off some amount of people each time.”