March 12, 2010, Newsletter Issue #252: Home Page Design - Why Does Your Home Page Exist?

Tip of the Week

Before you do anything else... before you chose your colors, before you choose your images, before you write your copy... you need to know what the purpose of your landing page is.


Without knowing your home page's purpose you run the risk of

Having too many calls to action
Not having a call to action at all
Being cluttered and confusing
Hurting your online reputation
Wasting your time



If you don't know the purpose of your landing page, how will you know it is doing it's job? How will you know it is effective?


There are several purposes a home page can have:

It can build your brand
It can grow your list
It can sell a product or service
It can showcase your expertise
It can build relationships with prospects



It can even to a combination of these things. But you must know what you want it to do before you design it. The French writer and poet, Rene Daumal once said of language that "It is still not enough for language to have clarity and content... it must also have a goal and an imperative. Otherwise from language we descend to chatter, from chatter to babble and from babble to confusion." The same is true of your landing page.


If the page your online visitor lands on chatters and babbles, the visitor will leave never to return leaving nothing but a blip in your web analytics.


This is death to your online presence.


So be clear on what you want to accomplish with your website, your landing pages, your home page and any presence you create on the web and you will experience greater success and return on time invested.


If you would like to learn more about how to create an effective home page for your website, I recommend picking up a copy of my book, Home Sweet Home Page: The 5 Deadly Mistakes Authors, Speakers and Coaches Make with Their Website's Home Page and How to Fix Them! at http://www.homesweethomepagebook.com.

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