What Makes a Great Home Page - The Ten Top Tips

Having reviewed more retail websites than I care to remember I'm frequently amazed and horrified by what people are putting on their home pages, not realising that they only have a few seconds to make visitors sit up and take notice, let alone stay and buy.

There are so many great examples of successful retail sites out there, from Williams Sonoma and Neiman Marcus in the US (where let's face it; they've created the rule-book of how to sell on the web), to John Lewis and The White Company in the UK, not to mention Amazon, although being so huge it's a bit (understatement) more complex and, of course, eBay.

There are also some really excellent books about web and home page design, which all say the same thing if you take the author's individual voice out of it.  They may start to play around with the ideas of videos and other ‘tecchie’ elements but let’s face it, the wheel does not need reinventing, and anyone who tampers with it is taking a risk, which is what many web designers would have you do, because

a) they’d like to win an award for clever and innovative design
b) they want as much money from you as they can and they’ll get more from a flashy all singing, all dancing site and/or
c) they may not have a clue what they’re doing.

For smaller retailers, in particular, this is a huge risk as in many cases they’re flying blind.  They may know their products very well, and be able to manage all the merchandising issues they need to but when it comes to the web many newbie or wannabe online retailers don’t have a clue.

Having been on a panel for newbie retailers recently at ECMOD at Earls Court I was astounded by how basic some of the questions were that we were asked – particularly as all the major answers are there for the researching/reading.

Many websites can fall down on the basics; they take a long time to load, they don’t amuse, entertain or inform and they’re hard to navigate.  The idea that once you have ‘a website’ lots of people are going to come along and buy from you is nonsense.  You might as well be in a locked cupboard with no lighting.  To come out into the light you first need to start with a strong home page.

Here are my Top Ten Tips for a great Home Page.

1.  You have to assume that visitors to your site know nothing about you, so to get them interested you need a home page that’s good to look at, tells them immediately what you’d like them to do and helps them get straight to what they’re looking for through high quality images and linked, keyword rich text.

2.  Have a strong mission statement.  If you’ve been misled into using a slogan instead of a clear phrase get rid of it and get real instead.  You need to sum up what you’re about in just a few words.

3.  Use pictures as well as text content to help people get to what they want.  People love to click on them.  Make sure that they’re regular in size, consistent in quality and very clear.  Your pictures are exceptionally important.

4.  You need to have a search box, clearly marked ‘search’ at the top of your page.  Forget again trying to be clever with words, it will not help you at all.

5.  Make sure that your logo is a link to your home page wherever people are on your site – this is recognised good practice – it’s amazing how often this isn’t followed.

6.  Your invitation to ‘Contact Us’ needs to be easily accessible and offer your full details.  Don’t ever try to hide from your customers by not including your phone number.  Communication is what you’re looking for.

7.  Establish immediate trust with your customers by showing that you’re a member of an accredited scheme such as ISIS – Internet Shopping is Safe, and by offering customer reviews by an independent provider. 

8.  Show clearly your Terms & Conditions, Privacy Statement, Delivery and Returns information and also have an About Us page.  Make your most important information obvious through easily accessible click-through links.

9.  Make your Sign-up box above the fold on your home page where everyone can see it.  Do not hide it in a link, or put it at the foot of the page – the more people who sign up, the more customers you’ll have.

10. Make sure that your links are highlighted so that they’re obviously links to another area of your site. Make them a different colour or make them bold (underlining can look messy).  They really need to stand out.

Finally.  Keep your content short, interesting and to the point.  Don’t be tempted to waffle.  Very little of your text will be read.  Too many words and your visitors will simply leave.

If you'd like any more information about the above, please don't hesitate to drop me an email.