Proximity Marketing testblog

The home page of an business site is very important, although it may not harken thoughts of the security of a traditional home’s warmth and protection.  Still, it does get its nickname of “home” for a reason.

In fact though, for most business websites, the home page is far from the most important.  The page that earns the honor of being most important is probably one or two click removed from the home page.  It is the one on which a converted visitor can perform an action that directly or eventually will lead to the company earing revenue.  On the other hand, the home page is probably the page that will attract more first time traffic than any other page on your business site.

Assuming that you have followed a traditional link building plan, more external links will be directed to your home page than any other.  Also, more than likely, your home page will be close to the top in terms of the number of internal links directed to it.  Should your visitors lose their way, due either to taking a wrong turn or due to poor design by your website’s architect, they probably will return to the home page to serve as their base of operations in order to launch another quest.

That simply means that your visitors will use your home page more than it might merit, although I took a circuitous route to get to that conclusion.  While they’re there, you might as well make good use of them and their time.

What are the functions of a good home page in a properly constructed web business website?  Here are a few functions from which you can choose, although never try to use one page to do everything.

*  Provide a corporate office atrium to set the mood for your business’ corporate climate–laid back and informal, or efficient and orderly or however else you position the company.

*  Allow the visitors to locate where they want to go without any unnecessary distractions.  Your navigation menu will serve this function on all of your pages, but on the home page you may want to help with making suggestions concerning the most efficient ways in which they might proceed.

*  Assure that the business’s mission is clearly communicated.

*  Tell your visitors what you want them to do.  You might want them to buy a product, sign up to receive valuable information, learn about the topic in which your business is the expert or even all of those.

*  Keep the whole place neat and tidy, making it attractive without seeming pretentious.

Those are some of the functions to consider for any business home page, regardless of whether you have a large, authority website or you hope to construct a small site for a business.