10 things your home page absolutely must have
- Tue, June 26 2012
- Filed under: Websites and web usability
What belongs on your home page?
One definite must is an impossible-to-miss Donate button.
Grab a friend or relative, sit them down in front of your website’s home page, and count how many seconds it takes them to find and click on your Donate button or find another way to do something. If it takes them more than two seconds, you need to place your button in a far more prominent position. Make it central to the page. Make sure it is above the fold (meaning, no one has to scroll to see it). Make it big. Make it colorful. Make it impossible to miss. Use an obvious keyword for this button, such as “Donate” or “Give”, rather than something more ambiguous like “Join” or “Support.”
The “Donate Now” button should immediately take the user to the donation form, with no intermediate steps.
Another must is a way to capture information from people not ready to give. It takes time to cultivate supporters, so include an email sign-up so that you can build a relationship with visitors and turn them into donors in the future. Think beyond “join our mailing list”.
So what are the other eight things? Click here—Network for Good (where I work) has the rest of answers. We have a nifty module based on some of the posts you’ve read here and the work of my colleague Caryn Stein. We’re making it free to all blog readers! Just for you!
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Comments
Always follow-up online introductions with a phone call or personal meeting when possible. If you have a prospect you connect with online, they see you as a name in an email or hyperlink on a webpage. An actual conversation personalizes your relationship and humanizes you to them. They’re far more likely to do business with someone they view as real.
Totally agree about the donate now button. We moved it to the navigation bar on http://homelesschild.org to make sure that it was not easy to miss.