Why Have a Good Homepage?

Here are Some Tips and Tricks for a Kickin' Homepage:

1.) Rename your Homepage

a. “Scottish Highland Dancing,” not “Home.”

Wrong Way:

Right way:

2.) Welcome Your Visitors Wetpaint has a site greeting feature that let's you automatically welcome others the first time they come to your site. This greeting can only be seen by people who are not logged in. Example of Site Greeting: Learn how to personalize your site's greeting. Be sure to write your home page in a warm and inviting tone that makes your site sound down to earth and easy to use. Also, as a site creator, you can send an automatic message to new members welcoming them to the site. Learn how to send a new member message.

3.) Use Headers and Subheaders to Break Up the Page

Example of Headers:

4.) State Your Site's Purpose From your homepage alone, a new visitor should be able to gather what the site is about and why they may be interested in getting involved. Example of Stating Site Purpose: Site Tip: Be sure you are clear on your homepage that this is an open content site and community, and that their involvement is welcome and strongly encouraged.

5.) Point Users to Important Pages

6.) Calls to Action Calls to action are statements that tell your members what you want them to do on your site. Example of Calls to Action: "Fill out Fan Pages" and "Help fill out their bio page" are good examples of Calls to Action. "Add photos," "add polls" or "add videos" are also good Calls to Action. Site Tip: One of the very best calls to action you can give a wiki is "Join this site!" to encourage people to sign up. Writing in a manner that coaxes others to participate immediately will help them to do just that.

7.) Update Your Home Page

9.) Keep your home page text short.

Long homepages are overwhelming; make your home page less than 2 screens long.
Example: