In every B-to-B web site redesign project, the home page always gets a lot of attention. Not only does everyone have an opinion, every area of the company usually feels that they need to be included in the process. Often a committee is created, usually with some acronym as a name to inspire action or teamwork. (WACS, WAT, WEBA) And then, the battle begins. Company divisions start clamoring for heavy exposure on the home page. Upper management wants a lengthy Flash intro splash screen. (No, this isn’t dead yet, and yes, it’s still a bad idea. See note below.) The IR team insists its messages should trump marketing’s. There are months of meetings, rounds of designs, and the end product reflects the company’s internal strife. The final design is often a clunky compromise, a concession to meet the political needs of the company—not the needs of the customer.

Oh, well. They won’t ever see your home page anyway. The fact is, most of your site users never enter through the home page.

Search engines rule—you don’t.
Search engines are the ones in charge and determine how most users enter your web site. In 2004, about 40% of people visited a home page and then drilled down through the site. According to Jacob Nielson’s 2008 web habits survey, only 25% of users enter by the home page. So even if you have a great home page, if the rest of your site isn’t well designed, up to date, and intuitive, users entering via search results may hit your site, get frustrated, and leave. You need to think of every page as a possible entry point and make sure that it functions as a standalone piece—because people will end up there without having the experience of other visiting other pages in your site.

What about those people who enter via the home page?
They don’t stick around long anyway. Maybe 6 seconds, but this is one of the iffy, kind of bogus stats because it doesn’t apply to all situations. But business-to-business web site users are task-oriented. They want to find what they need and leave. Not watch a flash intro and read promotions. Often the things marketers add because they think it makes the site more interesting, just adds to users’ frustrations, creating obstacles and distractions (not to mention longer download times) from their goals. (Read about the Changing Media Landscape.)

Focus on the bigger picture
The home page is 10% of the overall site experience. So at your next web team meeting stop worrying about just the home page and focus on the other 90%. You may have to fight more battles internally, but you’ll have more wins with your audience.

BTW:  A note on how to squash the splash screen request.
An old comment made to Marketing Sherpa, by Jared Spool of User Interface Engineering, is still one of my favorites:

"When we have clients who are thinking about Flash splash pages, we tell them to go to their local supermarket and bring a mime with them. Have the mime stand in front of the supermarket, and, as each customer tries to enter, do a little show that lasts two minutes, welcoming them to the supermarket and trying to explain the bread is on aisle six and milk is on sale today. Then stand back and count how many people watch the mime, how many people get past the mime as quickly as possible, and how many people punch the mime out.”