Article
Great Homepages Really Suck
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Link Wording
What? You've already created your homepage? No problem. An easy fix: try adding links, or even rewording existing ones.
A couple of examples:
- Instead of About Us, try:
- Instead of Products, try:
I'm not suggesting you rid your site of the About Us or Products links. I'm simply suggesting you add other links that may point to the same page or category of pages, but that are more successful at pulling users rather than pushing them.
Don't Just Say It, Show It!
As obvious as it may seem, don't just bore your site visitors with endless lines of text. Give them plenty of visual flavor to enjoy. If you sell homes, show floor plans and amenities on your homepage. If you offer Web development services, show some of your work on your homepage. You can rest assured a picture will often be understood more quickly than a sentence.
What if RentStinks.com applied these three principles and restructured its homepage? It could end up something like this:
Finally, Don't Forget Targeted Content
Is emphasizing a few important secondary pages and rewording a few links enough to create a homepage that "sucks"? What if your site visitors find the homepage content to be completely useless?
BlueLight.com, Kmart's former Website, faced this problem. A study conducted by the site's research team revealed a startling fact: nearly 50% of site visitors left before ever clicking past the homepage! Despite the fact that BlueLight's homepage had sufficient links and content, the available information was apparently of no use to half of the visitors.
How did BlueLight.com correct the problem? They created eight targeted homepages, each of which was displayed based on the visitor's preferences. When visitors returned to the site, they not only saw a variety of content, but that content was targeted as well.
Take a look at your site's statistics and you might see the same thing BlueLight.com saw. If you don't remember anything else in this article, remember this: Never assume your visitors will click past the homepage. They've arrived at your site somehow and for some reason. Now give them several compelling choices that encourage them to click further into the site before they have a chance to click the back button.
Does this article cover everything you need to know to create a homepage that pulls? Of course not. But it's a start. Try a few of these suggestions and you'll be well on your way to creating a great homepage that really "sucks".
Bibliography and Additional Reading
The following resources were used in the compilation of this article:
Content Must Suck: Pulling Users In with Jared Spool
http://www.webreview.com/2000/06_09/developers/06_09_00_2d.shtml
Learn The Net
http://www.learnthenet.com
RentStinks.com (current Website)
http://www.rentstinks.com
Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab
http://captology.stanford.edu
The Web Content Style Guide, Gerry McGovern
http://www.gerrymcgovern.com/guide_design_3.htm
UseIt.com, Jakob Nielsen
http://www.useit.com
User Interface Engineering, Jared Spool
http://www.uie.com