Build a Home Page the Right Way
A home page is basically the main page of a website which is the
first thing that an internet browser or surfer first sees once
he/she visited your site. This is part of a web page (though in
this case since it is termed as "homepage" stands for the very
first page or the 'home" of the site) that features clickable
links, illustrations and graphics displayed on the computer
screen via web browsers.
In building a website, it is important that you have basic
knowledge of programming or html coding; although this concept
has now become obsolete with the emergence of new types of
website builder tools that enables the user - even if he or she
does not have a single idea with regards to programming and web
designing - to create visually pleasing and professional looking
websites in an instant. For both the seasoned graphic artists
and newbie web designer, these web building tools that can be
obtained online provides added ease and efficiency in making
their websites.
Key Points to Remember When Building your HomePage Elegance and
over-all appearance counts. If you want to get positive
feedbacks and responses from your site visitors, then keep in
mind the following pointers when you build home page.
1) Use animations and graphic effects in your website
(especially on the home page where this is commonly seen) as
sparingly as possible and only when necessary.
This factor can be attributed to the fact that web surfers can
tend to be impatient and loose interest once they discover that
your website takes much too long to load. The reason for this
can be found on the excessive use of graphic effects and
animations on websites which, sometimes requires higher
bandwidth to be downloaded fast; well what if your visitor -
read: Potential Customer - has a slow connection? Definitely,
you can say "adios" to possible sales and traffic for your
website. Also, compatibility of your website with regards to the
different web browsers must also be checked since, some websites
cannot be viewed on certain web browsers.
2) Use only the needed features and applications for your home
page - but this advice is also applicable for the rest of your
web pages since functionality is the main keyword here.
You try browsing some websites on the internet. What do you see?
Yes, basically you will encounter websites with homepage designs
varying from the pure text and colored images down to
interactive graphics made possible with Flash effects and other
multimedia applications. But more or less, they all have one
thing in common: the scroll bar found on the side or sometimes
on below the screen area.
This scroll bar is one of the features necessary for operating a
webpage, in this case the home page. It enables the user to
discover more links as he or she continues to browse the site;
while for the site owner, enables him to place more links
farther below on the lower part of the page where they are
available. With vertical scrolling, it is relatively easier to
operate the page thus facilitating ease and fast execution of
operation; while vertical scrolling on the other hand, is a big
no because, instead of enabling the user to see everything that
your homepage has to offer, he/ she would need to scroll to the
right in order to see the rest of your content and graphics.
Besides, using both is impractical also; just try to imagine
where your page will land in terms of functionality once you do
this.
3) Make sure that all links are present and can be easily found
by the site user when you build home page.
Some sites make it a practice to put the links on either the
left or side panel so the user can easily find what he/she is
looking for. While others would rather incorporate the links as
part of the content (yes, that is one usefulness of content -
and you thought they are nothing but mere decorations huh). They
are both good choices actually; you can adopt whichever fits the
way your site was built as long as you are sure that the links
can be easily found and is fully functional.