Maximus Internet » Search http://www.maximusinternet.com/blog Internet Strategy | Websites | Search | Email Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:49:06 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 How much of your website traffic arrives on your homepage? http://www.maximusinternet.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/how-much-of-your-website-traffic-arrives-on-your-homepage/ http://www.maximusinternet.com/blog/index.php/2009/10/how-much-of-your-website-traffic-arrives-on-your-homepage/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 17:59:12 +0000 jminder http://www.maximusinternet.com/blog/?p=39 I often see discussions about improving website conversions start with the homepage.  However, in many cases that is not where visitors start their process with the site.  If secondary pages are indexing well on search engines, visitors may enter your site through a wide range of pages.  In fact, some websites have less than 20% of their visitors arrive on the homepage! Obviously, it is essential to closely monitor your analytics to understand how people find and use your website.

Here’s three tips for making the most of your entry pages:

- Make people feel comfortable about being in the right place.
Every page on your website should have consistent branding and be clear about what your company does.  You’d be surprised how many sites miss that second part.

- Provide navigational orientation that indicates where users are on your site.
Is it easy for the user to know how deep they are in your site structure and move up to a category level or homepage?  You can easily handle this by using a main navigation that clearly indicates the active page and using a crumb trail on more complex sites.

- Properly target your search terms and make sure your landing pages have all relevant information.
Nothing frustrates users more than irrelevant search results.  Make sure your site isn’t contributing to the problem by paying close attention to the search terms that drive traffic to your site and adjusting content accordingly.

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