Create A Custom Homepage

PUBLISHED: JULY 18, 2014 – ARTICLE: HOW TO CREATE A CUSTOM HOMEPAGE

Every webpage has a homepage, even websites that are created with only one page have a homepage. Because of this, the home page of your custom website is the post important page of your site to visitors. It's also the most important page for search engines. If you want to rank well on search engines, you cannot neglect your website's homepage.

The purpose of the homepage is to draw visitors into the site and present the best first impression possible. If visitors to your site don't like what they find on the homepage, there is very little chance that they will continue navigating the website to find more information. Again, this goes back to the first impression they will have. If the impression is a good one then visitors to your website will stay on your site and even more importantly, they may choose to come back to visit again and again.

A great homepage should have the following elements, no matter what type of website builder you are using to create a website with. The first element is simply the design aspect of the homepage. Your homepage needs to look nice and neat. It's easy to spot a good homepage design when you see it, but it's far more difficult to create an attractive homepage. By attractive, we mean that the layout is symmetrical and page elements are in alignment, colors are complementary, fonts choices go together, etc. These aspects to a homepage are the reason why a good graphic designer can make a good living from designing a homepage for a website. These professionals have an artistic eye for good design that visitors are naturally attracted to.

The next element that makes up a great custom home page is the usability or user interface. A great homepage design is one that is easy to navigate and use. When a homepage is difficult to use, you can expect website visitors to check out and go somewhere else. There are entire books written on this subject. One favorite is called Don't Make Me Think by Steve Krug. The point being that the visitor to your site should have to really think though how to use a website. If the site is designed correctly, it is self-evident how to use. The very same can be said about Apple's iPad device, one of the first tablet type devices to market. It was just dead simple to use, so much so that Apple designers challenged people to just pick it up and use it. It's designed that so well that the instructions that came with the device could fit on a piece of paper the size of a credit card. The bottom line is to make your interface so easy to use that it doesn't need instructions and there's nothing to learn – people just naturally get it.

Finally, the last element on your homepage is the content. Content is defined as the information that a user gets from your page or what you have to say. If what you have to say isn't interesting for the visitor to your website then you can expect that people will not come back to visit the web site that you've made. Also, because the home page is usually the first page that people visit when they initially come to your website visitors will not spend much time on your site or navigate past the homepage if the "content" or information on the homepage is not very good. Conversely, if the content on your custom homepage is good, then people will be interested in your website and they will end up spending more time on your web site and they will come back to visit.  The content on your custom homepage not only has an impact on visitor impressions of your site, search engines are smart enough to know if your pages are offering quality, relevant, useful and original content from your pages.

User interface, design and content – these are the three ingredients that need to be implemented into a quality custom homepage. All three of these have to be implemented as they all depend on each other. A great custom web design is nice to look at, but without quality content or a good user interface, the site will end up not retaining the interest of visitors and search engines. Likewise, your content or information might be great, but without a nice website design the pages will not be visited for long or very frequently. Combine all three of the elements that we have discussed and you will have a winning combination that will help you create the best custom home page for your business website.

Step By Step Instructions On How To Create A Custom Homepage Using Easysite

To customize your homepage, click "edit page" at the top of the page. 

The "layout" section lets you select the items you want to feature on your homepage as well as the way they'll be displayed.  For example, you can select a layout to feature your store page items instead of your latest pictures or select a layout with neither. 
 

"Welcome Text" is the large text line that is displayed at the top of the homepage.  The "Pictures Box" or "Store Items" box lets you pick items to display in rotation from these pages.  You can either show the most recent pictures or store items or you can manually pick which pictures or store items to display using the "select" links.
 

"Other Boxes" let you pick other item titles and links to be displayed.  (Use the "show" checkboxes to turn off and on a particular type of item.  The up-down arrows are used to rearrange the order.) 

"Homepage Text" lets you enter your own text and layout for the homepage.  (To completely customize your homepage using the Homepage Text, select the "Homepage Text Only" as your homepage layout.)  Click OK at the bottom, when you're finished customizing your homepage.

Watch this video on how to create a custom homepage: