Updated: Aug 12, 2025 By: Marios
Great homepage design is not just about creating a pleasant digital space for your target audience to interact with your brand; it's also about designing a brand experience that naturally leads your prospects toward a conversion.
Ultimately, a well-designed homepage works just like a well-designed brick-and-mortar store. It feels clean and easy to navigate. It allows shoppers to browse your products without requiring them to go out of their way to find them. And it establishes your brand's credible and trustworthy authority, making your potential customers understand that shopping with your business is safe (and a good long-term decision).
Naturally, aesthetics will play a huge part in creating this type of customer experience. But visual design is not the only element of a high-converting homepage.
So, if you're looking to go beyond aesthetics, here's how to design homepages that guide buyers to action.
Why Aesthetic Appeal Matters
Multiple non-aesthetic website elements that can help boost conversions. However, before we dive into how you can use them to encourage sales, let's take a short look at how visual appeal impacts web performance.
Scientific research shows that high-quality aesthetic design:
- Has a positive influence on people's shopping intention — especially when it nurtures brand trust.
- Drives brand loyalty through an increase in brand affect and trust.
- Elevates engagement rates, as 59% of people prefer to consume beautifully designed rather than plain content.
In other words, paying attention to how your site looks does pay off. Moreover, elements like color and visuals directly influence how your audience perceives your business (and how well they remember your brand), which is crucial for setting up your marketing strategies for success.
Non-Aesthetic Homepage Elements Impact Buying Decisions
Visual homepage design plays a tremendous role in encouraging visitors to convert. But what non-aesthetic elements of web design do you need to pay attention to when aiming to guide buyers to action?
There are a few hugely impactful webpage elements it's worth paying attention to.
Value Propositions & Web Copy
Do you know what consumers want from brands in 2025? They're looking for understanding.
According to a study conducted by Adobe, 79% of people want brands to show they care about them (and their needs). Moreover, demonstrating user centricity directly leads to higher engagement rates and customer loyalty.
The best way to show you understand and care about your target audience's needs is to enrich your homepage with hyper-relevant, user-centric value propositions and copy.
In addition to directly addressing your ideal customers' pain points, adopt a benefits-first approach to describing your solutions.
For instance, check out how Otherland does this. The brand doesn't just say exactly for whom its products are made. It also clarifies the top unique benefits of the candles, including high-quality, safe ingredients.
Calls to Action
One of the most effective ways to guide your prospects toward a conversion is to:
- Make it clear what step they should take next to receive the benefits they seek.
- Make your offer irresistible and hyper-relevant to their experience.
Optimizing calls to action (and CTA buttons) is, naturally, one of the best methods to accomplish this.
In addition to adhering to the ground rules of CTA button design (using high contrast, attractive colors, action-oriented language, keeping the copy short, etc.), it's also worth adding a dose of customer-centricity to these conversion elements.
For instance, Wild understands that people have super-specific preferences regarding the type of deodorant they use. That's why its primary CTAs invite web visitors to browse two distinct product types — roll-on or stick deodorant.
Homepage Layout
According to research, web page layout directly affects user engagement and on-page behavior.
For example, the NN Group discovered that people spend 57% of their page-viewing time interacting with content in the first screenful of a website. Moreover, people tend to consume content according to predetermined reading patterns.
These findings show that using the right page layout on your website directly determines the likelihood of web visitors seeing and engaging with high-value elements such as USPs or CTA buttons.
With this in mind, prioritize using your site's hero section to communicate your most impactful branded messages and drive buyer action.
For example, Topicals uses the topmost section of its homepage to emphasize that orders over $50 receive free shipping. This is a genius design decision, as the majority of consumers consider this factor before deciding what brands to buy from.
User Experience
How a website performs is just as — if not more — important as its aesthetic appeal. So, if you want to guide web visitors closer to a conversion, ensure they have a marvelous time browsing your homepage.
Some methods to accomplish this include:
- Employing visual hierarchy to emphasize high-value elements.
- Elevating readability and accessibility.
- Using white space. And;
- Prioritizing mobile responsiveness.
Other, more complex website design strategies also contribute to UX. For instance, ease of navigation plays a huge role in how well your site is suited for product discovery. With this in mind, you could use design tactics to make it easier for your audience to find the exact products they need to resolve their pain points.
Check out how Medical Alert Buyers Guide does it. Instead of forcing all web visitors to follow the same product discovery path, the brand includes product review links on its homepage, allowing mid and bottom funnel leads to go directly to the page that is relevant to their position in the buying journey.
Trust Signals
Did you know that 88% of consumers consider brand credibility before making a purchase decision? That's the same number of people who consider product quality and price when choosing solutions to their pain points.
Ultimately, brand trust is a key conversion factor. So, if you're looking for tips to design a homepage that drives conversions, adding trust signals to your website should be a non-negotiable.
The good news is that you can use any format of trust element that works for your brand. This can be traditional customer ratings and reviews. You can show off customer logos.
Or, you could even highlight media mentions, which is what Kinfield does to show that it offers a product recognized as high-quality by trusted media outlets.
Product Demos
Sometimes, the biggest conversion obstacle on your website is that your audience doesn't quite understand the value your product offers.
That's why including explainer elements on your homepage could be a great method to drive user action.
Naturally, there are many methods to communicate the value you offer. We already mentioned optimizing your web copy and unique sales propositions. But, if there's room in your web design for product demos, those could be exceptionally effective at encouraging conversions.
Demos elevate understanding thanks to their educational content. They also encourage prospects to imagine themselves using your solutions, which is an excellent way to simulate their desire to own your solutions.
Rosie, an AI answering service, for example, uses its homepage to show off several demo audio recordings. On the one hand, these web page elements describe the various use cases for the brand's solution. On the other hand, they make it easy for shoppers to see how well the solution works, making them that much more likely to recognize that it could have a prominent role in helping their business thrive.
Urgency
Did you know that consumers often make shopping decisions based on their emotions? In fact, research suggests that this type of behavior is much more common than choosing products and services based on objective information.
Fear — particularly people's fear of missing out — is a feeling that's particularly effective at shortening the sales cycle.
So, if you're looking for homepage design tips to guide your audience through the sales funnel (and get them to convert sooner rather than later), why not add a few subtle urgency triggers to your site?
This can include limited sale notifications or even low stock badges. However, if you don't want to come off as too pushy, you can do something similar to Graza. By pointing out that a sought-after product is “back in stock,” this brand effectively triggers web visitors' FOMO and encourages them to shop sooner rather than later.
Lead-Generation Elements
Finally, if you want to guide your buyers to action, you have to understand that the typical buyer's journey doesn't happen quickly. Instead, people need to move through the different stages of the sales funnel at a comfortable, unhurried pace.
Pushing them toward a buying decision may seem like a good idea. But, more often than not, it backfires and negatively affects brand perception.
So, if you want to ensure your homepage drives conversions without making you look profits-oriented, explore ways to draw prospects into your sales funnel. Then, you can nurture them into customers at a leisurely pace.
To accomplish this, you need attractive lead-generation elements on your website. Something similar to the “mystery discount” on the Italic site is a great solution, as it promises a reward in exchange for visitors continuing to engage with the brand.
Final Thoughts
As you can see, optimizing your homepage for conversions doesn't have to include complex design upgrades. But you can rest assured that implementing the tips from this guide will result in a boost in sales.
So, don't hesitate to use these non-aesthetic web design strategies. Make sure you test their effectiveness. And, of course, feel free to adjust them to align with your brand's and ideal customers' needs, as that's the best way to ensure effectiveness.
