Zen and the Art of Home Page Design

Your website’s homepage is your “face” to the world. In the 15-45 seconds that the average first-time site visitor gives your site, your home page must instantly show your branding, communicate what you offer, draw the viewer further into the site and present a clear call to action - all while showing that your site is current and active. That’s a tall order! But creating a great home page isn’t rocket science…it’s simplicity.

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The Content Basics:

1. Start with a KILLER headline. Hint: Nothing says 2002 like "Welcome to our website".
2. Follow up with a keyword-optimized introductory paragraph. Keep it short, no more than three brief sentences. No "leveraging", "reaching out" or other marketing-speak, just a friendly human-to-human welcome to your organization.
3. Use a meaningful, high-quality, appealing graphic. A well-crafted image can quickly tell the story of your product, service, or organization. Hint: Advertising imagery is aspirational so you want to show happy users with their problems solved and other images that convey a positive feeling.  
4. Keep it current. Showing current blog posts and event announcements shows that your site (and organization) is active.
5. Evaluate your use of social media. Are you using widgets or icons? Are you social media sites vibrant and up to date themselves? Are you sending your precious visitors away from your site to wander away into the world of Facebook? Or are you using social media strategically to reinforce your online objectives?
6. Craft a great call to action. Do you want clients to contact you to book appointments, join your organization, buy your product, make a donation, book a table or get a free consultation? Every site has at least one core objective. What's yours? Pick one and then craft a visually-compelling call to action (button, form or ?) that draws the viewer to click or complete.
7. Get out of your own way. Eliminate distracting elements to ensure that viewers can INSTANTLY get what they need whether that's your phone number, a map, a booking form, or a product list.

Deeper Considerations:

1. Is the design dated-looking?: If your site is several years old you almost certainly need to consider updating the design to keep it current looking - particularly if you have stock photos in use.
2. Is the structure outdated?: Older sites were built for lower screen resolutions like 800x600. It may be time to update the site's architecture to accommodate today's larger monitors and higher resolution.
3. Is it mobile-friendly?: Mobile site visits now average 15-20%. Think about making your site mobile friendly. Hint: If what you see on a smartphone is teeny-tiny version of your site that means that it's not mobile friendly. 
4. Is it effective? Before you revamp, take a look at your site stats to see how people are behaving on your home page. Does the visitor flow show users going where you want them to? Do you have a high bounce rate?

In summary, the key to a great home page is to focus on a few key factors and eliminate distractions. Whereas an organization's home page used to serve as a sort of virtual lobby, now it exists to support the primary objective of the site, it's call to action. Your site should be generating the results of that call to action not sending viewers off to less important pages or other websites. “Always remember, your focus determines your reality.” - Qui-Gon to Anakin, Star Wars Episode I.

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