Written by Jon Bergan on the 22/05/2007
Websites consist of many pages. Some have a few pages and others have hundreds or thousands. All of these pages would be useless though if the site didn’t have a homepage. To put it simply, a website's homepage is the most critical page on the entire site. It directs users to the sub-level pages and allows them to find what they’re after quickly and easily. As such, it is important that this page is designed correctly.
The content found on the homepage will depend entirely on the kind of website you're having developed, however it must always clearly identify key areas of the site and should also entice the user to drill into these key areas. I have attempted to list a number of common homepage requirements for a number of different websites below. If you'd like to find out what kind of content we think should be included on your homepage, please send us an email!
You want to highlight feature products, key core service categories and also display any dynamic content and promotional material that is relevant to these products and services. Dynamic content may include business related news and updates while promotional material may include discount flyers. Users will see these products and services and quickly determine whether they’re what they were after. Your homepage should also include any information that users who visit your site on a regular basis would like to see immediately. This would include competition winners, featured clients and product updates/downloads.
Real estate agencies focus on the sale of residential and commercial properties. That's their business and thus that's what their homepage should focus on also. The content found on a real estate agents homepage should include a property search facility, detailed information on new listings, auctions and open house inspections. All of this content should be dynamic and should be derived directly from their property management software package. As with most business related websites, the homepage should also highlight any products or services the company has to offer.
First and foremost, your online store's homepage should highlight featured products, sales and discounted items. Users should be able to quickly find their way to the product pages for these items and add them to their cart just as easily. Some other great elements to include are product filters, search query boxes and newsletter submission forms. These allow the user to find product categories, specify price ranges and search for specific products. By providing the user with these facilities, they will be able to find the product they're after without having to put much thought into it. This will ultimately drive them that one step closer to adding those items to their cart!
Gaming centres are usually community focused websites and as such they need to focus on a number of key elements. Firstly they should identify any events or gaming modes that the players can get involved in. This entices users to come to the gaming centre at different times to get involved. Secondly, as they’re a community focused site, they must identify current leaderboard positions and news relating to such tournaments. This will build a competitive environment amongst its players thus driving them to come back for more. Thirdly, they should include exciting promotional material that will keep the players interested. Gaming centres must have an extremely dynamic site with almost instantaneous result submissions thus allowing the players to see how they're going as soon as they finish playing.
We could go on forever here. Unfortunately there are far too many types of websites out there and each of them will have specific requirements based on their type, content and style. It's also almost impossible to identify what each type of site should have on their homepage as it also relates to their specific business model, however we can point you in the right direction. Using the above suggestions, a bit of imagination and creativity and a little bit of planning and you'll have users clicking through your links in no time!
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