Myth of the Home Page - Why Guy & I Don’t See Eye to Eye
I don’t know if it is politic to disagree with Guy Kawasaki. But recently Guy wrote something about the importance of website home pages that is either wrong or, most certainly, arguable. And the funny thing was his errant comment was not germane to his point. It was merely a stepping stone to get to where he intended, a separate issue that I’m all for. What Guy wrote was, “A site’s signup page is the second most important page on a site (the most important is the home page itself) because this is where you’re asking for commitment.” I’m good with this. But the parenthetical comment is off base.
The home page is dangerously overrated. It is certainly not the most important website page. It’s a deep issue and comment is welcome. But this just happens to be one of my internet hot buttons. So I’m airing it now. Guy Kawasaki is a great visionary and no disrespect is intended, but he just happened to get in my way on this issue. Here are 2 reasons to support my position.
1. 81% of search engine traffic goes to your interior website pages. 19% goes to your home page. My source for this data is a MarketingSherpa webinar on Landing Pages. Where do you want to put your energy? If you believe the answer is in the 19% and not the 81% then, as The Donald would say…”You’re Fired.”
2. Look closer. That 19% search referred traffic is fool’s gold (stronger words reserved for non-family publications). Curiously, some number close to19% of all search keywords includes your firm’s name. Look at your own analytics and tell me if I’m wrong. So that 19% of search-driven arrivals to your home page - those that are devouring your home page’s wonderfulness and thinking great thoughts about your cleverness – already know who you are. They’re probably searching for your phone number which you’ve hidden on some internal page – the real home pages.
So you’ve got 80% of the problem begging for attention and the quality of the remaining 19% is suspect. Ergo, have a nice home page for sure. But put your energy into the content of the rest of the pages of your site. Quod Erat Demonstrandum
It depends on how you skew the metrics.
If you’re looking at which individual pages receive the most traffic, then the home page gets 19% and all of the other individual pages <i>combined</i> receive 81% - so most likely when looking at analytics for the "most visited" pages the home page will appear to be the top priority (unless a particular article is Dugg or Slashdotted).
Collectively, the content pages of your site will win out. It’s all in your you spin the numbers. Of course, robots may account for 90% of that 19% traffic, too. Most web visitors will find your web site through an ancillary page that’s deep-indexed in Google. In that regard, any page in your site can be your "home page" to a particular visitor.
Furthermore, you are only including search engine results in your opinion about the home page and it’s importance. What about the people who got a direct mail piece and know nothing about you or your company? What about people who received got your card at a networking mixer? Radio and TV ads? Banner ads? Any other marketing source will also only point people directly to the home page.
Sonny,
Even at 19%, the Home page is the most visited page on a site. It is your site’s front door. It needs to introduce the newcomer to what is inside.
It is the most important page in the eyes of search engines. Search engines give the Home such importance because it is a site’s most visited page. Use your keywords well on the Home page and you will have search visitors beyond those searching your name.
Use the Home page to reflect your style. Carefully use the Home’s real estate to guide your visitors to the next most important pages. Feature a prominent link to the page where you want the visitor to take action.
It all starts at the Home page. Use it well.
Larry Stopa
President, <a href="http://www.epowermark.com">E-Power Marketing</a>
[...] your home page may not be from where most of your traffic comes it’s still important to direct users to the content that they want as efficiently as [...]
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