The homepages of many business websites are suffering an identity crisis. They’re trying to do the job of several web pages, and doing none of those jobs well.

What a Business Website Homepage is Not:
A homepage is not the place to dump a long description of your business. That’s for the about us or company information page. On the homepage, this information will just bore most people.

A homepage is not the place where you list and sell all your products (unless you only have one or two). You should have a special products and services page for that, and preferably a shopping cart or catalog. Trying to make people buy right on your homepage is a little pushy. The homepage will also get over-crowded as your offerings expand. Instead, just include a list of product categories with links to inside pages, along with direct links to your biggest sellers.

A homepage is not the place to include the full text of your announcements and press releases. Just include a teaser paragraph of each article on the homepage, with a link to the web page with the full text. If people want to read the full text, they can. If they don’t, you haven’t bored them to tears.

A homepage is not your company president’s or owner’s personal blog. It’s OK to rant, rave, or preach the need for world peace. Just don’t do it on your website.

As you’ve probably noticed, a good website has multiple pages. You should have special web pages for special topics: an about us page for company information, a products and services catalog, etc. When you advertise or send out links to your site, you should link directly to the most appropriate page, rather than just the homepage. Of course, that doesn’t mean you don’t need a homepage just that you don’t need it to do every single thing you want your website to accomplish.

You may just want to hire a website designer, online firm, or website content provider to create your homepage for you. After all, you wouldn’t build your own office building, would you? Of course, that’s not an entirely fair comparison; more people will see your business website homepage than will ever see your office building.