Thursday, April 22, 2010

Building Your Home Page

What does your home page say about you or your company? Chances are, if it's like many Web sites out there, very little. Many companies realize that Web sites are a prime marketing channel for their business, but they forget that other people, including potential customers don't eat, drink, breathe and sleep their products. This means that their Web site front page ends up being a showcase for whatever company project has the focus at the moment.

Some of the more common elements of a company home page are:

Products for sale
News and Press Releases
Events and Announcements
Navigation
Search
What's missing from many home pages is a clear and concise description of the company. If your customers can't figure out what you're trying to sell or do for them right away they might just give up and leave immediately.

What About Existing Customers?

You might be asking, "But our existing customers already know who we are and what we do." While that is probably true, your Web site should be a ready resource for attracting new customers as well as retaining existing ones. But if the new customers aren't really sure what you offer, they might leave for a firm that is more clear.

What you should aim for is a balance between providing the tools returning customers crave with the information that new customers need to make the decision to go with your company. This can be just a sentence or two, with links to more if they need or want it. Leaving this out may satisfy one department's need for one more sentence about their product, but risks alienating new customers before they've even gotten to that product.

Real World Examples

I took a look at three company home pages. Chances are you've heard of at least one of them. None of the three have names that would really tell you what the companies do, so hopefully the home pages are a help. Let's find out...

Symantec
McAfee
Google

I'll be looking for:

A summary of what the purpose of the site is.
This might be textual (preferably) or it might simply be obvious from the entire layout of the site.
Products or services displayed prominently and clearly.
This allows new customers (and returning) to visualize what they will be getting.
Clearly defined links to other pages with more information.
Links like "About Us" or "Company Information" are good.
The above information should be "above the fold".
This means, on a lower resolution browser, the prominent information should be visible without the customer needing to scroll.

14 comments:

  1. It’s truly a nice and useful piece of information. I am satisfied that you just shared this useful info with us.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Very well versed information is shared here on this blog. Web developers India should keep the points in mind while they create home page of the website.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I totally agree with your points.Thanks for this very useful post.
    http://www.magento-templates.in/magento-development

    ReplyDelete
  4. There's a lot of factor you have to consider when you want to start your website. One of which is it's Website Design The other are SEO related.

    ReplyDelete
  5. nice blog. i want to tell something about our site,please visit our site for information.

    homesforsalemn

    ReplyDelete
  6. Nice article about web development,i like it,thanks for shearing this good information with us.
    Web Designing

    ReplyDelete
  7. I’m not sure the place you are getting your information, however good topic. I needs to spend some time studying much more or working out more. Thank you for fantastic information I used to be searching for this info for my mission.
    Seo Services

    ReplyDelete
  8. Awesome Article About Web Design and Development for Home Page of any Company. Thank You So much For Sharing Useful Tips
    RegardsBest web design and Developmen company Udaipur India

    ReplyDelete

  9. Excellent and very cool idea and the subject at the top of magnificence and I am happy to this post..Interesting post! Thanks for writing it. What's wrong with this kind of post exactly? It follows your previous guideline for post length as well as clarity..

    Digital marketing company in Chennai

    ReplyDelete
  10. This post was quite awesome to ensure in building your home page.Thank you for establishing this with us


    Digital Marketing Company in Chennai



    ReplyDelete
  11. This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  12. While building homepage, we need to think a while on our targeted users and there benefits of reaching our website.

    Web Design Company India

    ReplyDelete