| |
| |
|
Web Design Information |
|
|
|
Does Your Homepage Work?
All websites have a homepage. It is the most important page of your site. It acts as the main gateway to the entire site. Most of your prospective customers will enter through it. Its vital to get it right. You dont want them to just turn around and go away again. Take a moment to clear your mind. Now go and look at your homepage and take a minute to evaluate it. Does it work for your prospective customers? Most will arrive at your homepage and quickly scan through the content. If they are interested in what they read and see they'll typically decide to click on a link that takes them to another page where they'll find more information. As they make that decision they'll be asking things like: What do they do?
Alternatively, if the homepage hasnt interested them immediately then they'll leave just as quickly as they arrived, unlikely to return. Your homepage is the gateway to your website and plays a critical part in the prospects visit. First impressions count. The success of your site depends on your homepage. Now, before we look at what a homepage should be, lets look at what it shouldnt be. It should not be a false homepage requiring you to click a link to get to the real homepage. It shouldnt be a page that fails to direct the prospect to further action. It shouldnt contain any content that doesnt serve an immediate and clear purpose. It should never read like a dull brochure, that does nothing to motivate prospects to seek more information or buy immediately. What a homepage should be. It should have a clear message. It should be a dynamic page that instantly conveys a sense of what you do, how you do it, who you are, how you do business, etc. It should start to describe the direct benefits that prospective customers get by buying your product or service. It should create prospect interest and make them eager to find out more. It should provide direction and clearly marked links to get them there. It should focus entirely on serving the needs of your prospective customers and removing their anxieties. The purpose of your website is to sell your products and services to your prospects. To be effective your homepage must meet the needs of your prospects exactly and provide answers to their questions. To do this you must know what your prospects want and how they want it. If you dont already know, find out. Ask them! Also, spend some time looking at other homepages learning what works and what doesnt. Are there features and styles that you could adopt on your site? Once you have these answers design your entire homepage around them. Spend some time getting it right and both you and your prospects will benefit. Dont settle for second best unless you want your website to fail as a result of being ineffective. When you've done it. Take a moment to clear your mind. Now go and look at your homepage once again and take a minute to re-evaluate it. Does it work for your prospective customers now? Good luck! About The Author Peter Simmons is editor of the DYNAMIQ EZINE. GET MAXIMUM RESULTS FROM YOUR WEBSITE! Increase your traffic, prospect conversions, sales, profits, referrals and more... START GETTING RESULTS RIGHT NOW with your $129 WEBSITE EVALUATION ABSOLUTELY FREE at http://www.dynamiq.co.uk/ezine or email me anytime at mailto:peter@dynamiq.co.uk
MORE RESOURCES:
Google News |
 |
|
|
RELATED ARTICLES
Website Woes: Top Five Offenders I see a lot of mistakes, but here are the top five offenders you need to correct to give your site a boost. Bad Title. Create Favorite Icon Favorite icon appears to the left of your link in either address bar or in favorites menu of your browser. It gives your website more personality, better visibility in favorites menu and is easy to create. How to Get Your Visitors to Create Content for Your Website An ongoing challenge for webmasters today is to provide fresh content that gives visitors a reason to return to their site. Unless you have a full-time staff dedicated to creating regular content, the time involved can be crippling. How to Build Your Own Website - More Steps To build a website, there are four methods to choose from:First method: Get a professional designer to build the site for you:It is expensive in creation process, site maintenance and development.Second method: Designing the site with free website hosting:In this case, just sign in the website that offers this service, and start building your own website. Cheap Web Design If you think it's simply a case of who will do it for the best price, think again.As with many things we buy there are several important factors to take into account. Hacked Off with CSS? For those not familiar with CSS Hacks, they are ways of using styles/classes that only apply to particular browsers. They are used to overcome the display problems mentioned previously by exploiting CSS structure and code. Website Maintenance: What Does it Take to Manage Your Website? Every action has a beginning phase where you launch your activity, a middle period in which you must sustain and develop it and a conclusion. Many people set up a website enthusiastically but then they find that they don't have the skills or knowledge to maintain and develop it. 5 Easy Ways to Improve Your Website When designing your website, remember to avoid useless and confusing features, however "cool" they may seem to be. Usually, keeping things simple and consistent are the best way to go. How To Write An Effective FAQ Page Websites that have multiple pages usually have a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page. There are several good reasons why you should have one. Teach Yourself CSS The Easy Way I taught myself HTML back in the mid-nineties and was proud of the fact that I was able to accomplish the design of fairly complex web pages with nothing more than a starter HTML book, an HTML reference book, and the knowledge I had stored in my head. But back in those days, we web designers had what looking back was a fairly limited amount of tools with which to work, and the quality (or lack thereof) of sites on the web was lackluster at best. File Types For Icons Explained An application is not ready for use unless you have the proper icons for using into the application. Having the right icons for your application is not difficult if you have the help of a specialist or a specialized company to design the icons. Effective Website Design In this era of ultra-sophisticated internet marketing and web design, there is no excuse for an e-business to suffer with an ineffective website. Whether your goal is to present a basic business website that briefly introduces and describes your company and product, or you endeavor to develop a fully-functioning cash-cow storefront, there is a wide array of design choices to cater to all of your needs. How to Create an Enjoyable Web Page Design Novice and professional designers alike - you may probably be skilled enough of any one or all of the techniques in creating a Web page and designing them. However, not all designs, even those made by authorities in the field, prove to be enjoyable and entertaining enough for the users. Web Crimes: how to avoid common website design mistakes Thinking about designing your own website? Think again about adding any of these "features"?1. Animated gifs. Simple Steps To Proper Web Design Over the course of the last decade, the Internet has grown beyond all expectations. Each and everyday there is a new website that is being developed. How To Use Unsafe Web Colors With Minimum And Safety And Maximum And Profit Do you want to use unsafe web colors without offending anyone? You can and you can do it by using JavaScript. It will determine which style tag the user uses by looking at whether it can use unsafe colors. Web Marketing: Design Mistakes That Drive Customers Away In Droves They may look cutting edge, but if you want a web site that contributes to your bottom line here are some design ideas you will want to avoid:· Opening with Flash. If your site opens with a movie that your prospect is forced to sit through, no matter how short, before they can get to your "welcome" or "home" page, you are losing customers. Give Your Web Wite Visitors What They Really Want - Information! Surfing the internet is basically an information-fest! From intellectual discussions to the bizarre.. A Web Site That Sells Is All One Needs To Have A Successful Online Business! There are more than billions of Web Sites, running Online Businesses, offering products and services. But only a few Web Sites manage to make any sale. Graphic Terms- The Basics Part I You're almost set. The content of your website, e-book, or software is complete.
|
| home | site map |
| © 2007 |