How to design a homepage that gets enquiries

A homepage that gets enquiries tells a visitor at a glance what you do, for whom and where, then offers one clear next step, such as a WhatsApp button. Below that, it answers what careful customers check before they contact you: services, proof, prices and location, in a calm layout that works on a phone.

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1. What should the first screen of a homepage show?
2. How many buttons should a homepage have?
3. What should go below the first screen?
4. How do you make a homepage look professional on a small budget?
5. Does a homepage need to be designed differently for phones?
6. How can you tell whether your homepage works?
7. Key takeaways
8. FAQs

What should the first screen of a homepage show?

The first screen should answer three questions before anyone scrolls: what you do, who and where you do it for, and what to do next. Everything else on the homepage exists to support those three answers.

People decide quickly. In a study led by Gitte Lindgaard, volunteers formed an opinion of a web page’s look within the first 50 milliseconds (opens in a new tab), and those snap judgements matched the ones they made after looking for longer. Nielsen Norman Group found that people spend about 57% of their viewing time above the fold (opens in a new tab), the part of the page they see before scrolling, and 74% in the first two screens.

Compare two opening lines for the same home bakery:

• Before: “Welcome to Sweet Moments Enterprise. Your trusted partner for quality and excellence.”
• After: “Birthday and wedding cakes, baked to order in Seremban. Order three days ahead on WhatsApp.”

The first says nothing a visitor can act on. The second tells them what you make, where you are and how to order, in two short lines. A strong first screen has four parts:

A headline that says what you sell

Write what you do in the words your customers would type into Google, not your company name or a slogan. “Aircond servicing for homes and shops in Puchong” beats “Cool comfort, delivered” every time.

One line of detail that matters

Under the headline, add the one fact that most often decides whether someone contacts you: a starting price, the areas you cover, your opening hours or how fast you respond.

One main button

Give the step most of your customers take, such as “WhatsApp us” or “Book a visit”, as a single bold button. A second, quieter link is fine; five buttons of equal weight are not.

A real photo

Show your actual shop, team or work. A photo of your own kitchen or your finished cakes tells a visitor more, and more honestly, than any stock picture of smiling models.

How many buttons should a homepage have?

A homepage should have one main action, repeated. Pick the step most customers take, such as WhatsApp, calling or booking, make it the only bold button, and repeat it after each section so it is never far away.

When everything is highlighted, nothing is. A row of equal buttons for “About”, “Services”, “Gallery”, “Contact” and “Get a quote” makes the visitor choose, and many choose to leave. Keep the menu for browsing and the bold button for acting.

For a Malaysian business, the main button is often WhatsApp. Link it with a message already typed in, such as “Hi, I’d like to ask about a birthday cake”, so the customer only has to press send. On a phone, a button that stays at the foot of the screen keeps it within reach of the thumb.

Make every button easy to tap. Accessibility guidelines set 24 by 24 pixels as the minimum (opens in a new tab) for something people tap or click; your main button should be well above that, wide enough for a thumb.

What should go below the first screen?

Below the first screen, put what a careful customer checks before contacting you: your main services, proof that you deliver, a price or a starting price, how it works, and your location and hours. Answer them in that order.

The sections of a homepage that gets enquiries, in order

Price is the section owners most often leave out, and the one visitors most want. Even “from RM150” or “most kitchens cost RM8,000 to RM15,000” saves a customer a message and tells them you are in their range.

A one-page business can fit all of this on a single page; a business with many services needs a homepage that leads to a page for each. Our guide to a landing page or a full website helps you choose.

How do you make a homepage look professional on a small budget?

Restraint makes a homepage look professional: generous space, one or two fonts, one accent colour, real photos and everything lined up. Clutter, many colours, stock photos and text crammed edge to edge are what make a small business site look cheap.

• Leave space. Give each section room above and below. A page with fewer things, well spaced, looks more confident than one that fills every gap.
• Use one or two fonts. One for headings and one for text, or a single family in two weights. Never one per section.
• Use one accent colour. Keep most of the page neutral and save your brand colour for buttons and links, so the eye goes where you want it.
• Keep text readable. Dark text on a light background, or the reverse, with enough contrast: the accessibility guidelines ask for a contrast ratio of at least 4.5 to 1 (opens in a new tab) for ordinary text. Grey on grey and text over busy photos fail.
• Line things up. Start headings, text and images from the same left edge. Uneven edges are the quickest sign of a homemade page.

Each of these gets its own guide in this series: layout and white space, colours and fonts, and photos that build trust.

Does a homepage need to be designed differently for phones?

Yes. In Malaysia almost half of web visits come from phones, so the first screen, the main button and the text must be designed to work at phone size, not simply shrunk from the desktop layout.

StatCounter’s figures for September 2026 put 46% of Malaysian web traffic on mobile (opens in a new tab) and 52% on desktop, so a homepage has to work well on both. For a local service, where people search on the go, the share is often higher still: your own analytics will tell you.

• Check the first phone screen. The headline, the detail line and the main button should all fit on it without scrolling.
• Keep text large enough. Body text that is comfortable on a laptop can be tiny on a phone; read every line on a real phone, not a resized browser.
• Keep it fast. Google’s guidance is for the main content to appear within 2.5 seconds (opens in a new tab). Large, uncompressed photos are the usual reason a homepage is slow on mobile data.

How can you tell whether your homepage works?

Watch what visitors do rather than judging the design yourself. Show the page to people who do not know your business for five seconds, then track enquiries and button presses in your analytics month by month.

1. Run a five-second test. Show your homepage on a phone to five people who do not know your business, take it away after five seconds, and ask what you do and where. If they cannot say, your first screen needs work.
2. Count the main button. Set up Google Analytics to record presses of your WhatsApp or call button, so you can see how many visits turn into contact.
3. Check the speed. Run your homepage through Google’s free PageSpeed Insights and fix what it flags as slowing the main content.
4. Change one thing at a time. Rewrite the headline or move the price up, then compare the next month’s enquiries with the last.

If you would rather have it done for you, Chapter’s web design service builds homepages around these same rules: a Landing Page is RM888 and a 3 to 5 page Multi-Page Website is RM1,888. Our guide to website costs in Malaysia compares the wider market.

Key takeaways

• The first screen must say what you do, for whom and where, and offer one clear next step.
• Make one main action, often WhatsApp, the only bold button, and repeat it down the page.
• Below the fold, answer what careful customers check: services, proof, price, process and location.
• Space, one or two fonts, one accent colour, real photos and clean alignment make a page look professional.
• Design for phones as much as laptops, keep it fast, and judge it by enquiries rather than taste.