7 Steps To Build Course Homepage For Your Teaching Website

With online teaching platforms and LMS software available, setting up a website for your online teaching business becomes easier. When you think of your online teaching website, you should pay great attention to your homepage and your course page. 

You need the homepage first to represent who you are and what you do and second to create a visual storefront of all your online courses and offerings. 

In this article, we will discover how you can set up your online teaching website homepage and how you can make it more appealing for your website visitors. 

Setting up an Online Courses Homepage

Your online teaching website’s homepage is where your students land first when they want to check out your online courses and offers. This is the page that 

• introduces your site visitors to your unique brand 
• communicates your expertise, 
• features your online courses and products
• provides navigation to other important pages of your online teaching website
• shapes an opinion about your teaching business. 

If your course homepage doesn’t meet the visitors’ expectations, they are less likely to visit your course pages to check out your offers and navigate through other pages. Here are 7 steps you should take to complete your homepage setup and be able to attract more and more visitors to your online teaching website. 

#1 Choose the Domain

The domain is a specific address serving as a unique identifier and allowing visitors to access your website. Finding a unique domain name for your online teaching website is important because your visitors and future students will remember you with that. 

After choosing the domain extension (the most popular ones including net, com, org, co) you should come up with a memorable domain name. It can also be your online school’s name for better SEO results and brand recognition. When choosing a domain for your online teaching website

• keep it short, ensuring it is easy to spell
• do not incorporate hyphens or numbers for it to become easy to remember
• use keywords
• choose something that is true to your online teaching business
• avoid basic and generic names

You can use tools such as Wordoid or Instant Domain Search to generate a unique custom domain. When the final version is ready, do not forget to register it. 

However, if you are using an LMS platform such as Uteach, you will not have to think about a domain name. Uteach sets your online teaching site domain as yourschoolname.uteach.io.  You will also be able to add your custom domain. 

#2 Set up the navigation bar

The navigation bar is the line on the top of your website. It is also called a header and usually has a horizontal shape. On the navigation bar, you should display all the essential pages you want the users to visit. You should also aim to create a user-friendly and organized menu to help visitors easily access different sections of your site. Partnering with nearshore software development companies can provide expertise in designing intuitive navigation systems tailored to your specific needs, while also offering cost-effective solutions and aligning with your time zone for better collaboration.

First, you will need to identify the main sections of your teaching site. They may include:

• About page. While deciding on whether or not to buy your courses, people like to learn about you, your expertise in the field, what kind of experience you have, etc. You can describe your journey using storytelling techniques, provide background information of your course creators’ team (if you have or plan to have one), and encourage visitors to connect with you with a CTA button. 
• Your courses. The aim of the homepage is to present your online courses, so this section should also be included in the navigation bar. This page shall provide detailed information about the course, including the compelling title, description, and description. It should also guide the learners through the enrollment process. 
•  Contact us. Whenever future students have questions related to your course, they like to get in touch with you. Consider providing multiple contact options, like email and a phone number. You should also add the contact form or incorporate a FAQ section for the frequently asked questions. 
• Blog. If you like to create and share content and you create a blog page, then you should include it in your navigation bar. It is a great way to share valuable content, engage with your audience, and establish yourself as an authority in your field.

Additional pages that can be added to the navigation bar include your quizzes, masterclasses, resources, FAQs or any other thing you want to emphasize. 

Tip: If you cannot decide what pages you want to include in the navigation bar, try researching the course homepages of some other course creators. The research will give you a perfect idea of what sections to pt stress on. 

Here is an example navigation bar from Tony Robins’s homepage. 

Another important element you should display on the homepage along with the navigation bar is your logo. It helps the users easily navigate to your home page from any other page. You can use a logo maker to simplify creating one for your brand.

#3 Include a registration form

People who want to buy your online courses or to take part in your live lessons will need to register on the platform in advance. So, you should make it easier to find out how to do it. 

When creating a registration form, ensure to:

• use clear and concise labels for each field
• keep your form short (only for important information)
• make the form mobile-friendly
• send confirmation emails upon successful registration

You can use registration form builder tools such as Jotform. However, there will be no need to use separate software if you are already using an online teaching platform like Uteach.  Uteach’s site builder includes templates and ready-elements, so all you need to do is customize. 

Here is an example of a catchy registration form with the copy creating a sense of urgency and telling the visitor why they should register now. 

#4 Create a Brand Image

A good brand image stays in people’s subconscious mind, and they associate things with your brand. In this case, your online course website becomes your e-teaching brand. That is why you should create a general view that is both pleasant to the eye and memorable for the mind. Here are your brand's main elements: 

• Your online school name. Much of your success depends on a brand name, which provides a first impression. Come up with a brand name that is unique and presents your online school values. 
• Your school logo. This is an icon that makes people identify your brand. For instance, you may choose this logo on social media posts, on images on your blog articles, etc. And in case people share this content, your logo also goes viral.
• Website favicon. It is the small image icon that is shown on the browser tab. It may be your logo or some part of it. Do not choose something large. The ideal size for the favicon is 16x16 pixels. 
• Website colors. Have you ever happened to see a color and think about any brand? This is what website colors are for. You may also choose a brand color and use it in your website design, in your posts on social media, in copy-books, and wherever else you think it will be possible. However, do not forget to check out what kind of psychological effect colors have on people. So, choose a specific color palette and keep color consistency. 
• The language style is important. How you communicate with the students is a critical point requiring much attention. For example, you may choose your brand voice to be friendly, humorous, authoritative, or professional.  

We can see the perfect representation of all those points in Mel Robbins’s training page. She uses the same color palette and fonts, visual elements and images are also of a similar style.  The video included on the page features her presenting the training program, which gives the visitors a taste of how she will be delivering the training program they are about to purchase. 

Find out more about online school branding. 

#5 Say no to long texts 

Some people think that long texts help website visitors easily and better understand the usefulness of their courses and products. However, it’s quite the opposite. Today, people prefer to receive information in a shorter and more concise format. 

• It would be great if you presented your courses in a few lines but to the point.
• Pay attention to the simplicity of your content so that your audience gets the meaning at first glance.
• Avoid using complex and fancy words. The simpler, the better. 
• Include your course value proposition, emphasizing the benefits. 
• Do not use huge chunks of text; rather, incorporate visuals.

When presenting your course and its benefits, you should not sound pushy and salesy. On the contrary, the copy of your text should sound genuine so the visitors become aware of the great value your course is offering and convert to leads and, eventually, students. 

An example of such copy is Marie Forleo’s “Copy Cure” course page. Here, she points out all the benefits her course offers, briefly tells who the course is for, and includes student testimonials and reviews. This way the visitors can understand if the course is right for them. 

#6 Offer an FAQ Page 

Imagine you are a student who wants to buy online courses. Surely, you will have some questions that need to get answers for. As you may know, the FAQ section is created for frequently asked questions. Here, you should present some questions that, most of all, concern your audience and provide the answers as well. So, think about what may interest your visitors beforehand and include the answers in the FAQ section. There may be questions about the length of the course, the way payments are accepted, or about getting certificates and completing quizzes. Whatever that may be, place yourself in your teaching website visitors’ shoes and consider their needs and concerns. 

Completing this section on your course homepage, you take the connection one step forward. The visitors find their answer without even writing a message or email letter. On the other hand, you don’t risk missing a potential student because they have some concerning questions. As a result, everybody is satisfied.

#7 Finalize your page structure 

We are almost done setting up your online course homepage. But before launching the page, let’s make sure your online course homepage includes all the necessary elements for your courses to be successful.  
 

• Write the heading. As with any other page of your online teaching website, your course homepage should include the primary heading (H1). This main heading usually includes the keyword you are trying to target. So, when a potential student is looking for online courses (be it microlearning courses, hybrid courses, synchronous courses, or asynchronous courses), they may find your course homepage on the search engine results. 

• Include a primary and secondary CTA button. As the potential student lands on your online course homepage, you should aim to direct him/her to navigate your online teaching website and take action.  The primary CTA button tells the visitors what they should do next to get your course. So, place them strategically on your course homepage to convert as many visitors as possible. 

• Include supporting visuals. Let’s agree: no one likes dull text on a web page that lacks any visual elements. Engaging images, videos, emojis, or other design elements help to make your online course homepage easy to navigate and retain their attention for long. However, this does not mean you can choose to place just any visual element. These elements should align with your website brand and support the information you present in a text format. 

• Show social proof. People are more likely to believe what others experience and say than listen to how you praise your course throughout the page. If you have already launched several courses or have at least a small student base, consider showing their reviews and testimonials on your online course homepage. They increase the trust factor and play an important role in the students' buying decisions. 

• Offer a freebie. Not all the visitors who land on your homepage will end up buying an online course. In fact, 90% of them will just explore your website and see what you offer. It will take some time until they make sure your courses are all they need. That is why you should accelerate this process by including a free guide, checklist, template, quiz, or any other resource for those who are interested. Continue providing value to them for free, and they are most likely to purchase your course from many others because you were the one who helped them all that time. 

Are You Ready? It’s Your Turn!  

Once you have taken into consideration all the above-mentioned steps, you can create an online course homepage that will eventually get you more students. Tools such as Uteach come to help make this whole process a lot easier. With Uteach, you can build your website in minutes and customize your pages with an easy-to-use builder. After building an attractive website, you can upload and easily sell your online courses, training programs, digital & physical resources, coaching programs, and live sessions. 

Start today, create your website, and fill in with helpful content so your income comes tomorrow. Book a demo with our expert now and see how easily everything works.

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