1. Nice and simple entry pages? No, thanks.

When we speak to clients, we often find that they have a very clear idea of what the homepage is supposed to look like. Usually, the request is to have a “nice and clean” homepage with only the company logo on it and a “please enter” link. Or – another alternative – to have some sort of flash movie playing before the client enters the website.

We will try to discuss on this page why this is not such a good idea.

It’s a waste of time

People might argue that the homepage should be similar to a front door with a company name and a logo on it. However, you are wasting your website visitors’ time. They did not ask for this extra click and any additional click which does not add any value is frowned upon. Some people take it to the extreme and simply ignore websites which have an entry page.

It does not contain any content

People search the web to find information about products, services etc. Your website should therefore contain relevant and good quality content. Some Search Engines rank websites depending on how relevant your website content is when a keyword or a key phrase is entered in a search engine. If your website contains relevant content, it is likely that the search engine will display a link to your website in the search engine results. If your content is very relevant, you will probably rank higher.

An entry page does not contain any content. It only contains your company logo or company name and a “please enter” link – usually without the “please”… Website visitors don’t have time. By arriving at your entry page, they have no chance to find out what you do, what your company offers, what your strengths are. You are missing the opportunity to leave a first good impression.

Search Engines don’t like it

Some people still believe that you need to hide keywords in your web pages in order to rank highly in Search Engines such as Google. This is not the case though. Hidden keywords in meta tags don’t play a big role anymore because the meta tags that contain the keywords were abused by many websites. Search Engines now concentrate on content – on good quality content. So if your homepage does not contain any content – because it either lacks content due to the display of the logo only or it conveys some graphic message in a flash movie – the search engines won’t like your website much. Search Engines cannot read content in flash movies. Search Engines also cannot read messages that are part of graphics – graphic files such as jpgs. All they see is the jpg file and maybe an ALT tag if it has been added.

2. Flash Movies on the homepage? No, thanks.

When companies have their website developed, they often think about themselves, it’s all about the company. Apart from – it’s not. It should be all about your clients. Why do they come to your website? To marvel at some design with flash motion that conveys no message at all other than nice colours and that you can afford to pay a flash designer? Websites with a Skip Intro button are very much frowned upon – especially by people who don’t have much time. If you sell small widgets, all your website visitors want to know is if you have a certain kind of widgets, of a certain size, if they are in stock and how long delivery might be. The website visitor is not interested in some movie that he has to overcome before he can get to where he really wants to be – on the widget information page.

What you shouldn’t forget is the visitors who have visited your website before. With a Flash Intro, you force them to view the movie again. Repeat visitors can get very irritated with this and may decide not to come back to your website again.

3. Company information on the homepage?

When it comes to writing copy for the homepage, the first thing some companies think about is themselves. They come up with some well-structured text about the company history, the number of employees, their health and safety procedures and so on. This kind of information belongs on the “About us” page, not on the homepage. If you add company information on the homepage, the message that comes across is that it’s all about the company rather than all about what you offer.

4. What to put on the homepage?

The homepage is similar to the first page on a CV – it should summarize the best thing you have on offer. If you specilize in widgets, but in particular, medium-sized blue widgets, that’s what goes on the homepage. The homepage should contain information about your most important services, your most important products. You can include news which change on a regular basis, but concentrate on what you do rather than who you are. Try to add quite some content to the homepage – not just one paragraph – “we specialise in blue widgets” – the end. Describe the blue widgets, what material they are made of, what makes them special, what they are used for and so on. Have at least 3-4 paragraphs of information on your homepage.

5. Who reads all the text anyway?

Search Engines. And your website visitors. If your website relies on being found in search engines, then you need to concentrate on website content. Good quality content. The content should be readable but it should also contain keyphrases that are important for your business. A key phrase is a string of words that a person would enter in Google, for example, in order to find a website like yours.

We will provide an example:

Marketing Matters is a Marketing and graphic design agency based in Bathgate, West Lothian who specialise in graphic design, advertising, PR, website design, website maintenance, search engine optimisation, and social networking.

This small sentence summarises what we do and where we do it. If you are a national company, you can re-phrase this:

Marketing Matters is a Scottish Marketing Agency who specialise in graphic and design, designing websites, website maintenance, search engine optimisation and social networking. The keyphrases used in the two examples are as follow:

• Marketing Agency
• West Lothian
• website design
• graphic design
• website maintenance
• website translation
• Scottish web design company

Having content about your employees, about your company history and such like will not give you any decent search engine phrases on your homepage and search engines are unlikely to give you a good ranking.

Read more about How to write text for your homepage…

Tags: flash intro, flash movie, key phrases, keywords, search engine

Posted on Thursday, November 19th, 2009 at 00:03.