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Designing Homepages that Get Results
Christine Harrell Study Reveals Visitor Viewing Patterns Using eye tracking software, Eyetrack III monitored the eye patterns of 46 individuals while viewing a variety of news test sites and has produced a wealth of information on the topic. While the Eyetrack III study focuses on news sites, the concepts are universal and are emulated on the most successful sites regardless of purpose. Homepages with well organized content, sparing images, structured white space, and a simple color palate tent to dominate the Internet. 
"Hot" areas indicate where viewer's eyes lingered the longest
Source: Eyetrack III research results
Test, Analyze, Adjust, Test Visitors generally make a decision about whether to remain on your website within the first few seconds on the page, making this tiny piece of real estate one of your company's most valuable assets. After you’ve designed your homepage, analyze the number of people who click through to other areas on the site. Make changes to one element at a time then watch your stats to identify causes of favorable results. Craft a One Sentence TaglineA tagline is a quick way for a visitor to sum up the purpose of your site and should convey the core benefit of your product or service. The tagline should be written in terms of the customer. Instead of company-centric tagline such as “Producers of the most vibrant oil pastel colors in the industry,” show how the customer will benefit such as “Colors to bring the radiance of your visions to life.” Determine the exact message you want to convey How will you explain everything about your business in 4 to 7 seconds? Chances are you probably won't, but you can send a message that customers will remember as they travel through your site. Define the precise message you want to send such as: “This product will help me increase my revenue,” or “This company produces revolutionary products.” Define the problem that your product or service solves What exactly is the problem that your problem solves for people? Do your visitors know that they have a problem that needs to be solved? If your product is new or animprovement to an established product that people are generally satisfied with, you will need to establish a need for your product with articles, studies, or images that capture the spirit of increased usefulness lacking in other solutions. Test your message Once you’ve decided on a message and built a page in a way that you feel conveys the message, test your results. Consumer testing is a step that many companies skip, perhaps because they don't necessarily want to see the results. Present your homepage to a sample of people along with a few open ended questions to determine the perceived message such as: “This product is _____” or “This product will benefit me because ____" Try adding a short survey and offer a discount or free banner rotations in exchange for the completion of the survey. Get to the point If you sell birdhouses, place birdhouses on the homepage with buy buttons. If you offer streaming video production, integrate a media player on your main page. Splash pages and image heavily decorative homepages can look nice but customers are less likely to click through than they would if your homepage contains example of your purpose. 
Most Common Homepage Viewing Pattern
Source: Eyetrack III research results
Focus on positive Instead of focusing on the problems associated with not owning your product, focus on the positive results afforded by using your product. By highlighting the possibilities you can imply the deficits without bashing the customer’s current habits or bashing competitors. Build fast loading pagesUsers have very little patience for a homepage with a long load time. There is no reason for a visitor to wait before you have convinced them of a favorable payoff if they do so. The easiest way to decrease load time is to increase the amount of text on the page. Using text links for navigation and optimizing images will also help to keep load time down. “Content is King” Mastering the placement of quality content on your homepage can send your site ranking soaring above others overloaded with large graphics and little content. Fresh, valuable, timely content hooks readers, can boost search engine ranking and keeps visitors returning to your site. nGenuity Solutions is committed to helping small businesses become successful in the ever changing online world. Drop us a lineif you've got an internet business success story, a horror story, or are just plain frustrated and have a question. With your permission, we will post your story below the article so that others can learn from your experiences!  | Christine Harrell is a small business internet marketing consultant and the cofounder of nGenuity Solutions. nG's flagship product Easy Website Buildergives small businesses the necessary tools to build profitable websites through real time visitor analysis and push-button web publishing. |
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