{"id":13297,"date":"2010-08-26T11:52:01","date_gmt":"2010-08-26T09:52:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/?p=13297"},"modified":"2010-08-26T11:52:01","modified_gmt":"2010-08-26T09:52:01","slug":"front-page-design-is-overrated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/26\/front-page-design-is-overrated\/","title":{"rendered":"Front page design is overrated"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I was looking through my website statistics yesterday and I arrived to this decision – front page design is overrated<\/strong>. \u00a0There are, of course, different circumstances and such, but overall, I think this should be true for pretty much every content-based website, except the monsters like CNN. \u00a0If you are CNN, then, I guess, people just come to your front page to check up on things. \u00a0But if you are not CNN, or some other huge news outlet, chances are, you’ll get most of your visitors from the search engines. \u00a0And if that’s true, then I bet your front-page won’t be the landing page for all those visitors. \u00a0They will come directly to content pages, like articles, products, and so on.<\/p>\n

Consider an example. \u00a0Yesterday, this blog saw 593 unique visitors. \u00a0The front page was seen by only 46. \u00a0That’s less than 8%! \u00a0Of course, days are different, and each website is different in its own way. \u00a0But I think that in general the correlation between the numbers will be somewhere there. \u00a0Around 10% of visitors will check your front page. \u00a0Most of them will check the landing page and leave (what’s your bounce rate? \u00a070-80%?). \u00a0Some will continue to “Contact Us”, “Related Posts”, “Similar Products”, or search. \u00a0And then more of them will leave. \u00a0A few of those, who are still there, will probably check the front page by now. \u00a0By which time they probably already got what they wanted out of your website or lost all hopes. \u00a0No matter how beautiful your front page is, they are likely to leave now. \u00a0Dont’ think so? \u00a0What’s the average pages per visit metric for your website? \u00a01.5-2? \u00a0There you go.<\/p>\n

So, don’t bother too much about the front page. \u00a0Yes, it is nice to have a cool one. \u00a0Yes, it might be important for those direct visitors. \u00a0But if you are on a tight schedule or budget, concentrate on improving your content pages.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\n

I was looking through my website statistics yesterday and I arrived to this decision – front page design is overrated. \u00a0There are, of course, different circumstances and such, but overall, I think this should be true for pretty much every content-based website, except the monsters like CNN. \u00a0If you are CNN, then, I guess, people … Continue reading Front page design is overrated<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1,62,1334],"tags":[1041,1157],"keyring_services":[],"class_list":["post-13297","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","category-technology","category-web-work","tag-statistics","tag-web-design"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":8806,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2005\/04\/11\/on-web-design-and-my-blog\/","url_meta":{"origin":13297,"position":0},"title":"On web design and my blog","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 11, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"Once in a while I stop and think about the reasons for changing the design of my blog. My first reaction to such self query usually results in insults to myself. It has been some time since I noticed the design of any other site. This is mainly caused by\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":22000,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2014\/06\/17\/outdatedbrowser-com-warn-visitors-that-use-outdated-browser-versions\/","url_meta":{"origin":13297,"position":1},"title":"OutdatedBrowser.com – warn visitors that use outdated browser versions","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"June 17, 2014","format":"link","excerpt":"OutdatedBrowser.com - warn visitors that use outdated browser versions","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13000,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/07\/30\/example-of-webdesign-misunderstanding\/","url_meta":{"origin":13297,"position":2},"title":"Example of webdesign misunderstanding","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"July 30, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"When building websites, a conflict often arises between what the owner of the website thinks is required on the site and what the visitors to such a website are looking for. \u00a0More often than not, the owner of the website has no idea of what is useful and what is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/university_website-500x349.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":21456,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2014\/04\/08\/piwik-liberating-web-analytics\/","url_meta":{"origin":13297,"position":3},"title":"Piwik – Liberating Web Analytics","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"April 8, 2014","format":"link","excerpt":"Piwik is the leading open source web analytics platform that gives you valuable insights into your website\u2019s visitors, your marketing campaigns and much more, so you can optimize your strategy and online experience of your visitors. Piwik.org","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":10913,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2007\/11\/16\/keep-it-simple-stupid\/","url_meta":{"origin":13297,"position":4},"title":"Keep it simple, stupid","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"November 16, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"It is sometimes amazing how people behave.\u00c2\u00a0 Especially when they buy something and they get a choice of what they can get for their money.\u00c2\u00a0 Given the freedom to \"get anything they want\", they often won't stick with what they need, they won't usually know what they want, and so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13254,"url":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/2010\/08\/19\/sideshow-cyprus-web-design-company\/","url_meta":{"origin":13297,"position":5},"title":"Sideshow – Cyprus web design company","author":"Leonid Mamchenkov","date":"August 19, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"For years I've been complaining about the web design situation in Cyprus. \u00a0Most web design companies here suck. \u00a0And most of the websites that they do suck even more. \u00a0Once in a while, though, I'd mention this or that website that was standing out. \u00a0Finally, I can mention a web\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "All"","block_context":{"text":"All","link":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/category\/general\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/08\/sideshow-500x363.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13297","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13297"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13297\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13297"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13297"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13297"},{"taxonomy":"keyring_services","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mamchenkov.net\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/keyring_services?post=13297"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}