This was previously published by me (pen name Marie Heyns) on Triond on May 4th 2012
Since your homepage is people’s first encounter with your website, it
is of vital importance that it makes a lasting impression as this
greatly affects their decision to revisit it. The homepage is the page
that can either leave users intrigued with a desire to learn more about
your organization or it can cause them to become irritated, confused
and ultimately to abandon your site. This article contains some tips
for designing an effective homepage.
1 First of all, you have to define who you are or what the organization is about. Make sure you clearly display your company
name, logo and tag line preferably near the top of the page. Generally
users will scan your page starting at the top-left, so this is ideal
place for your logo. Clearly show your identity and make sure it is
aligned with what they are expecting. Also clearly state if your site is
local or national, a small business or a corporation and if it is
modern or traditional.
2 Avoid sleazy elements such as a lot of scrolling text, animated
GIFS, blinking, flashing objects or sound that auto-loads. Sounds and
animation are very distracting. Visitors with slow connections may feel
resentful that you’re wasting their time by forcing them to load
animations and sound files before actually seeing your page. It is
conventionally thought that people are drawn to an animated ad, but in
reality quite the opposite is true.If you assault readers with blinking
ads, they are more likely to leave your site immediately without
clicking on a thing.They are also far less likely to bookmark such a
site, link to it, recommend or return to it.The exact same is to be
said about scrolling text. Not only do people find it most annoying,
they also can not read it at their own pace but are forced to read it
at the slow or fast speed it scrolls down in. Scrolling text never
serves the visitor, it only shows the owner of the website tried to
look cool.
3 Another thing to avoid is to install pop-up windows as this is
almost always the most annoying to any visitor. Nobody likes to be
bombarded with a lot of pop-ups. By adding pop-up windows you will
ensure that your visitors never return. Most people tend to forget
their own experience of browsing the web and clicking on a site that
overloads you with pop-ups when they start designing their own
homepages. Always think what annoys you most of other websites and
ensure you do not include that on your own site.
4 Organizing your homepage is extremely important and you need to
put some thought into that before making it. Make it easy to find stuff
on your homepage. Don’t haphazardly clutter your page with all kinds
of tit-bits. Think of what content you want to put on it and how it
should be organized. A haphazardly thrown together page is neither
interesting to read or look at nor is it a page anyone would ever want
to revisit.
5 Minimize clicking as much as you possibly can as this is another
big reason why so many sites on the web are not revisited. If visitors
are forced to click around your homepage, they might not leave
immediately, but will definitely get annoyed and will most probably not
view as much of your content as you would have liked them to. On the
other hand, also don’t let your homepage be a ’splash page’ (a page
that just “welcomes” visitors and has no meaningful information on it)
neither. A far better idea is to put meaningful amounts of information
on each page of your website, starting with your homepage but keep in
mind to minimize clicking and scrolling.
6 It is equally important that you prioritize your content and
display items on the homepage that are held in the highest priority. A
good idea is to let the most important content be large and closest to
the top-left portion of your homepage. If you need to display several
important services, products or pieces of content, make sure they are
weighted accordingly to size and location within the page.
7 Do not bog your homepage or website down with too large image
files. Compress your image files with a graphics software so they take
up less room and therefore less time to load into your visitors
browsers. There a several graphics software that shrinks your graphics
to an acceptable size. Programs such as
Gifbot
is not only quick and easy to use but shrinks your graphics right there
on the web page. You can also download graphics software such as
Windows
HVSGifCruncher and
JPEG Wizard and for Macintosh it is
GraphicConverter.
8 Use simple backgrounds or contrasting colors as it is very hard to
read dark text on a dark background and light text on a light
background. There are also a few color combinations that simply just
don’t work. For example putting red text on a dark blue background
makes it awfully hard for visitors to read and chances are pretty good
they won’t even attempt it. Also ensure that the text is large enough
for people to read comfortably since nobody likes to have to squint
when they read something.The most comfortable sizes to use are 12 or 13
px Arial or 11 or 12 px Verdana.
9 A display of professional and visually pleasing graphics on your
homepage will go a long way in showing the visitors that your
organisation has the wherewithal to take the time and spend the money
to produce an aesthetically pleasing experience for them. This in turn
is a good indicator to them that the same care and attention has been
paid to your products or services. Also always provide up-to-date
content, keeping it relevant and fresh and if the information is a lot,
offer users a “read more” call-to-action.
10 The Internet has become increasingly competitive so it is
therefore vital to get users to your site and keep them there. An
excellent way to achieve this and compel users to visit further into
your site, and if needed to offer up their email address, is to provide
them with some kind of incentive. The incentive can be anything such
as an e-book, access to exclusive content or special discounts on
items, etc. Incentives always add value to the experience a user get
and thus will ultimately improve the success of your website.
Remember to always ensure that you focus on delivering a satisfying
and pleasing experience and pay enough attention to the smallest detail
that might otherwise be overlooked. Every single little detail on your
homepage is all important to ensure the success of your entire
website.
