Lots of sites have a very simple homepage design. Google is a perfect example of this. However, I have found that loading up the homepage with information has increased sales, pageviews, visitor time-on-site, and linkbuild rate. (Rand and Matt’s new design for seomoz.org – shown at right – also puts a lot of info up front).
For a long time I worried that changing my homepages would put my rankings at risk but learned that I was wrong as long as I maintain basic SEO. Here are a few ways that I have used my homepages that have yielded good results.
RETAIL SITE:
– announce new items
– suggest holiday gifts
– suggest in-season items
– show off hot selling items or historic best sellers
– link to product category pages by manufacturer and product type
INFO SITE:
– show off new articles and resources
– point to newsy posts in my blog
– link to my most popular pages
– link to category pages by topic, geographic area, format
– promote pages that I hope will attract natural links
– inspire return visits by having new stuff above the fold every week
My homepage goal for both retail and info is to give the impression… “This site has everything!” I believe that this encourages visitors to go inside and snoop around. It also should promote bookmarking and linking.
How do you manage your homepage? Do you have ideas or a philosophy of homepage content that you can share for discussion here? What other items are worthy of homepage real estate?
We would love to hear your comments and ideas. Thanks!
