When you know something very well, it is easy to forget that what seems obvious to you is not necessarily obvious to anyone else. Remember that you have spent many hours on your site. You are its most frequent visitor and you know it inside out. But you can't expect a passer-by to understand instinctively where everything is, nor expect them to invest in the time needed to wander through all the pages to find the bit that interests them.

What does your home page do for passers-by?

That's where the home page comes in. Most visitors to your site will land at your home page first. If the home page doesn't entice them in, if they can't see where to go next, are they going to stay? So what are people thinking about YOUR home page?

"Doesn't look like there's much here for me"
Do you have so little on show that no-one realises what treasures you have hidden away? Your site has probably grown organically over time and you have all sorts of good things squirreled away but, apart from yourself and your nearest and dearest, can anyone else follow the complicated trail to find them?

"OK, I'm welcome - now what?"
It's good to welcome your visitors to your site - but is that all your home page does? If visitors came to your house, would you greet them and then stand back and watch while they decided which door to go through? Are you expecting your navigation buttons to do all the work for you?

"Aargh! Am I supposed to read all this?"
Are you overloading your visitor with information from the minute they arrive? You are so eager to explain everything that vital information is hidden well down a lengthy home page. Your visitor has to edge gingerly round the teetering mounds of junk, vaguely hoping that there might be something there for them.

It's easy to make the mistake of putting all your efforts into guiding your visitor to your site in the first place. Yes, that's very important. But don't leave them high and dry when they get there. Faced with not enough, or far too much, explanation of what your site offers them, many visitors will not bother investigating further.

How clear is your sign-posting?

Think about driving along a motorway, looking for an interesting place to stop. You see a sign, turn off and come to the roundabout, looking for your next instruction. If you don't see straight away where to go next, what's the easiest thing for you to do? That's right - take that big, clearly-signposted exit straight back onto the motorway and head off for somewhere else.

You cannot assume that because you have persuaded someone to come to your home page they are going to stay on your site. The lure of the back button is always there and it's very easy to hit.

Your site or the back button?

So what can you do to keep your visitor focussed on your site and away from that back button? Start by sorting out your home page.

Organisation. If you have a huge rambling site, it's time to take a step back and ask yourself some big questions. Who is coming to my site? Where do they want to go? How do they get there? Your home page should answer those questions for ALL your visitors. So the first step is to organise your site into clear areas and then use your home page to give your visitors options that let them know exactly what is available site-wide.

Explanation. You have to move beyond that "Feel free to browse and, er, that's it" message. Maybe it worked in the early days of the web when everything was a novelty. Not now. That one-word navigation button title is probably not enough to let visitors know what is waiting for them - so give them an explanation, let them know what they will find, guide them to the area of the site that you know will interest them.

Impact. Very few people are going to scroll down your home page. So make sure that all the important messages are in immediate view - 'above the fold'. That means you have to be smart, concise and to-the-point.

In summary:

• Are you sure that you are giving your visitors clear instructions and that those instructions are in a place where they will be seen?
• If you are expecting them to go to another section of your site, are you letting them know what they will find there?

What not to do!

My first home page was really more of an About Us piece of text. I assumed that visitors would use the navigation buttons to find out more about the services I provided. Don't make that assumption!

Highlight your main attractions. Show people how to get to them. Let them know what is there waiting for them. Target the people you identified as potential visitors to your site and make sure you have a 'call to action' for each one.

My re-written home page now shows three different main options and explains what visitors will find there. They act as invitations. The message is "I know what you have come here for. I am making it as easy as possible for you to find what you want."

"This way, please!"

If you want to maximise the time people spend on your site, you will have to smarten up that slovenly "Feel free to browse" attitude.

Get your home page to start behaving like one of those super-efficient butlers who can anticipate your needs at a glance. Before they know it, your guests are ushered in and whisked away to the correct room, where everything is laid out for them.

For your guests it's unobtrusive, it's seamless and it's fast. For you, it's very, very effective. If you can get your home page right, you can ensure that your visitors end up exactly where you want them to be without even thinking about it.

Back button? What back button?

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