But, to our mind, homepage overload creates more problems than it solves. When there’s too much information on the homepage, users can’t process it. It’s similar to driving down the highway (the real one, not the information one) and being inundated by so many billboards that you miss the one sign you’re actually looking for.

We understand how homepage overload happens. An e-commerce developer wants to use the homepage to announce every product the company sells. Or dueling departments within a company fight for homepage real estate. And advertisements produce revenue! It’s often easier to put everything on the homepage than to make tough editorial choices.

Overloading the homepage may quiet your colleagues, but it’s a disservice to your site visitors who then have the frustrating task of sorting through and processing the information. And, as we all know, frustrated site visitors don’t stick around to figure things out; they simply click off overloaded homepages.

To make your home page do what you intended it to do – earn money, build community, disseminate information – be sure it answers these five essential questions:

Question #1: Who are you?
First of all, tell visitors who you are. If you’re a household name -- Coca Cola -- your logo may be all you need. If not, you need a headline or statement that says what you’re about.

As you write this important identifying statement, keep your visitors in mind. Don’t post your mission statement: "...our goal is to optimise our relationships with customers..." Instead, write a concise, user-focused phrase. A couple of good examples: theknot.com calls itself "The #1 wedding resource and gift registry." The home page for the Mayo Clinic’s Health Oasis announces "Reliable information for a healthier life."

Question #2: How is information organised at your site?
The homepage should indicate to the user how you’ve organised or structured your site. And the site structure should be obvious and logical. Is the site ordered by product or by service? By department or by region? The user must be able to use the homepage to predict where he will find answers to his questions. If his first attempt doesn’t yield pay dirt, he may not try again.

Think of a homepage as the table of contents in a magazine – organised, annotated, enticing. Magazine contents are organised by departments: feature articles, short tidbits, columns, letters. A short blurb describes each item and provides a hook, a reason for the reader to turn pages. A homepage has a similar function. Its purpose is to provide a logical structure for the information the site contains, preview the information, and give the user a reason to click or scroll for more. Though it contains a great deal of information, the homepage of ISP Earthlink is clearly organised and easy to follow.

Question #3: What's new, hot or timely?
The homepage is the right place to tell the user about sales, new products, or website updates. Time-sensitive information -- contests or product offers, breaking news -- deserve space on the homepage. You want visitors to come back frequently so the homepage should tell them what’s changed since their last visit.

Question #4: What can the visitor do at your site?
Remember that websites promote interaction. At your homepage give the user a way to interact: sign up for a newsletter, enter a contest, participate in a poll, quiz, or chat. Even better, some homepages allow users to personalise the interaction. A return visitor to amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) can click on a personalised list of recommended books. At the CNN site you can personalise your home page so local weather reports, movie listings, and stock quotes for your portfolio are available each time you sign on.

Question #5: How can the visitor get help?
Don’t make users go on a scavenger hunt to find out how to contact you. Place contact information, or a button that leads to complete contact information, on the homepage. Complete contact information includes email, telephone, fax, street address, AND THE NAME OF A CONTACT PERSON WHO WILL ANSWER QUESTIONS. The web is about customer service. If you don’t want to hear from users, and if you won’t answer their questions fully and promptly, don’t put up a website!

© E-WRITE, 1999, www.ewriteonline.com

Reproduced by kind permission from E-WRITE. E-WRITE teaches writing courses, writes the contents for websites, email marketing letters and newsletters.

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