Purposes of the Home Page for a Business’ Website
The home page of an business site is very important, although it may not harken thoughts of the security of a traditional home’s warmth and protection. Still, it does get its nickname of “home” for a reason.
In fact though, for most business websites, the home page is far from the most important. That is probably the page that contains an “order now” button or a prospect lead form. On the other hand, the home page is probably the page that will attract more first time traffic than any other page on your business site.
Your home will be the page to which more outside links point than any other of your pages. It probably also has its share of internal links from other pages on your site, if only because it typically appears on the navigation menu of every page. Furthermore, if your site is not especially well designed causing your visitors to become lost in their explorations of your site, it is probably to the home page that those meandering visitors will retreat in order to get their bearings.
That’s all a rather long way of saying that a lot of your visitors are going to spend a lot of their time on your website’s home page. While they’re there, you might as well make good use of them and their time.
What are the purposes of a well constructed home page in a well designed web business site? Here are a few functions from which you can choose, although never try to use one page to do everything.
* Provide a corporate office atrium to set the mood for your business’ corporate climate–laid back and informal, or efficient and orderly or however else you position the company.
* Provide directional signs to all of the locations that your most prized customers are likely to want to visit. Of course, your navigation menu will provide this service on all of your site’s pages, but, since this is often the first visit by many of your guests, the home page is an opportunity to help them understand the road maps that you will regularly provide.
* Assure that the business’s mission is clearly communicated.
* Tell your visitors what you want them to do. They visit some sites which want to give away information, others which want their contact information and still others that want the visitors to buy a product or service. Maybe your business hopes for all three possibilities.
* Make a favorable first impression by picking up the clutter; create an attractive but unpretentious space.
Those are some of the functions to consider for any business home page, regardless of whether you already have a large, established, authority site or you are planning to build a small business website.