You are witnessing one of the most important concepts possible in a discussion of the home page. Print it and give it some serious consideration. Compute a usage map for your homepage. Also, please send us the results, just the numbers, so we can publish an overall average. |
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The homepage is the most valuable real estate on the waterfront, and how relative space (in area) is allocated to various uses is telling of the page's performance.
- To the organization - how tightly is the homepage layout tied to goals and objectives,
- To the visitor - as a visual que, where does this website place it's importance?
Website's Dependence on Homepage Performance
The effectiveness of the entire website is dependent on the quality of the homepage experience since it receives from 10 to 1000 times more viewings than any other page on the website.
Vital Performance Indicator - Watch "Bounce Rate"
Notice that this homepage is color coded to illustrate the amount of page space given to each vital page function.
The homepage has many tasks to perform and failure to achieve even one of them will result in a substantial increase in BOUNCE rates (the percentage of visitors that land on your homepage and "bounce off" without a single mouse click).
Studies show that if the homepage does not provide answers to key questions in the visitor's mind within 8 to 10 seconds after arrival, they are gone...and gone to a competitor.
Learn more about how space usage reveals page weaknesses
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CASE STUDY - HOME PAGE
CASE STUDIES
