Your home page is the most visited page of your website. It is the page that will either retain your visitors or send them away. You must make a good first impression! Remember that the most effective sites are simple, clear and easy to navigate. Your design should be professional and reflect your branding. The following describes key elements required in an effective homepage.

Logo & Header
Your header (normally the block at the top of the page) should include your business logo and usually the name of your company. The header is presented on all pages of your site, so it needs to represent you well. Your logo should be easy to remember. Some online businesses try to incorporate their url (your domain address) in the logo to help customers remember it for later.

Navigation Bars
Normally your navigation bar (which provides the links to all the main pages in your web site) is a horizontal bar or line just under the header at the top of the page. Sometimes it is above or on the left side. The main point is making sure it is clear., easy to read and has the main sections you want your visitors to find.
Scroll down menus allow visitors to easily find other subsections.

Items often found in the navigation bar or sub-menu include:

Home
About Us (History, Bio, Team, Media Kit)
Product Information (Pricing, Benefits, Testimonials, Awards, Reviews)
Service Information (Description, Calender)
Ordering Information (Store or Shop Online or Buy Now)
Other Information (Resources, Articles, Links, Photos)

The items included in your menu are very much specific to your own industry, your business and what content you have on your website. If you are unsure what information you should include, look around at other sites in your industry to see what items they list. Also ask your customers for their advice.

Note: The more important sections should be the most prominent. Normally home is on the left. Contact us at the right or bottom in the footer. The bottom navigation bar located in your footer often includes the Privacy Policy, Terms, FAQ, Contact Us. If your site has a lot of content or you sell different types of products, you may wish to provide a search bar.

Tag Line
A tag line is a catchy phrase that states your brand in one sentence. It provides your visitor with an immediate idea of what your site can offer them.
The tag line (which is different from an advertising slogan) is the sentence that describes what your site is about, what it does, and how it adds value to the user. It should be short, clear, focused and include keywords. Note: your description, title, and tag line should complement each other.

Contact Info
Your phone number, email and even a call back request button should be prominent somewhere on your home page. You want to make it as easy as possible for people to get in contact with you. Some sites now use “Captcha” to your receipt of spam.

Key Products or Services
Your homepage should also present a photograph of your most popular product or an image the represents your service. This gives your visitors immediately an impression of what you do or sell.

Current Promotions or Upcoming Events
Most sites will include a section to post the most current promotion or an event. Normally you have room for a teaser headline and then provide a “READ MORE” link for more information. The promotion can link directly to the item in the store.

Newsletter Subscribe Button
If you plan to have a newsletter in the near future, you should start collecting names and email addresses of interested subscribers. Our Drupal sites offer an easy automated subscribe button with confirmations. Or if you want more tracing and statistic features you can set up the open sourced software, PHPList. It is good to provide a short clear description of the benefit of the newsletter. It is also helpful to offer a free downloadable gift to encourage more sign ups. The newsletter subscribe button should be prominent on all your internal pages as well.

Good Text or Copy
Your copy, especially on the home page must be thorough out carefully. You only have so much space to say what you want. Fewer words are better, so use them wisely. Sometime you will find that you end up revising your copy over time- this happens as your business descriptions becomes more defined in your mind (many times after doing your 30 second pitch to prospective customers). Make sure to cover the major benefits of your product or service. You will also want your home page to be keyword rich. You should research ahead these words and phrases that your target customer will search for you with.

Footer
The footer is the section at the bottom of your pages. It includes links to a variety of possible sections such as: Terms/User Agreement, Privacy Policy, Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ), Contact Us, etc.
You will also want your Copyright information i.e., © 2007-2008, New Earth Marketing.
This is also the place where the site owner can put logos that provide credibility (i.e., Better Business Bureau, industry associations, awards, charitable partners, payment security icons etc)