Engineering Websites for Increased Impact by Using Your Homepage as an Intermediary Point

The Architecture of Effective Websites The Homepage as a Transitional Space

It is vital that your website’s homepage acts as an off-ramp from the greater internet, directly to what you are trying to convey about your brand. You must ensure a seamless transition from the web to an area that enhances your brand. After all, your brand says everything you want the public to know about your company. Your homepage is just as vital as brick and mortar to a bank or to a grocery store, its structure must be designed to enhance the customer experience.  Let’s take a look at some ideas that can help in transitioning customers from your homepage to those all-important areas that will strengthen your brand.

Convey the Company Brand to the Customer

When a client comes into a company’s office, or a customer enters a retail storefront, everything is tailored to convey the companies brand to the customer. Every detail is a testament to providing a positive customer experience while cultivating a relationship with the customer.  Glass conference rooms, perhaps with a view, are often used in the entrance to a company’s office to express that they are a powerful and important entity.

In a retail location, stores are built to display merchandise and project a brand that customers want to connect with, often leading to a purchase. It is in the same way that the physical spaces are constructed, that your website should be designed in order to make the impression you want.  You must have the proper architecture, so to speak. Just as an office or retail location, your webpage needs to be welcoming and provide a flow which allows the customer to feel as if they are in control.

When you design something more akin to a division of motor vehicles office, which ushers the user from one place to the next, while taking up their valuable time, frustration and dissatisfaction will be associated with your brand.

Design With the User in Mind

When a website is designed, it is crucial that it is designed with the user in mind. If you the design doesn’t incorporate empathy with what someone sitting in front of their keyboard feels when they visit your website, then it is likely to be a poor experience for the user. Is the homepage user friendly? Does it use language that is concise and understandable, while it supports your brand? Using technical jargon on a homepage will only lead to confusion and result in a very brief visit from the customer.  The homepage must not only serve as an entryway, but it also must show the customer that you care about their experience.

The homepage must be crafted around what the user wants, and not only the web designer’s preferences.

Simplify Homepage Navigation

Your homepage must immerse the user, making them feel they are entering another world. They must feel comfortable with where they are being lead so not to disorient them. Navigation of your website must empower the customer to make choices they can feel confident in, and not further befuddle them with puzzling options. When you design a homepage that not only imparts your brand, but puts a premium on user ease, you are showing the respect for the customer.

When you show you care about how much time someone has to spend on your website, and speak in a language they can easily understand, you are more likely to elicit a positive reaction and develop a loyal customer.

For Web Design that’s carefully crafted to grow your business visit MosierData Website Design.

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About the Author

Though his chief ambition is to one day control the entire Internet, Jim busies himself in the meantime running our little web development and marketing agency. He's a certified super nerd who ranks coding in old, outdated languages and watching Star Trek reruns just a bit too high on his list of fun things to do. Outside of work, Jim enjoys Hockey (Tampa Bay Lighning, to be specific), more genres of music than most people realize exist, riding his Harley (he calls it "two wheel therapy") and exploring the world through travel.