Truth 36. A home page must crystallize who you are

To demonstrate how you can go about creating a Web site structure and home page, let’s plan a simple one for a craftsperson who’s starting from scratch. And let’s suppose she creates a range of crafts and clothing that sell from $50 to $500 and have a “Vermont” theme.

Goals—To sell products via the Internet and bolster the owner’s artistic credibility when she sells at fairs.

Audience—People who like handmade crafts and the Vermont “feel.”

Content plan—Translating these into the Internet medium, she will want, minimally, the following:

• Home page

• Meet the Artist (a version of About Us)

• Product showcase (one page or set of pages for each kind of product with brief introduction)

• “Where I Am” (updatable page on craft fairs where the artist will show her work)

• Shopping basket to hold selections

• Ordering capability

• Contact information

• Content (such as an article on how handmade fabric is woven)

Even though many prospective buyers will go straight to a particular product page and never see the home page, nonetheless it sets the stage for content, structure, and style. So, how to write a good home page? Here’s how our artist’s print brochure reads:

Introducing Laura Jones: A Craftswoman in the Best New England Tradition

Vermont artist Laura Jones is the creator of unique, handmade crafts and artistic pieces that embody themes of her native Vermont landscape. Her highly original work is in the collection of the New England Museum of Modern Folk Art…etc., etc. She has taken blue-ribbon honors in competitions from Maine to Texas.

Her wide range encompasses painted textiles, wall hangings, clothing, and jewelry, all inspired by the Vermont world in which she was born and raised. Her artistic sensibility has been honed by both education and experience….

Even if you don’t think the copy is awful, it’s nowhere near right for a Web site. Who’d sit still to read it? How to cut to the chase? Here’s one way:

Laura Jones StudioOne-of-a-kind crafts and clothing with Vermont themes

Wall hangings

Painted fabrics

Painted scarves

Painted ties

Enameled jewelry

Unique gifts and collectibles made by hand—buy direct from the award-winning artist’s Montpelier studio.

Each listed product links to an inside page. The items outlined under Content Plan can be arranged as a menu any way the site owner wants or a designer suggests.

Far more complex sites can be planned out in a similar manner. The home page must reflect the best structure for the site’s purpose and should be worked out by the full site-development team. Software has evolved that makes content changes easy, but changing the site’s structure can be harder. Ideally, a good site plan takes future development into account.

For easy navigation, organize logically. It can be helpful to visualize the site as a tree branching off into roots, which lead to a succession of smaller roots. In the case of the artist’s site, for example, you reach a Product Showcase page by clicking on that link. That page in turn can link to wall hangings, enameled jewelry, and the rest. The jewelry page can lead the viewer to earrings, necklaces, and so on.

Alternatively, the visitor can click on the direct links from the home page to each category, or might find the earrings page directly from Google by searching for “handmade enameled earrings.”

Explaining the site—The artist’s home page features a prominent tagline:

Unique gifts and collectibles made by hand—buy direct from the award-winning artist’s Montpelier studio.

Many current sites don’t bother to define or explain what the company does or is. As a result, you may find yourself on home pages that make you figure out what relation the organization has to what you want to find, or the basic nature of the site itself. Unless you’re Microsoft, it’s best to tell the visitor whatever is needed to “position” your site. However, the statement must be very concise and as strong as possible. Don’t be surprised if it takes a lot of thought to do this right. The exercise forces you to drill down to your core marketing message.

Cross-promote like crazy—Link your Web site to all your company blogs, and vice versa. Offer print materials about your organization and specific products and services. Link to your e-newsletter, or offer subscriptions to those who fill out a brief form (great for building your database). Connect with podcasts if you can provide those, and video you are showing on YouTube. Promote your upcoming personal appearances as a speaker or consultant, or your company’s presence at a conference or convention, and link your site to your social media profiles. And of course, emblazon your Web site address on everything you produce. One of us recently received a small piece of pottery, and the company’s URL was etched on the bottom. That’s smart.

Worth the trouble?—Even with the services and templates available online to facilitate Web site creation, or the support services available in a large organization, good Web sites are very challenging to produce and update. But it’s hard to imagine operating any kind of business without one these days. Surprisingly, The Wall Street Journal has reported that only 36 percent of small businesses—defined as having fewer than 100 employees—have Web sites.

If your organization doesn’t have the best Web site it can pull off, it’s missing major chances to reach audiences that would otherwise be unreachable—all over the world—every hour of every day.