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There’s No Place Like Home

17 January 2010

Website Homepage

… your website’s home page, that is.

Take a look at your website home page (if you have one). I don’t mean your blog; while a blog may be part of your overall website, I’m talking about the first thing someone sees when they click on your website URL. Hopefully it’s not a blog. Read on and you’ll discover why.

Does your home page look warm and inviting? Does it represent the atmosphere one would feel in your brick & mortar establishment?

Can you easily find on the home page — and clearly read — the following:

  • business name and logo,
  • location,
  • phone number,
  • hours,
  • newsletter sign-up form, and
  • email address?

You see, your website home page should be a static page, consistently displaying the same information you’d place in a newspaper or yellow pages advertisement. If someone is trying to find you, they don’t want to have to wander around your site, clicking links here and there, to try to find the information they need. They’ll give up, and move on to the next site.

Once you’ve gotten the prerequisites down, the next step is to incorporate a picture. One. If you’ve got a great designer, maybe two or three artfully placed, but the goal is not to distract the viewer from the main content. It should capture the essence of your establishment. If possible, put yourself in the picture. Let your personality shine through. It’s all about building relationships.

You might also want to have an area on the home page where you feature a current event of some sort. If you’re using a CMS like WordPress, it’s easy to incorporate a ‘widget’ that can pull in dynamic content. Just make sure it only takes up a small portion of your home page and doesn’t distract from the core information.

Make sure your home page isn’t cluttered, with lots of different elements fighting for the viewer’s attention. Keep it to two or three typefaces at the most; you don’t want your site looking like a ransom note. Same goes for colors. They can bright and bold, subtle and subdued, or anything in between. Just don’t use too many. Pick a palette and stick with it. If you must put music on your site, make sure that it doesn’t start playing automatically.

Now, check your home page. What do you see? Be honest with yourself. Do you pass with flying colors? Congratulations! You’re further along than 70% of the small business websites I’ve visited recently. If you’re not happy with what you’re seeing (or don’t have a website at all) there’s a number of options available to you.

If you’re not happy with your current site but don’t know exactly what needs to be fixed or how to fix it: feel free to drop us a line. We’ll have a peek and give you an idea or two.

If you’re comfortable making changes to your website: Get busy! Make a list of the changes you want to make and schedule a block of time to get them completed. You might need a couple of blocks, depending on the number of changes and the amount of time you have available. Focus on the most important tasks first.

If you have a webmaster: Send them the list of changes.

If you don’t have a website: Get one! BlogArtisans offers an eCourse that will walk you through the entire process, as well as SetUp and Hosting Services.

Now sit back, relax, and enjoy your new home!

Be sure to check out the Twitter for Brick & Mortar Businesses eCourse — it's a step-by-step guide to setting up your Twitter account, getting followers, and marketing your business 140 characters at a time.

On Pineapples and Pages

17 January 2010

Post image for On Pineapples and Pages

Landing Pages, to be more specific. And pineapples? What do landing pages have to do with pineapples?

If you’re from one of the original 13 colonies it’s almost impossible to travel to any historic site and not see pineapples everywhere. From table decorations to weathervanes, carved door lintels, fence posts and furniture, pineapples became the symbol of hospitality throughout Colonial America.

A pineapple symbolizes “welcome.” It shows visitors that you’re glad they came. Which is just what you need to do when someone happens upon your website. Rather than sending them to your website’s home page, you want to give them a special greeting and show them around a bit; just as you would a first-time visitor to your home.

So exactly what is a landing page? It’s any page on your website where you send traffic to, typically for some specific purpose. In this instance it’s to introduce yourself, to make the visitor feel welcome and want to learn more about you and your establishment. To encourage them to sign up for your newsletter. And to make them want to come back.

And where would that traffic be coming from? Likely candidates might be your Twitter profile, your Facebook page, or Google Local.

To get started, create a new page on your site. If you’re using WordPress, be sure to create a new Page rather than a Post. You won’t want this showing up in your date, tag, or category archives. Be sure to give your page a meaningful title; you’ll be including this in your link.

Not sure what to write? Try this:

  • Thank them for stopping by
  • Include a brief overview of who you are and what your business is about
  • Highlight a few of your product offerings, particularly any that are unique
  • Point to two or three interesting articles on your website or blog (recipes, tutorials, etc.)
  • Explain how to sign up for your newsletter, follow you on twitter, become a fan on Facebook
  • If they came from your Twitter profile page, tell them what you tweet about and how often you tweet
  • If they came from Google Local, remind them about the coupon (you do have a coupon on your Google Local page, right?)

Don’t make it too long; you don’t want to scare them away! Since this page isn’t intended to be ‘found’ by the search engines — it won’t actually be linked from anywhere within your site — you don’t need to worry about keywords and meta descriptions.

There’s no reason to exclude your common website navigation elements; you want your visitors to be able to freely explore the rest of your site.

Once you’re happy with your page, copy the URL to your Twitter, Facebook, or Google Local profile.

NOTE: Do not use a shortened URL (bit.ly, su.pr, is.gd, etc.) in your profiles. These are typically seen as spam. Let your visitors know exactly where they’ll be going when they click on the link.

To see a Twitter landing page example, visit the BlogArtisans custom landing page by clicking on the link.

Be sure to check out the Twitter for Brick & Mortar Businesses eCourse — it's a step-by-step guide to setting up your Twitter account, getting followers, and marketing your business 140 characters at a time.

The Social Media Secret Sauce — Consistency

Articles

Relationships don’t just happen; you have to work at them. A steady, consistent approach to your relationships means that your customers will anticipate — and look forward to — hearing from you.

Read the full article →