A home page is basically the main page of a website which is the first thing that an internet browser or surfer first sees once he/she visited your site. This is part of a web page (though in this case since it is termed as “homepage” stands for the very first page or the ‘home” of the site) that features clickable links, illustrations and graphics displayed on the computer screen via web browsers.

In building a website, it is important that you have basic knowledge of programming or html coding; although this concept has now become obsolete with the emergence of new types of website builder tools that enables the user - even if he or she does not have a single idea with regards to programming and web designing - to create visually pleasing and professional looking websites in an instant. For both the seasoned graphic artists and newbie web designer, these web building tools that can be obtained online provides added ease and efficiency in making their websites.

Key Points to Remember When Building your HomePage

Elegance and over-all appearance counts. If you want to get positive feedbacks and responses from your site visitors, then keep in mind the following pointers when you build home page.

1) Use animations and graphic effects in your website (especially on the home page where this is commonly seen) as sparingly as possible and only when necessary.

This factor can be attributed to the fact that web surfers can tend to be impatient and loose interest once they discover that your website takes much too long to load. The reason for this can be found on the excessive use of graphic effects and animations on websites which, sometimes requires higher bandwidth to be downloaded fast; well what if your visitor – read: Potential Customer – has a slow connection? Definitely, you can say “adios” to possible sales and traffic for your website. Also, compatibility of your website with regards to the different web browsers must also be checked since, some websites cannot be viewed on certain web browsers.

2) Use only the needed features and applications for your home page – but this advice is also applicable for the rest of your web pages since functionality is the main keyword here.

You try browsing some websites on the internet. What do you see? Yes, basically you will encounter websites with homepage designs varying from the pure text and colored images down to interactive graphics made possible with Flash effects and other multimedia applications. But more or less, they all have one thing in common: the scroll bar found on the side or sometimes on below the screen area.

This scroll bar is one of the features necessary for operating a webpage, in this case the home page. It enables the user to discover more links as he or she continues to browse the site; while for the site owner, enables him to place more links farther below on the lower part of the page where they are available. With vertical scrolling, it is relatively easier to operate the page thus facilitating ease and fast execution of operation; while vertical scrolling on the other hand, is a big no because, instead of enabling the user to see everything that your homepage has to offer, he/ she would need to scroll to the right in order to see the rest of your content and graphics.

Besides, using both is impractical also; just try to imagine where your page will land in terms of functionality once you do this.

3) Make sure that all links are present and can be easily found by the site user when you build home page.

Some sites make it a practice to put the links on either the left or side panel so the user can easily find what he/she is looking for. While others would rather incorporate the links as part of the content (yes, that is one usefulness of content – and you thought they are nothing but mere decorations huh). They are both good choices actually; you can adopt whichever fits the way your site was built as long as you are sure that the links can be easily found and is fully functional.

Copyright 2005 Jay Peterson

About The Author

Jay Peterson writer, web designer. www.TicTacWebsites.com is the easiest do-it-yourself website builder on the web. No programming or design skill required.Get your small business online in just 5 minutes with www.tictacwebsites.com loaded with 30+ business features.