We all know that the home page of a website is the power page and is typically the starting point when visiting a site. Navigation starts here, site message is found here, and the beginning of the customer hand holding starts here. When visiting EliteClocks.com I found a weak power page, the home page, followed up with strong category pages. What is happening here?

If you look at their home page, EliteClocks.com you will see few characteristics of a weak page. In-consistent type font, no real direction on what to do, and a layout that doesn not match the rest of the site. Now take a look at some of their category pages.

Howard Miller Grandfather Clock and Seth Thomas Clock

Their category pages are consistent in style, offer direction for the visitor, and are easy to navigate. Simply put, they look ready to sell. I would actually prefer to land on one of those pages instead of the home page. Though everything can be easily navigated once in their site, people still like to start from the home page. I am also betting that the store owner tells people about their website by saying “Visit EliteClocks.com” not “Visit eliteclocks.com/seth-thomas-main.shtml”.

Simple lesson here is keep the power on the home page. In this case, using the layout that was used on the other pages would be the easiest fix. The other lesson is a personal one by me. Get the Howard Miller, my mom has one, and it’s killer!

Like this post? Get usability and design tips delivered by email straight to you. Full feed articles are delivered, and are managed by Google's Feedburner service.

One comment so far. You are next!