Designing Your Home Page

Author: Alyice Edrich

Designing the home page is usually the hardest page to complete because it is the first web page visitors see when coming from advertisements, business cards, articles, and other mediums.

From the home page (a.k.a. the main address of your website), one can get a better understanding of what the website is about, discover new content and/or products, and complete specific tasks, like signing up for an e-zine, buying a product and/or service, recommending a friend, or visiting more pages.

But how does one do all that without leaving the visitor confused and dazed?

The first step is to remember that your home page is meant to grab attention and give visitors a reason to dig deeper—it’s not meant to be a catch all. If you overwhelm your visitors with too much, or too little, information they’ll leave before giving your website a chance.

Can You Grab My Attention?

Think about magazines near the check out counters. Have you ever noticed how drawn you are to a particular publication? What drew you to it? Was it the picture? Was it the captions? Whatever it was, it got your attention enough to get you to browse that publication and quite possibly bring it home. Your home page needs to do the same thing. But instead of flipping pages, your visitor is clicking pages.

Who Are You?

Besides an attractive, attention-grabbing design, the home page needs to give a clear understanding of who the company is and what it can offer the visitor. There are several ways to do this:

Provide a tagline that encompasses the overall theme of the business.
Give an introductory paragraph explaining how the company can help the visitor.
Include a “Read more about us” link after the introductory paragraph.
Include relevant graphics. In other words, if your website is about your virtual secretarial services, include graphics that showcase you working at a computer or meeting with clients in proper business attire. Don’t’ include graphics of you in your bathrobe, sitting talking on the telephone or making homemade soap.

What Can You Do For Me?

Besides educating the visitor as to who the company is, it’s important to appeal to the visitor’s self-interest.

What can your company do for the visitor?
What makes your product or service stand out above your competition?
What do you specialize in? (Product, service, geographic area, etc.)
What benefit(s) would the visitor receive from buying your product or using your service?

What’s New?

Besides addressing the needs of new visitors, it’s important to address the needs of repeat visitors. You can do this by including a “What’s New” area. Your “What’s New” area could include close-out sales, seasonal products, best sellers, one-day only sales, package deals, etc.

How Do I Get Around?

Once your visitor has an understanding of what your website is about, he or she will need to know how to get around the website. That’s why it’s important to include a site map on the main page of the website.

Finally, your home page’s color scheme should match the rest of your website, as should the layout, logo design, and font style.

By following the tips listed above, you’ll be on your way to designing a home page that converts one-time visitors into repeat visitors and quite possibly increase sales!