The 4 Questions Your Homepage Must Answer
Rick Henkin
Printer-Friendly Format

This article is about the 4 most important questions your homepage must answer and must answer quickly.

Skip to Video Studies have shown that the average length of time a new visitor will stay on your homepage is about 30 seconds. That means you only have 1/2 a minute to grab their attention and convince them that it's worth their while to explore further. Not a whole lot of time, so don't waste it with a fancy flash presentation or a long welcome message or a boring mission statement.



So, what do you do?


The answer is simple, look at your website from your visitor's perspective.


You can have the most beautifully designed website with all of the latest technical innovations. It might even win you awards. But if it's not winning you customers or members or sign-ups, does it really matter?



Here are the 4 questions your homepage must answer


  1. What's the name of this website?


  2. What are they offering?


  3. What's in it for me?


  4. What's my next step, if interested?

You can answer all of these questions because it's your website. It's obvious to you. But is it obvious to your visitor?



The purpose of each question


  1. What's the name of this website- Users need to be reassured that they've actually landed on the website they were aiming for. By convention, the site I.D. is usually located at the top of the homepage in the upper left hand corner.


  2. What are they offering- The last thing you want is your visitors trying to figure out what you're offering, whether it's a service, product, or information. If it's not immediately apparent, they're not going to stick around.


  3. What's in it for me- This is the ultimate question. If your homepage can't answer this question to the satisfaction of your visitor, you'll likely never convert them to a customer or subscriber or whatever your goal is for them.


  4. What's my next step if interested- Don't leave them hanging. Make it obvious what they should do next, whether it's to subscribe, purchase, get more information, etc.

Remember, visitng a website for the first time is not the same as walking into a store for the first time.



Visiting a store for the first time


  • You have to leave your house or office


  • You have to invest time and energy to arrive at the store


  • Because you've invested that time and energy, if you don't find what you're looking for right away, you'll probably walk up and down the aisles and maybe explore the entire store


  • You might ask a salesperson for help just to be sure you haven't missed what you're looking for



Visiting a website for the first time


  • You don't have to leave your house or office


  • You hardly spend any time or energy to arrive at the website


  • Because your investment is so little, if the website doesn't easily communicate what they're offering, what's in it for you, and what your next step is, you're gone


  • You're not likely to contact them and wait for a response

Always keep in the back of your mind that there are millions of websites competing for your visitor's attention. All it takes is a mouse click to jump from one site to another. Because it's so easy to move from site to site, no one is going to take the time to walk up and down your aisles (meaning your web pages), explore your entire site, or contact you and wait for a response.

There are a lot of reasons why a visitor might ultimately leave your website, but if you can answer those first 4 questions to their satisfaction, you stand a much better chance of keeping them on your website and ultimately converting them to customers.


Watch the video and learn more:





ARTICLE DATE: 2008-10-16
REVISED DATE:



Share this Article as a Tweet on Twitter





Printer-Friendly Format
 Related Articles
·  7 More Quick Power Tips to Make Your Content Easy to Read
·  6 Quick Power Tips to Make Your Content Easy to Read


#bottom_spacer# height=1 ALT="">

The 4 Questions Your Homepage Must Answer ">