Common Home Page Mistakes

A strong home page grabs the unsuspecting visitor by the eye-balls and punches your message direct into their brain. Okay, that might sound a little overdramatic, but without an effective hook that plays into your customer’s motivations and desires, your home page risks losing customer interest and makes the back button the most used link on your site.

Yet the home page is still often misused and misunderstood by businesses launching new websites.

One of the problems with home page design is that the people reading it may arrive by any number of routes. A person who came to your home page from a specific Google keyword search has one context in mind, whereas someone else responding to an advertising link may have another. A third visitor may simply stumble across the site as they move from link to related link. By understanding how different visitors are viewing your page in various different contexts, you should ensure that your home page responds positively to everyone.

There are many common mistakes made with home page design, but here are some of the most common and most damaging to your online business.

1. Using a “Splash Page”

Does your website have a front page consisting simply of titles or graphics, or even some animated images, before inviting the visitor to ‘enter here’? Known as ‘Splash Pages’, these jazzy entry pages can take a while to load on some internet connections because of the image files. Almost always they are unnecessary and say nothing of interest to the reader about your business. Therefore, they are wasted.

By using splash pages, you delay the visitor from accessing your gems in the main site. Also, some visitors won’t want to wait around to watch some whiz-bang imagery when they were looking for a simple and quick purchase or answer to their query.

If the purpose of the page is simply to get the visitor to click on an “Enter Here” link, then this additional and often expensive page is entirely unnecessary. Although splash pages can be quite common and are still popular amongst people believing them to be a sign of professionalism and branding, how does a flashy logo and some abstract animation tell a customer what your business is about or whether your website will meet a customer’s needs?

And if all of the above wasn’t enough to convince you of the futility of splash pages, search engines can’t read them. As search engines rely on lots of text to determine the importance and relevance of a webpage, if you have a splash page sitting where a home page would normally sit, the search engines may not display your site prominently, resulting in poor traffic.

The only valid use of an entry page would be if the site is restricted in some way, such as pornographic or gambling sites. These pages use the entry graphics as a signpost to ‘beware ye all who enter here’, whilst stipulating the conditions of entry.

2. Missing the Point

This may sound obvious but I have seen this on more than one occasion. If your business is selling teddy bears, but nowhere on the home page does it use the words ‘teddy bear’ or ‘sell’, you risk losing customers. Remember, most website visitors will scan your text very quickly, especially if they are clicking back and forth through hundreds of Google results. If they don’t see straight away some indication that you service the need they came looking for, they’ll hit the back button and move onto the next link.

Make sure the point of your business is listed bold and proud in your headings and in the body of your text. State the obvious. Don’t leave anything to assumption. “Australia’s Best Teddy Bears For Sale!” may not be the most exciting headline, but it leaves nothing no room for confusion.

Any strong business should be able to distil what they are about down to one very punchy line. This line will drive your home page. Sure, it won’t contain everything about you, but if the first few words a visitor sees doesn’t convince them to read on, they’ll never find out about you anyway.

3. Not Staying ‘Above the Fold’

The phrase ‘above the fold’ has been commandeered by web designers from the world of print journalism, and refers to the content that appears on top when a newspaper is folded in half on display.

Websites deal with the same problem as, often, webpages are longer than the screen displaying them. When visiting your home page, if a reader has to scroll down to find the most important information or most eye catching imagery, chances are you’ve already lost them. Ensure that the content immediately visible on the page when it first loads is strong enough to capture the reader’s attention and convince them to read on further.

Too many webpages assume a reader will spend time scrolling and reading to determine the point you want to make, but the reader needs to be given a reason to do so first. Without that motivation, it won’t matter how brilliant your copy is if it is hidden off-screen when your audience clicks through and arrives at your home page.

4. No Clear Action

Let’s assume everything discussed so far is correct on your home page. What else could go wrong?

Lots. Remember, each page of your website needs to instil a clear action in the reader. Whether it is to lodge an enquiry, purchase a product or click to a particular page, you want the reader to perform a very specific action, and should be limited to one action per page wherever possible. (For example; in a page showcasing multiple products, there is still only one desired action – buy a product.)

Many home pages do not drive this action in the copy, leaving the reader’s response to chance. By understanding the next step you want to promote, you can structure the copy and the layout of the page to increase the likelihood of the reader taking that step.

From the home page, it is likely that the next best step would be to visit a specific product page. Therefore it is important that the copy sets up the desire in the reader for them to see the products contained on that page. Identify the need the reader has then create the desire, with a very clear navigation highlighting the next step. Finally, use a call to action to turn the reader’s desire into action, such as mentioning the special offer that is only available for a limited time.

A clear action focus to the copy can dramatically increase click-through from the home page and reduce people bouncing straight back out of the site.

Conclusions

Just as in real life where a person only has ten seconds to make a good impression when meeting someone for the first time, your website has the same pressures. This puts more importance on the home page than many people realise, changing its role from mere navigation page or brochure cover to a key sales document.

By taking the time to establish the goals of your home page and understanding how your visitors will view it, you can more clearly drive their behaviour and convert more visitors into customers.

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For a free website review with an experienced Netregistry Online Business Advisor to discuss how your own home page could be improved to attract more traffic and create more sales for you, complete the free website analysis online form.

About the Author

Jonathan Crossfield is the Marketing Communications manager for Netregistry. He is a regular contributor on internet business to Nett Magazine and also produces a successful blog on writing.