It acts as the “splash page” for any incoming visitors or potential customers. The first page they see cannot be boring or plain, it has to stand out. Information has to be easily accessible and not 3 – 5 clicks away.

So to try and retain those visitors and lower your bounce rate, I’ve suggested a few things that you might like to include in your homepage!

5) Contact Details

Someone may have simply typed your name into Google when trying to find a phone number or email address. Why not make it easy for them to get it?

A simple telephone number, email address and actual address in the footer of the page can help. It may increase the bounce rate (which you don’t want) but it will increase the contact you receive!

4) Latest <Insert Here> and Updates

Update your content! Search engines love it. On every site I create, I always try and include a dynamic element on the homepage. Here is a small list of suggestions:

• Latest News
  Just a snippet of the latest news article. Invites your visitor to learn more about the company and browse your site.
• Latest Update
  Enables your visitor to learn what you are currently involved in.
• Latest Blog Entry
  Great for keeping the updates content-relative. Your blog will be relevant to your site and so displaying the latest blog entry opens up a whole new area for the user to dive into.
• Rotated Feedback
  Show the visitor how good you are! Using a rotated feedback system can show your visitor why people have chosen you in the past (Just don’t lie!)
• Tip of the day!
  If the genre of website allows this, do it. Visitors will like the suggestion and it will be encourage them to read more.
• Latest Vacancy (If applicable)
  If your company has vacancies, the homepage is a great place to advertise.
• Latest <Insert> For Sale
  If you’re selling or hiring something, let the visitors know. Once they know that you have 1 item for sale, they will want to see other things for sale in case there is a bargain to be had!

This list isn’t definitive but is just an idea of what can be included.

3) Links (Depth 2- 3)

Links on your hompage are a necessity. Without links, the user is stuck and will more than likely leave, something that you obviously do not want! Links help by guiding your visitor to other pages of your site, areas they may not know about.

Do not confuse these links with the main navigation links. The depth of these links can range from 2 – 3, meaning to get there without using this link, the user would have to click 2 – 3 other links.

For example, you have posted an article in your blog about the “Top 10 ways to grow cabbages”. For the user to get to this article, they would have to either:

Click Blog -> Scroll and Click the article
or
Click Blog -> Click Category -> Click article

Wouldn’t it be easier if the user could click once and be straight there?

Of course, this cannot be the case for every article or page you have but it is a good technique to use to a certain limit. Some suggestions are:

• Links to popular articles
• Links to new articles
• Links to categories

Once again – this list is by no means definitive, just suggestions.

2) Relevant Content

Your homepage is going to get crawled by all of the search engine bots out there. You need to let these bots know that the content of your site is relevant and up to date.

Your current keywords need to have a high density within the page (I tend to use 3-8% as a guideline). Make sure they are placed well and not stuffed. Steer clear of black-hat methods like hiding keywords and stuffing, this will only work against you.

A good and relatively easy way of doing this is explaining to the visitor who you are and what you do. The keywords you have chosen are bound to pop up and with some careful consideration, can appear more often!

A good keyword density calculator can be found at www.seochat.com.

1) Links (Depth of 1)

Similar to the previous listing, but what I believe to be the most important part of a homepage are the first level links.

These are links that link to other main pages within your site. For example:

• About Us
• Contact Us
• For Sale
• Our Services
• Blog
• Other relative pages

These links should allow your visitor to access the other main sections of your website. They need to be visible and easy to find. What is the use of having a set of important links if the user cannot see them or know that they can click on them?

I find myself using navigation bars a lot of the time. They are simple to create, look good and do their job to a high level. They appear central and high in the page, just below the company name or banner. You don’t always have to use navigation bars.

There are hundreds of ways to link to other pages…

You could incorporate the links into your banner…
You could animate them to make them stand out…

As long as the links are clear, visible and stand out, your user should have no problem accessing them.

I hope you found this article interesting. There are hundreds of things that could be included on the homepage, this is just a list of the ones I believe are important.

I am sorry I mentioned links twice, but I believe both are important enough to deserve it!

Jack