There are so many guides out there, both free and paid, that tell you how to design your entire website. However, most of them forget to mention how to create a highly converting Home page. The Home page is one of the most important pages of your website. It works as a landing page and the first sales page of your site. It is the first page that connects with the audience as well. Just like the first paragraph of a text, it hooks your readers.

Owners of some of the most popular websites take this page seriously for its importance. For instance according to studies, the Reuters home page accounts for 79% of their traffic while Google News home page and CNN’s home pages account for 62% and 60% of their audience respectively. This is not always the case though. The home pages of Topix and AOL News account for 7% and 6% of all their web traffic.

 

Elements Of A Good Home Page

Want to make your Home Page into a people magnet? Make sure that you have all or most of these elements on the page!

The Logo

The logo is a corporate graphic which summarises your company’s mission, vision and personality. It is not only essential, but also invaluable, for one can’t have a corporate or professional website without this element. That’s the reason why people should invest sufficient time in designing a logo that best suits their respective businesses. On the Home Page, the logo needs to be of proper size and should be strategically placed.

(London Made home page)
 

(LylemKramer home page)

By the way, if you are wondering why all the logos are on the upper right corner, it is because we tend to start reading from that corner. Placing your logo there guarantees it shall be seen and be remembered by your visitors.

 

An Inbuilt Search Engine

There are many benefits in having a search functionality on the home page. When you have this, you can de-clutter the site’s layout and reduce the number of links dramatically. Search engines are essential for certain websites, such as e-commerce websites.

(Amazon.com homepage with search engine)

(InfoSky Solutions home page with search engine)

Site Navigation

The Home page acts as your site’s landing page. People who visit this page first this page first want to know how to get to the other pages. This is why it is important to have a Navigation menu that can act as a rendezvous point fort visitors.

(Leo Burnett home page and site navigation)

Content

Content may not be the most important element on your home page, but you can’t ignore it. Well placed and well written content can connect to the ideal target consumer group, inform, educate and even entertain them. Content is equally important for accessibility and SEO.

(Content from Study Abroad home page)

Branding

Take time in formulating some information about your company as part of your corporate branding. Branding is less important for repeat visitors and more for the first time ones. Commonly it links to the sites About Us page so that visitors can refer to more information.

(Footer section of the Pew Research Center)

Reference: http://www.journalism.org/2011/05/09/importance-home-page/