When setting up or updating a blog site, which home page elements should you include and which should you be sure to ditch?
There are plenty of things you should include on your home page. No two home pages are exactly alike, but it seems many have some common home page elements they rely on. I think many of these common elements are good for the user experience. Some, on the other hand, may make you want to click away immediately.
I recently found a list on Orbit Media titled “Homepage Best Practices: 20 Things to Add to Your Homepage Design (and 5 things to remove).” Of the 20 items it recommends adding, I placed most on my home page quite a long time ago.
But I also include one of the five it says I should drop. That one isn’t going anywhere.
7 Home Page Elements You Should Have on Your Site
I decided I’d pare down their list of 20 things to seven that I think you really, really need on your home page. Then I’ll discuss that “terrible” elements they seem to be dead-set against.
Your top choices might look different than mine. In fact, they probably will. I’d love to know which are the most important to you!
1. Logo/Title
Not every blog will have a logo. That’s not a dealbreaker for me at all. But every site should have its name at the top. Please make sure it’s readable. Some typefaces, as we all know, are harder to read than others. If I have to spend more than a second or two figuring out the name of your site, I probably won’t stay long. I want to know where I am and I want that to be clear right off the bat.
2. Descriptive Header/Site Description
Of all of the home page elements on the list, this is the newest one. Since it recommends not using slideshows, I decided to modify the top part of my home page and remove a carousel of the most recent posts. I already include the latest posts below that anyway, so it was redundant at best. But it did give me a place to have large visuals right at the top.
Instead, I am experimenting with a site description in its place. It’s short enough to describe what the blog is about and still get at least the top of the two latest posts “above the fold.” That’s a web term that refers to the portion of the home page that’s visible when the page loads without any scrolling necessary.
I’ll see if that has any effect on my home page’s performance. Fingers crossed!
3. Introduction
My little introduction is on the sidebar. It’s short and to the point and it links to the longer About Me page. But it’s a way to say hello and give you one more taste of what to expect.
Some readers ignore sidebars. So for those who don’t, it’s there. Those who ignore the sidebar will jump to content sooner anyway.
You can’t please everyone, after all.
4. Navigation Menu
If I listed these in order, this might be the first one on the list. I think a navigation menu accomplishes two important things. Obviously, it lets people get to the content they’re looking for quickly. But I think it also gives them a “menu” for what you have to offer. That can help encourage people to explore (meaning more page views and more time on your site).
If you offer content they’re not interested in, it at least lets them know that quickly so they don’t waste time.
Be sure somewhere in your navigation (mine’s at the very top), you include a link to your About page. I think that’s a very important page for any blog. Readers want to know something about the writer beyond the words themselves.
5. Site Search
I won’t name names. But I recently visited a big-name site that had no way to search content the other day. It really surprised me. I needed to find one specific detail about the organization. But there was no way to find it because it didn’t have a search option.
Sure, the alternative was to use Google. But if I come to your site, I shouldn’t have to leave your site and Google something. Your site should give me the option to find what I need right on the front page.
6. Faces of Team/Blogger
Just as I think an About page is essential, I think it’s important to add a photo of yourself. Some bloggers don’t like to use their real name or likeness. I get that. But if you’re not against revealing who you are, a photo can definitely help your readers connect with you. (And if my mug didn’t break the camera, you have no excuses!
7. Footer
I see many bloggers neglect their footer. To be honest, I understand why that happens. Most of us, unfortunately, don’t scroll all the way to the bottom of a web page. We scan and move on quickly.
But I’m one of those persnickety, stubborn types who will scroll all the way down when I’m on a site I find intriguing. I look for a blog footer. I look for more on topics or a calendar that might give me an indication of how often the blogger posts.
Maybe the footer is one more place you could place your subscribe button. I hope anyone who actually does take the time to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the page has been intrigued enough that they might find subscribing a reasonable next step.
1 Thing I Don’t Apologize for Using on My Blog
I use stock photography on this blog. I’ve talked about this issue before.
Some believe the use of stock photography can hurt your credibility. If I were doing a food blog, particularly one in which I experiment with recipes, I’d shoot my own photos. In fact, when it comes to a cookbook or recipe guide, I have a simple philosophy: The more photos the better. When I’m midway through a recipe and what I see in the pot looks like a mess, I want to know that, yes, it should look this way at this point. That tells me it will get better as we press on.
But I don’t run a food blog.
I run a little blog that covers a lot of territory. I have seven primary topics, so I cover everything from blogging to television to social media to grammar to faith.
When I want to talk about those silly little checkmarks, I can’t hop on a plane and go track down Twitter headquarters. I can’t drive to Washington DC and stake out the presidential motorcade to (hopefully) get a photo of Joe Biden when I want to talk about presidential politics. And even if my state’s lawmakers plot something goofy, I don’t have time to drive to my own state capital to track them down.
I have a real job. It takes a lot of my time. Stock photography allows me to use visuals, which I think are important on a blog. But they allow me to use a variety of visuals I otherwise wouldn’t have.
Some blogs do just fine with no photos. We’ve all seen blogs written by people who rely on text-only. That’s fine for them. I’ve even read blogs like that.
But for me and my little blog, visuals are a necessity. That’s just me.
I figure anyone who doesn’t care for stock photography can scroll past it to read what I actually have to say. I also figure that if the stock photo is enough to click away, they weren’t interested in my take anyway.
So that’s my take on your blog’s home page. What do you think are the most important elements?
