|
||||||
|
||||||
|
Secrets of Writing a Business Website HomepageThink you know how to write a business website homepage? Read this article to make sure.You probably think you already know what a homepage is. But if you�re like many business website owners, you really don�t. The homepages of many business websites are suffering an identity crisis. They're trying to do the job of several web pages, and doing none of those jobs well. What a Business Website Homepage is Not: * A homepage is not the place to dump a long description of your business. That�s for the �about us� or �company information� page. On the homepage, this information will just bore most people. * A homepage is not the place where you list and sell all your products (unless you only have one or two). You should have a special products and services page for that, and preferably a shopping cart or catalog. Trying to make people buy right on your homepage is a little pushy. The homepage will also get over-crowded as your offerings expand. Instead, just include a list of product categories with links to inside pages, along with direct links to your biggest sellers. * A homepage is not the place to include the full text of your announcements and press releases. Just include a teaser paragraph of each article on the homepage, with a link to the web page with the full text. If people want to read the full text, they can. If they don�t, you haven�t bored them to tears. * A homepage is not your company president�s or owner�s personal blog. It�s OK to rant, rave, or preach the need for world peace. Just don�t do it on wesellwidgets.com As you�ve probably noticed, a good website has multiple pages. You should have special web pages for special topics: an �about us� page for company information, a products and services catalog, the president�s blog, etc. When you advertise or send out links to your site, you should link directly to the most appropriate page, rather than just the homepage. Of course, that doesn�t mean you don�t need a homepage, just that you don�t need it to do every single thing you want your website to accomplish. Quick Guide to Writing a Business Website Homepage Important Points to Consider Target audience Your business website�s homepage must be all things to all the people who type your URL in their navigation bar, whether it�s their six-hundredth visit or whether they just happened to catch your web address painted on the back of your car. Content For the benefit of new visitors, a homepage must provide a snapshot of who you are and what visitors can do on your website. Your first one to three paragraphs should give a quick overview of what visitors can do on your site. For example, you could include a short paragraph each on �buy widgets,� �learn more about widgets,� and �meet other widget enthusiasts,� with links to your shopping cart, informational articles, and message board, respectively. For returning visitors, the homepage must serve as a touchstone for navigating the site, announcing new developments and pointing out especially popular or useful pages. For these visitors you don�t have to write anything new especially for your homepage. Anyone who's coming back to your site is already interested and is going to want to jump right into the deeper pages of your site, rather than linger on the homepage wondering whether it's worth their time. That's why your homepage should include teasers for the inside pages of your site. For instance, you could have a tip of the week, linked to a web page on your site with an article explaining it. Good navigation (list of links to the four to eight most essential web pages on your site) is also a must. For both new and returning visitors, always give a prominent place to a featured product or service (or two or three) with a picture, one or two-sentence description, and a link to its own web page or its place in your "products and services page," catalog or shopping cart. You should also always feature a satisfied customer. It's great if the satisfied customer can send you a picture of himself or herself. But no matter what, always include a testimonial quotation, and a link to a case study or customer story on its own web page, which you should definitely find time to write or have written for you by a website content provider. Title Don�t title your homepage �Welcome to [name of your site].� Don�t include that message anywhere on your homepage, in fact. It�s a waste of space. This was normal in 1996 but it�s pretty pass� now. Everyone already knows they�re on your site. What you need to tell them is what they can do there. Try something like �Buy, Study, and Discuss Widgets.� Also make sure your title incorporates any keywords you think people might use to search for your product or service on the internet. Search engines decide how to categorize pages largely based on the homepage title and first heading text. Length Ideally, the first few paragraphs of the homepage (the ones aimed at new visitors) should not be more than 100-350 words total. The teasers for inside pages targeted to returning visitors should not be more than about 100 words each. Making Sure Your Website Has the Best Homepage Possible Before your homepage goes live, test it out on a few people. Don�t just ask your volunteers how they like your homepage. Courtesy may prevent you from getting an honest response. Instead, ask them to find how to buy your latest product or if they understand what�s the most important development in your company recently. If they can navigate to the correct page within about eight seconds (the average human attention span on the web), you�ve done well. You may just want to hire a website copywriter, online copywriting firm, or website content provider to create your homepage for you. After all, you wouldn�t build your own office building, would you? Of course, that�s not an entirely fair comparison�more people will see your business website homepage than will ever see your office building. About the author: Joel Walsh is the head writer for UpMarket Content (http://upmarketcontent.com), a website content firm serving business sites. You can find more information on writing a homepage, including a template, along with the rest of the seven essential web pages for business websites, such as the "about us" and "product and services" pages, at: http://upmarketcontent.com/content-templates.htm Circulated by Article Emporium Postcards are made Affordable Postcards are unbeatable and it is considered to be the cheapest strategy to keep up a business promotion running. To some, postcards are mainly just a substitute when all else fails because budget needs to be cut down low. Postcards are very pleasing and you can easily g... Color laser printers of today The next printer you will ever want in your desk is a color laser printer. It is likely you would want to forget about inkjet printers already. They are cheap and the manufacturers know about that. Do you already have a black and white laser printer? This is the kind of pr... Secrets of Writing a Business Website Homepage Think you know how to write a business website homepage? Read this article to make sure. You probably think you already know what a homepage is. But if you�re like many business website owners, you really don�t. The homepages of many business websites are suffering an ... PHP Redirect A PHP Redirect automatically transfers a web user from one URL to another. For example, typing foo.com in the browser automatically transfers the user to another URL bar.com. The PHP Redirect command: <?php header("location: [some-url]"); ?&... Profitable Photography Affiliate Easy Link-Low Refund Rate & at 50% Return Let me start by saying this site gives its affiliates 50% of the sale. All you need to do is click on the highlighted area in the bio below (at the bottom of the page) and this will take you to my affiliate sign-up through clickbank, which is one of the most respected transaction ... Paid Directory Submission Checklist. Every online business needs traffic, which comes with increased visibility on the web. One great way to get noticed is to get listed in the major directories. Links from good directories increases your site's visibility many fold. There are thousands of web directories on ... Web Hosting in 2005 --- Finding the Niche and Cashing in! Web Hosting in 2005 --- Finding the Niche and Cashing in! Over this past year, web hosting has grown to be the biggest it has ever been. With more companies appearing every day, the demand for web hosting has never been higher. In 2005, web hosting will be even b... The Definition of Spam Spam can bring down your website faster than a speeding bullet, but what is spam? Originally, spam referred to unwanted emails. We all hate the tons of email we receive day after day trying to get us to buy that or click this. I can't go a day without someone trying to steal my per... Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company? Are You Being Scammed By Your Web Design Company? By: Martin Lemieux This is a growing concern amongst many business owners. Does your web design company own you? This may be possible if you've allowed them to host your web site for you and also register your domain na... The way to a Cheap Web Hosting, although a Reliable Web Hosting The first thing you have to consider before choosing a cheap web hosting is the amount of disk space that you need for your web site, like the exact amount of mb, the number of pages, the number of video or audio files, or any other things you need for your site. Working with a che... Combined Hot Multimedia Practical Tips In the site, http://webmonkey.wired.com/webmonkey/99/26/index1a.html?tw=multimedia Francis Preve's article on Hot Multimedia Tips, he emphasized that, “As web designers, we don't want to get caught flat-footed when all our favorite videographers, record producers, and best boys sta... Understand Your Color Any design on a web application involves the effective input of color scheme in order to impress web surfers, instill a certain image or identity associated with the kind of web site it represents, and add impact to the web pages. However, very few possess the talent and skill of ... Link Trades That Waste Your Time Never has competition been so difficult in the Internet world. Google and Yahoo keep indexing more and more pages, into the millions upon millions, and yet more and more people are creating super quickie links pages that are supposed to get other webmasters to want to trade links w... Internet Marketing Tools -- Ebook Basics One of the most powerful viral marketing tools used on the Internet is the ebook. An ebook is simply a group of files compressed into one downloadable file for distribution. This file can reside on your server and may be downloaded by your visitors an unlimited number of times. It ... Print-this-page function - a bad idea and its solution Reading in a browser is different than from paper Writing text for online reading is different than composing an article for a printed magazine. One assumption is that visitors are “jumpier” than readers. Subtitles, shorter sentences and paragraphs are key-elements in formattin...
|
|
|||||
|
||||||