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Rules for Effective Homepage Design

An effective homepage layout is essential for every web site that has aspirations of achieving a high sales to visitor conversion ratio. In this article we discover what homepage design elements deliver sales, and how you can implement them at no cost to your business.

According to recent research by the web analytics company, Fireclick, the average sales conversion rate across the web is 2.3%. National and international brands built on consumer loyalty and trust naturally convert the most visitors to sales - some reports suggest that Amazon achieves a 9% conversion rate, although these figures are unconfirmed. At the other end of the scale there are thousands of sites that achieve few if any sales, some hovering just above the 0.0% conversion mark.

There are of course many factors that influence a site's conversion rate, from accessibility and marketing to pricing structures and even industry type. However, all sites have one factor in common when it comes to making that sale, and that is the site's homepage layout.

The '8-second' rule

The '8-second' rule is an axiom that is well known by the majority of online marketers. Typically, a homepage or landing page has a small window of eight seconds in which to make an impression on a visitor. During this time slot, a web visitor asks three basic questions of the page they see in front of them...

1) What is the product/service? 2) Is this product/service of interest to me? 3) How much will it cost?

If a web page can get this basic information across, tell the visitor where to find this information or provide information that 'hooks' the reader into the site to find out more then the page is doing its job well. In short, this means that the homepage must have a clean sharp design that takes in the following points...

A productive 'top heavy' web page - The top third of your web page is typically where a visitor will spend much of their initial eight seconds. This is where your homepage needs to make an impact. In those eight seconds make sure that your visitor can identify what the product or service is, why they can't leave without buying your product / service, and where they can order the product / service or find a price.

Navigation Bar - Make your navigation bar OBVIOUS! It might seem like a no-brainier, but you'd be surprised at


how many sites fail to do this!

White Space - Make good use of blank / white space on the page. Your goal is to make it easy for a visitor's eye to pick up on the information that will lead to a sale, rather than confuse the picture with eye-candy, cramped content or a page swamped with ads.

Well written content - This is a must! Make sure your content conforms to tried & tested marketing principles.

Of course, not all of us are technically minded enough or have the necessary skills (or even server access) to make these changes to our site's homepage. While it is true that these skills can easily be acquired, it will take an investment of time. If that is something you don't have then you need an alternative solution!

The Joint Venture Route

Joint ventures - where two or more parties work together on a project for mutual gain - are a popular way for businesses to gain access to expertise and services that they do not yet have. From the perspective of your homepage (and other pages on your site) establishing a joint venture with a web design expert could mean that you can create an effective web site layout with minimal time input and no upfront costs.

But, just how would this work? It's quite simple really!

All you have to do is find a joint venture partner with the appropriate level of web design skills and arrange to split the profits generated from the web site that he or she re-designs. You could cap the level of money paid out at a certain amount - perhaps an amount that is equivalent to the price that they would charge if you were to contract with them direct. Alternatively you could agree to share revenue from the first 3 or 4 months following their redesign work or even offer them an open-ended deal. I can guarantee you that there'll be no shortage of takers!

Where to find joint venture partners Finding joint venture partners with web design skills is easy. Just register with joint venture partner introducer web sites like http://www.jvbase.com (you can register for free) and you'll gain access to a complete list of candidates who match your specifications and are actively looking for the type of joint venture opportunity that you are offering.

Good luck!

About the author:

Content is provided by Seb Jay on behalf of http://www.jvbase.com