Web Design

Home Page – Simple as One, Two, Three

Tips, Web Design / By /

Simple as One, Two, Three? Well, almost. The basic concept of a home page really should be that simple. That said, it takes work to make something worthwhile and simple.

Whether visitors realize it or not, they are asking themselves three things when they land on your home page. Here is what they are asking, and what you can do.

  1. Am I in the right place? You have only seconds to get a visitor’s attention. Communicate clearly (write simply), be careful of using industry jargon that your visitor may not understand (or may make their eyes cloud over). Use visuals. Don’t clutter.
  2. Do I believe these people? Build confidence. Do you look credible? Are you real people? Are these items easy-to-find: phone number, email address, address, photos of your business and/or staff?
  3. Where do I go now? Can I buy something, learn something, look at photos, leave a comment, contact you?

If you do your job well enough that visitors decide to click to other pages, give them consistent page design, with clear navigation, and page layout that puts things where your visitors expect to find them.

There you have it. Three simple steps to a quality home page.

Landing pages – not just for Pay-Per-Click

Ads - Pay-Per-Click, Google, Marketing, Search, SEO, Web Design / By /

So, what is a “Landing Page,” and when and why do you need them? Well, practically all of your pages are, or should be, landing pages. Those of you with PPC campaigns should already understand the importance of landing pages. All of your pages that have been indexed by Google and other search engines are defacto landing pages for search terms that are on your pages.

PPC landing pages should be about a specific topic, product, item or event you want to promote or sell. Putting multiple topics, products, items or events on a page will most assuredly not serve you well for PPC landing pages. Nor will they serve you well in organic (so-called free) search results. Your content should be page-specific to compete well (obviously, there are many other factors as well) in organic search results. Talking about more than one thing on a page dilutes the value as far as search engines are concerned.

The point is you should pay careful attention to creating any of your pages. Always follow Google’s guidelines for creating content. The essence of their most important guidelines is as follows:

  • Write pages that clearly and accurately describe your content.
  • Think about the words users would type to find your pages, and make sure that your page actually includes those words within it.
  • Make pages for visitors, not for search engines. (A useful test is to ask, “Does this help my visitors? Would I do this if search engines did not exist?”)

Treat all your pages as potential landing pages, and you won’t have to write one specifically for your next Google Adwords campaign. Just choose one that already exists on your site.

Good landing pages will help you meet your objectives and exceed your goals.