[Sigia-l] the purpose of a homepage

[Stewart Dean]

Interesting results. I presumed it was dependent on what the page contained.

My view is that the first page needs to communicate where the user is and
what the site owner is offering and have one clear focus on the page (lots
of even weighted items leads to confusion). It then needs start delivering
on the main purpose of the site on the front - so if it's about brand
experience it starts there, if it's ecommerce then there are items to buy
etc.  Farily obvious but it does put your 'links' issue into context I hope.
Links should not only just be seen as navigation but also content - they
inform the user as well as providing a journey. As always getting the right
level of links / information is key.

Stew Dean


On 14/12/05 9:44 pm, "mfg345 at aol.com" <mfg345 at aol.com> wrote:

> I was recently having some internal debate with my co-workers about the
> purpose of the homepage in light of metrics showing that most visitors
> to our site (upscale shopping) don't click on links within the homepage
> content, rather using the navigation and search. This was also
> reinforced by a recent usability test in which users did not read the
> homepage for any of the tasks.
> 
> The debate revolved around whether the homepage was failing because
> people weren't using it, or that if users were finding their way to
> content it didn't matter how they did it.
> 
> Does homepage content need to be clicked on in order for the page to be
> successful (especially for a very strongly branded company)? What is
> the tradeoff between creating more engaging homepage content vs.
> filtering users directly into the site more quickly? Is there any
> research or benchmarking on homepage clickthrough rates for links in
> content vs. links in navigation, and comparisons for conversion rates
> between the two?
> 
>  Thanks,
>   Michael
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