Earlier this month Karen Swim and I announced our How to Write a Website group project. We’re looking for your ideas, insights, and opinions! After we’ve collected all our wisdom, Karen and I plan to edit the material – crediting you, of course – into a book or e-book. Before diving in to the Home Page, a few items of business.
- Easton Ellsworth suggested collecting data on a wiki or Google Doc – both good ideas. But we thought the blog/comments approach is familiar to everyone, and seems like as good a platform as any. In the interest of keeping things all in one place, we’ll stick with our original approach of using the Word Sell blog as our discussion forum.
- Robert Hruzek expressed a willingness to contribute even though he is not a professional writer. No problem! Karen and I think readers as well as writers have valuable input. Anyone who critically reviews website content can make a valuable contribution to our effort. After all, the entrepreneurs and small companies we are trying to help are building websites for readers, not writers!
- Jacob Share suggested tagging or categorizing “How to Write a Website” posts as such. It was such a good idea we’ve decided to do both!
- Tell your friends about our project! The more input, the better the output.
How to Write a Website – The Home Page
For most small and medium size companies, the Home Page is far and away the most important. Most traffic enters the site via the Home Page, and, if it the content is weak, most traffic leaves right then and there.
With that in mind, I think we can safely assume the Home Page needs to create interest and explain the company’s unique value in a compelling way. Are there other key strategic objectives a Home Page should meet?
Home Page Questions for the Group
Answer as many as you care to!
- Short versus long copy – how much is enough? For SEO purposes, 300-500 words is a recommended number. But that’s a lot of reading for human readers. How do we balance these seemingly competing needs?
- Formal versus conversational style – how does a company decide which “voice” to use?
- Outbound links – including external hyperlinks (or internal links for that matter) in Home Page copy can be a plus in terms of providing valuable information, but it may take readers off the site in exactly the spot you want them to stay. How do we handle this?
- Arousing interest – what are the best writing techniques to engage readers and make them hungry to learn more? Information? Statistics? Testimonials? Stories? Humor? Special offers? Do you have an example of a Home Page that really captures your imagination?
- Home Page as Gateway Page – Lately there is a trend to make the Home Page a kind of “Gateway Page” – large, possibly animated graphical elements and a collection of links to other areas of the site. Is this a fad or a new best practice? Is this approach suitable for a small business? As a reader, how do you respond to this type of page?
- Other key Home Page issues – what are yours? What is the most important piece of advice you’d give a small business about building content for their Home Page?
Short versus long:
1. Work with teasers (we call them “teasers” in German – one or two sentences with a link to “more”. Readers can see relatively fast if the content is of interest to them, then they can click on the “more” button.
2. Put long text in pdfs. People like to read long texts in a print version. When linking to pdfs, give the size of the file – there are still people who have no dsl connection!
3. text should be that short or long that it can be read without scrolling. Subtitles make reading a long text easier.
By the way, what is meant with “homepage”? the index-page, that means the first page that is loaded when you click on the url? Or do you mean the whole website (also sometimes called “homepage”)?
Ulla Hennigs last blog post..The Blogger as an Artist?
Hi Ulla, Great comments! To clarify, the Home Page is what you are referring to as the index page, etc.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..The Home Page – How to Write a Website, Chapter 1
1. Short versus long copy – Forget SEO on the homepage. Okay, it’s important, but what’s more important is that the first-time visitor knows what the website is about within five seconds and decides to remain on the site. So if content needs to be very brief, keep it very brief.
2. Formal versus conversational style – Depends on what the audience is used to hearing. Err on the side of formality.
3. Outbound links – Present users with as few options as possible from the homepage. Make them highly compelling and tie them to actions – read our blog, contact our team, donate to our cause, visit our store, etc.
4. Arousing interest – A compelling story wins almost every time. Who we are, how important our offering is, how awful of a problem you have and how fully we solve it, etc. That can be in text, audio, images, video, or whatever combination the audience is most likely to enjoy.
5. Home Page as Gateway Page – Again, it depends on what the target audience is likely to expect and respond well to. For many small businesses, fresh content on the homepage is very useful to have – so a static gateway page may not be the best option. It may be helpful to conduct split testing to see what results in a lower bounce rate.
6. Other key Home Page issues – My advice is always to make every pixel and every word count for the visitor. The website is for them, not you. Make it so easy to use and so interesting that they can’t stay away and feel compelled to return over and over, and to share the URL and your story with others. And make your contact information super easy to find – you’ve gotta take the relationship offline as much as possible – get people on the phone, meet them in person send them snail mail, etc.
Brad
Won’t bore the community with all the detail & my website is not an example of my new discovery (yet)- but there is a higher level issue than style of copy etc.
A website should reflect your business model.
With that I mean: the proposition (front page) and the business model (products x markets) should be captured in the site architecture.
All of the above (i believe) will make it easy for surfers to immediately ‘get it’. Which I think is No 1 when oblivion is a click away.
Right?
Denniss last blog post..Why fail?
Brad and Karen,
Just another thought: There are a lot of homepages which are static – it’s a description of the business or the institution which stays the same for a long time. On the one hand, people know what they are dealing with, but on the other hand, if they’ve arrived and read the content, and came once again and read the same content, maybe they won’t come again. I would prefer homepages with dynamic content – so the same people arriving for the 2nd or 3rd time would always find something new on first click.
Ulla Hennigs last blog post..The Blogger as an Artist?
Hi All, Great input so far. The comments so far bring up an important point – the need to quickly attract new visitors, and the need to attract return visitors. Both types of visitors are key, but they are looking for different content.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..The Home Page – How to Write a Website, Chapter 1
Brad,
the proper titles and categories could help. Referring to our university sites we’ve got the difference between “home” (that’s the page where you can read the important informations about the character of the institution – what are we, what do we do – could be compared to “about”, and “news”. “About” is for people who come for the first time, are attracted by the “news” page and want to know who is behind all this great informative interesting stuff. (it is supposed that there is great, informative and interesting stuff on the “news” page. People who come again know who’s behind the website and want to know what’s going on. Might be a bit simplifying – but that’s more or less my experience (my reader experience also).
Ulla Hennigs last blog post..The Blogger as an Artist?
Personally, whenever I visit a web-site, there are three key criteria by which I judge the quality of its design:
(1) Simplicity
(2) Simplicity
(3) Simplicity
Personally, I don’t have time to buggerize around. If I cannot find what I am looking for within five minutes, I go elsewhere and vow never to return.
This is particularly important when your target market consists either of business people or adult consumers. Teenagers, students or children may have more time for browsing, but adults and business people rarely do, and I would imagine that they would be unlikely to respond positively to any web site which does not allow them to find what they are looking for without any fuss.
At the larger end of the scale, I love the home page of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia. It is very neatly presented, there is no clutter, and first time visitors can tell right of the bat about the types of services the bank provides and where they need to go to in order to find specifically what they are looking for.
Further, with one simple picture of the Australian Cricket team, the bank achieves all this without the page appearing to be plain or boring, whilst at the same time hitting a note with their target audience (Aussies love cricket).
At the smaller end of the scale, one of my favorites in terms of user friendliness is that of Challenging Tomorrow, owned and operated by my longtime good friend Lee Torrens and his wife, Flavia Bottazzini.
This site oozes simplicity and enables their time poor small business clients to find out what they want with absolutely no fuss or buggerizing around at all.
(OK, there may be one negative in that the home page shows the most recent blog post, which occurred as far back as April 2007. This probably doesn’t make the site appear to be particularly fresh, and I would probably say that recent blog posts should only be displayed if they continually updated.
Nevertheless, this page still represents a perfect example of the simplicity of design which I feel is appropriate when trying to appeal to a clientele of small business owners)
Andrews last blog post..Sign off time – Returning January 29-30
Ooops, I typed an incorrect web reference in relation to the “Challenging Tomorrow” site which I referred to above.
This should be the correct link.
Andrews last blog post..Sign off time – Returning January 29-30
Hi Andrew, Welcome back. Thanks for the great commentary and examples. You speak for many people when you stress simplicity. I love the Commonwealth home page. It’s welcoming, clear, and establishes a strong feeling for the brand without really selling.
Brad Shorrs last blog post..Best of Word Sell, Posts 400-600
1. Short Versus Long Copy
There are a few different ways to balance this out, you can add in teasers which make people what more or add in media such as videos or pictures that allow for a slight breather from the actual content.
2. Formal versus Conversational Style
Formal on the homepage but go with conversational on the reviews page, people are more inclined to go with companies that make them feel special than companies that make you feel like your just another customer.
3.Outbound Links
Outbound Links are tricky but choose the right ones for your website. These should include any exclusive certifications, charities, foundations and most of all the press releases about your company. Other outbound links should go in respective places like a clients page or something like that.
4. Skipping it
5.Home Page as a Gateway Page
Don’t make the home page a gateway page, most gateway pages now are simply so cluttered that I can’t find anything. The best thing to do is have a page that has a link to everything but each link has a snippet of the content on the page so the visitor can decide where to go quickly and easily.
6. Skipping it
Thanks for the great blog post and those are my thoughts.
Thanks,
Lorrin
Lorrins last blog post..My Heart is a Flutter
Hi Lorrin, Thank you for your comments. They make a whole lot of sense!
Brad Shorrs last blog post..Twitter – The One Stop Social Media Shop
Thanks Brad, I try to be concise in my website answers.
Lorrins last blog post..My Heart is a Flutter