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Web Site Promotion Tips! Newsletter:What Makes an Effective Home Page?Your home page needs to pack a lot of material into a small amount of space, and do it well. You have about ten seconds to make a first impression on a visitor before they click away. In that ten seconds you want to: a) let the visitor know you have the information they're looking for and b) establish credibility and trust. How to Let Them Know You Have What They Want: 1) Your masthead or top banner should clearly show your site identity and mission, including the name of your organization, your tagline and your logo. 2) Choose keywords that clue readers in that they’ve arrived in the right place. (Keywords are important for search engines, too.) 3) Make it obvious how to get to wherever the visitor wants to go (clear navigation links and buttons). Include an overview of content and features. 4) Spell out the benefits of your products or services to your visitor. Think about how you can help them, and write your content with that in mind. “You will receive . . .” “You save time and money . . .” 4) Include teasers, like links to interesting information deeper in the site, or to sale items. 5) Be sure to have timely content that changes often. A headline and link to a new article or product is excellent but a holiday greeting or notice of an upcoming event works too. How to Establish Credibility and Trust: 1) A professional design (whether or not you design it yourself, or hire someone to do it for you). In a recent study by Consumer Web Watch, the most important factor that consumers chose when trying to determine whether or not a site is “for real” was a professional, attractive design. 2) Include a few testimonials from happy customers or clients. 3) No typos or grammatical errors. 4) Make sure your contact information (email, phone or both) is easy to find. 5) Regular updates create an aura of trust; the visitor feels that the site is “live” and well-tended. And Don’t Forget . . . Place your most important content “above the fold,” that is, in the top portion of your home page that the average viewer will see on the screen before scrolling down. No all-graphics splash (or Flash) pages! All-graphics pages may look great, but they don’t help search engines to find you. It's important to carefully choose the keywords people will use to find you, and include 2-4 of them in the opening paragraph of your home page. Sources include: ©2002 Joanna P. Colbert, December 2002 Web Site Promotion Tips Newsletter
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More on Marketing & Promotion:Promoting & Marketing your Web Site What Makes a Great Web Site Tagline? Developing a Reciprocal Link Strategy Credibility-Boosting Testimonials Secrets of Writing for the Web How to Make More Sales from Your Web Site Who are the
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