When creating a website, having a good idea of your website and, knowing how to best present it, are the two major considerations that any company or individual has to make. A homepage of a website is the most valuable tool for any website in any niche. Its impact on a company is the more important and greater than any other simple measures of other website revenues. Basically, a homepage is the face of your company to the whole world.
When a new visitor lands in your homepage, the first impression that he gets from it will determine whether he will come back for more and do business with you.
Many people and visitors, who are considered as potential customers, will look at the web presence trend of your company before deciding whether to do business with you. The numbers of people who look at your presence are increasing and there are no signs of slowing down. This is regardless of whether they plan to close the actual sale over the web.
Being the most important page of your website, homepage gets more views than any other page of the website. A website is considered to be like a house where every window is a door. This is so because not everybody enters a website through the homepage. In many cases, people follow links which they get from search engines and other referral websites which reach deep inside your website.
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Deep linking is very helpful although it does not give the users ability to view the homepage of a website. To increase the usability of your website’s homepage which enhances the business value of your website, it must follow some guidelines. Some of the guidelines that must be followed are:
1. Use of a short informative tagline:
A tagline summarizes the whole website. This is especially if the website is not widely known. Even for the well-known companies, the use of an attractive tagline is essential in attracting new visitors. A good tagline for your company’s website is a perfect tool for marketing.
2. Navigation windows should have good title and visibility:
A good and effective title starts with the company’s name and then followed by a brief description of the website. A good description does not start with words such as “The”, “Welcome to”.
3. Emphasize the tasks which have the highest priority:
An effective homepage should give the visitors clear points of the main tasks and goals that the website and the whole company seek to achieve. This helps the visitors to know how reliable you, as a company, are.
4. Input a search box in your homepage:
This is an important part of a website. The users typically scan the homepage looking for a search box. This search box helps the visitors when they are looking for a specific thing in your website. A search box in a website should be able to accommodate at least 25 characters which enable the visitors to clearly type their queries.
5. There should be easy access of recent homepage features:
Many users remember articles and products which were featured prominently on the homepage. They may fail to know how to find them if they are inside the website in inaccessible areas. To curb this difficulty, an effective homepage should contain a list of the recent features and a website designer can supplement it with a link.
6. The link names should begin with the keywords:
Visitors scan the homepage in pursuit of the area which fulfill their immediate objectives. Starting the links found on the homepage with specific keywords helps greatly when the users are looking for a certain thing in a website. The use of relevant keywords adds value to the website and the users are able to quickly find what they need.
7. Use graphics which have meaning in your homepage:
One of the most common mistake web designers and developers make is use of colors which may lack meaning. As much as unique colors attract people, in the case of a website, that may fail to work. An effective graphics and images should be powerful communicators when they show the products that interest the users. Images should be relevant to the website’s niche for them to have an impact on the visitors.
For an effective website, it will greatly rely on the web developer that you choose. Reputable web developers will ensure that your website is attractive and has a great impact on the readers.
This article is written by Karen. She is a web developer and she has 7+ years experience in this field. Now she is managing her own website Olea Kiosks Inc.
