Most sites do it. Does yours? Having your logo link to your home page is a fairly common practice. As a user of a website though, do you expect it to be like that? Does it improve a sites usability at all?
Here is the poll: Do you expect the logo of a website to link to the home page?
After my last post, Giving Life to Your Site, I thought this weeks poll would be appropriate. I know many users have said in the past they do not like video introductions, but webmasters are beginning to say that video introductions work great. I believe this may be the case of what we say does not equal what we do or react.
Here is the poll: Do video introductions on a home page bother you?
[polldaddy poll="1341056"]
So on my last post I wrote about the value of defining your site, and if you don’t you could be wasting your time and the money marketing it. So what makes a good example?
There is an endless list, but I recently came across a site that really slam dunks it, Home Information Packs. If you open the thumbnail I have included of the site, you can see the key elements that they included to define it. They have included: their logo, a tag line, a brief introduction, and a mission statement that helps give reasoning why you should use their service. It’s all very clear who they are, what they do, and why you should use them.
Now don’t forget the who and what you are on the rest of your site though. Digging around a little more on this Hip Consultant site I notice a little slipping when visiting their blog. If you compare an inner page on their main site, Commercial EPC, you will noticed the tag line is still there, but if you visit their blog, UK Property Blog, site definition is nearly lost. Don’t skip out out your blog, it could be one of the greatest marketing tools you may have. Inner pages are also often the pages that draw your visitors into your site through search engines. Clearly define your site, and avoid that targeted bounce.
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!
One of the great things about blogs is their natural method to display recently added articles. Whether you have a regular website or a blog, an important feature to have on your home page is an easy method to access recently published material.
Here is something I hate, and I am sure many others do as well. I find a link or article on the home page of a website one day, and when returning at a later date no longer being able to find it. A common occurrence for websites and blogs is to have their newest items posted on their home page, not a problem. The problem kicks in when it gets buried into some unknown directory. The visitors hopelessly struggles to find that article that they know they saw on your site. Blogs are great at avoiding this, mostly because their default templates include an automated archive.
On blogs, archiving old posts are automatic. On this particular site, I show the last five posts on the home page. One could use the “Previous Entries” link at the bottom, or simply use the archives I have in the left menu. Items are archived by category, and by the last three months of material. What if those don’t work? Use the search function. I can’t be expected to keep recent posts on top forever you know. At a certain point, usability falls onto the responsibility of the user. They have a bookmark function for their browser, they can use that if it is that important.
Looking at this Lixux Server Blog, you can see another example of archiving. Though they don’t show the months archives, they include direct links to all of their recent posts in their right side bar. Monthly archives in their case would be an uneccessary step because posts are not made frequently enough to need it. It would simply be more work for the visitor to use a monthly archive.
On a basic website, archives are still important. If you run an online store you could have an archive of recent promotions, if you have an educational site you could have an archive up the latest updates, and so on. Whatever it is new that you put on your site on a regular basis, inlclude an easy to find archive of recent updates.
Where do you put the archive? On the home page! You don’t have to have the entire archive listed there though. A simple link to an archive page is good enough. The goal is to give your visitors a method to find the recent stuff.
Well if you check your stats, like I am sure most of you do, you will most likely find that the number one page on your site is the home page. There are several factors that lead visitors to it like marketing, search results, or simply the need of the visitor to find a starting point on your site. The best reason though should be its almighty power.
Knowing that most of your visitors will visit the home page at least once, why not give it some power? When I say power, I mean site function. Identify most, if not all, the common things users do on your site, and make them available from the home page. If it gets too crowded there, or interferes with site design make sure it is no more than just one click away.
The site Dallas Real Estate makes a good example of this, and in fact have used the home page template throughout the site. With exception to a little eye candy to help draw in the visitor on the home page, nearly every function can be accomplished throughout the site using their top menu or the right sidebar. This has worked especially great for them because they are serving several nearby communities as well, and the need to create a separate home page for them is not required. The power is already there. See an example: Coppell Real Estate
Another important factor of the home page, and another way to give it power is to really work on that home page in regards to quality of appearance. My first impression of Dallas Real Estate? I thought it looked very professional, and if I was looking for property in Dallas, I would at least bookmark it. Many visitors base the quality of a site solely on their first impression, and if you lose them there, well their gone.
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