Monday, March 9, 2009
2:07 PM
Is your Home page more important than the inner pages of your website?
There is constant discussion among website designers about the importance of a website’s Home page. Some professional web site designers argue that a Home page has little to no importance compared to the inner pages of a site, while others argue that the Home page of a website is the most critical page of a website. There are valid arguments on both sides of the issue as far as I am concerned.
Here is my personal take on the whole issue of a website Home page and its’ importance and role.
YOUR HOME PAGE AS A “LANDING” PAGE
In the past, the Home page of a website was almost without exception the “landing” page for visitors to your website. Rarely did anyone arrive at your web site on one of the inner pages.
In today’s world the Home page is probably still the primary landing page for your site due in part to the fact that your site URL (www.mysite.com) is what is printed on business cards, letterheads and other forms of print advertising. But, due to the way that major search engines have evolved, the inner pages of a site have increasingly become landing pages for your sites’ visitors.
Because of the fact that the Home page has decreased to some extent as an entry point for a website, the role of a Home page has changed somewhat compared to its’ role in the past.
SO, WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF A HOME PAGE TODAY
Think of your website as a printed book and the Home page of your website as a combination of the book cover the Table of Contents and the back cover of a book.
Just like the cover of a book, your Home page should grab people’s attention. It must attractive and represent the website favorably through the use of a pleasing layout & colors and have a feature or two that creates a “stickiness” to attract their immediate attention and cause them to want to explore your site in more depth, instead of quickly moving on to another website. In addition, if the Home page is cluttered and hard for people get oriented to they will quickly move on to another site. Remember that First Impressions Are Everything. Landing page = first impression = very important.
The textural content of a Home page can be compared to the Back Cover of a printed book and should give a very brief description of what your site and company are all about. That is to say, it should tell in condensed form what products, services and information you and your company can offer the web site visitor. If applicable the content of your Home page should also have a call-to-action.
Lastly, a very vital function of your Home page is to act somewhat like the Table of Contents of a printed book. It should provide a way for site visitors to quickly find the specific information they want or need and provide a way for them to easily get to that specific information on the inner pages of your website. This is done of course with the use of an easy to use navigation menu and/or links.
INNER PAGES OF A SITE AS A “LANDING” PAGE
As I stated earlier, the Home page is not the only page at which people arrive on your site. Search engines will link to inner pages of your site, thus causing those inner pages of your site to be the “landing” page for many, if not most individuals that arrive at your website as a result of a search engine query.
Because inner pages of your website are often landing pages for visitors, the inner pages should have the same attractiveness and “stickiness” that your home page has. Inner pages of your site should also have easy to understand navigation to all other pages of your web site, just as your Home page has. Be sure to have a consistent look to all pages of your site to avoid possible disorientation.
I always maintain that “Every page of your site should be accessible from every page of your site”.
THE FUNCTION OF INNER PAGES OF A WEB SITE
Inner pages of almost every site are the “meat and potatoes” of what you have to offer your website visitors and what they came for. They are the pages that you have hopefully generalized and briefly mentioned on the Home page of your site and are usually your sales force and money makers. The inner pages of your site is where Content Is King.
The reason that Content is King on the inner pages of your site is because it is on these inner pages of your site where you should not just outline, but go into detail with current information about the various products, services and information that you have to offer. The way that you author the textural content on the inner pages of your site can mean the difference between making money or going broke.
I won’t go into text authoring other than to say that you must accurately showcase all of the products, services and information that you offer and gracefully lead your website visitors down a path that ends with a call-to-action. You can of course implement a call-to-action at more than one point within the page content of an inner page.
HOW DOES YOUR WEBSITE RATE ?
Does the Home page of your website have eye appeal and have some sort of stickiness to grab the attention of people? Is your website navigation complete and easy to use? Can every page of your site be accessed from every page of the web site? Is the text content on all of your pages current? Do you have an effective call-to-action on your pages?
If you do not have a website – why don’t you have one? You are missing out on what is probably the least expensive way to advertise and market your business or organization.
Small business website design and maintenance specialist Tom Rumish Website Development is your answer for low cost web design. Business web site designing, website re-modeling and up-dating and SEO are among the many services offered by professional web designer Tom Rumish. Visit our website for more details about the many affordable web services available.
http://www.tomrum.com/
sales@tomrum.com
There is constant discussion among website designers about the importance of a website’s Home page. Some professional web site designers argue that a Home page has little to no importance compared to the inner pages of a site, while others argue that the Home page of a website is the most critical page of a website. There are valid arguments on both sides of the issue as far as I am concerned.
Here is my personal take on the whole issue of a website Home page and its’ importance and role.
YOUR HOME PAGE AS A “LANDING” PAGE
In the past, the Home page of a website was almost without exception the “landing” page for visitors to your website. Rarely did anyone arrive at your web site on one of the inner pages.
In today’s world the Home page is probably still the primary landing page for your site due in part to the fact that your site URL (www.mysite.com) is what is printed on business cards, letterheads and other forms of print advertising. But, due to the way that major search engines have evolved, the inner pages of a site have increasingly become landing pages for your sites’ visitors.
Because of the fact that the Home page has decreased to some extent as an entry point for a website, the role of a Home page has changed somewhat compared to its’ role in the past.
SO, WHAT IS THE FUNCTION OF A HOME PAGE TODAY
Think of your website as a printed book and the Home page of your website as a combination of the book cover the Table of Contents and the back cover of a book.
Just like the cover of a book, your Home page should grab people’s attention. It must attractive and represent the website favorably through the use of a pleasing layout & colors and have a feature or two that creates a “stickiness” to attract their immediate attention and cause them to want to explore your site in more depth, instead of quickly moving on to another website. In addition, if the Home page is cluttered and hard for people get oriented to they will quickly move on to another site. Remember that First Impressions Are Everything. Landing page = first impression = very important.
The textural content of a Home page can be compared to the Back Cover of a printed book and should give a very brief description of what your site and company are all about. That is to say, it should tell in condensed form what products, services and information you and your company can offer the web site visitor. If applicable the content of your Home page should also have a call-to-action.
Lastly, a very vital function of your Home page is to act somewhat like the Table of Contents of a printed book. It should provide a way for site visitors to quickly find the specific information they want or need and provide a way for them to easily get to that specific information on the inner pages of your website. This is done of course with the use of an easy to use navigation menu and/or links.
INNER PAGES OF A SITE AS A “LANDING” PAGE
As I stated earlier, the Home page is not the only page at which people arrive on your site. Search engines will link to inner pages of your site, thus causing those inner pages of your site to be the “landing” page for many, if not most individuals that arrive at your website as a result of a search engine query.
Because inner pages of your website are often landing pages for visitors, the inner pages should have the same attractiveness and “stickiness” that your home page has. Inner pages of your site should also have easy to understand navigation to all other pages of your web site, just as your Home page has. Be sure to have a consistent look to all pages of your site to avoid possible disorientation.
I always maintain that “Every page of your site should be accessible from every page of your site”.
THE FUNCTION OF INNER PAGES OF A WEB SITE
Inner pages of almost every site are the “meat and potatoes” of what you have to offer your website visitors and what they came for. They are the pages that you have hopefully generalized and briefly mentioned on the Home page of your site and are usually your sales force and money makers. The inner pages of your site is where Content Is King.
The reason that Content is King on the inner pages of your site is because it is on these inner pages of your site where you should not just outline, but go into detail with current information about the various products, services and information that you have to offer. The way that you author the textural content on the inner pages of your site can mean the difference between making money or going broke.
I won’t go into text authoring other than to say that you must accurately showcase all of the products, services and information that you offer and gracefully lead your website visitors down a path that ends with a call-to-action. You can of course implement a call-to-action at more than one point within the page content of an inner page.
HOW DOES YOUR WEBSITE RATE ?
Does the Home page of your website have eye appeal and have some sort of stickiness to grab the attention of people? Is your website navigation complete and easy to use? Can every page of your site be accessed from every page of the web site? Is the text content on all of your pages current? Do you have an effective call-to-action on your pages?
If you do not have a website – why don’t you have one? You are missing out on what is probably the least expensive way to advertise and market your business or organization.
Small business website design and maintenance specialist Tom Rumish Website Development is your answer for low cost web design. Business web site designing, website re-modeling and up-dating and SEO are among the many services offered by professional web designer Tom Rumish. Visit our website for more details about the many affordable web services available.
http://www.tomrum.com/
sales@tomrum.com
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