Where does someone enter your web site? When someone is planning their new web site, a major portion of the planning time is taken with the home page. Makes sense, doesn’t it?
That’s why we spend so much money on the perfect URL– so that people come to the home page. That’s why we spend our money designing the home page– because that’s where the journey begins. Doesn’t it?
You can’t judge a book by its cover… Anymore! The important point nowadays is that a person can start on any page of a web site because of Google. When a search query is answered, the search engine brings up the appropriate page where the keyword resides and that often isn’t the home page. This is especially true with e-commerce sites. When I buy Dockers from JCPenney, I never see the home page. So, the entire site has to be developed with that in mind. The home page is not where many people start, or may ever see…
Thanks to Google, people can come into your site from any page. And they may actually never see your home page. Get over it! And start putting more time into interior pages, subnavigation, SEO (Search Engine Optimization), and landing pages. You’ve got to take care of your customers wherever they enter your site.
New principles of web design – more content, and all pages need to look good and encourage the visitor to go to other pages. That’s what we did on the City of Fairfield Economic Development site fairfield4business.com by the subnavigation on the left side. We did it on the Benicia site with the right side boxes of highlights from the news and calendar. We did it on the 601 City Center site with the little clues about what to look at.
