Rule 7 - banner page

The banner page creates the first impression of your homepage in the user, which as we know is most important. This is why you should do everything you can in order to make your banner page appear inviting. In addition to this the banner page should make clear what your homepage is about and what is expecting the reader on the following pages. You also need to pay great attention to the time the page needs to load – especially in the case of a banner page.

Many web page designers use a big beautiful picture as the entry to their homepage or even a long flash animation. This often fails to explain what the homepage is about and makes the reader wait for too long. For this reason many people don’t visit these sites again.

Now let us get back to the example of the Shop: In this case I would not recommend a banner page. I would rather build a normal page (with navigation, etc.) and list the sales on the first page.

Rule 8 - Content

The most important element on a successful website is of course the content. Keep in mind that you have to organise your content and make it easy to access. Just write content matching to what the user wanted to see, and nothing else.

If you make your content interesting and informative the visitors is always willing to stay a little longer in your page.

Although flashing colours and many colourful animations may look funny on the first look, but if your content is boring and old nobody will stay or come back again.

Don’t try to cover too many different topics on your page, instead specialize on certain aspects and provide more information than others do.