The Chatterbox

Which page is your home page

Okay, it's time for me to find some time in my busy schedule to start climbing back in the proverbial saddle. To start the process I'm going to start a new category that sort of feeds off of a couple other main categories. So even though this post isn't technically about Web Analytics, it will tie into an overall mindset I would like readers to understand so that they can hopefully develop their own approach to how the subjects of Marketing on the Web and how Web Analytics fits into the larger picture.

So, let's kick it off with a concept that some may find controversial, as well as one in which others may find some enlightenment. The concept is a very simple one:

You Do Not Have A Home Page.

"Wait," you say. "Of course I have a home page. It's the index.html page that I've uploaded to my site!"

Technically speaking, you would be correct. But we're talking about the Real World here, not technical stuff.

The fact of the matter is that 80% of the Real People out there start off their web journey by using a Search Engine. Be it Google, Yahoo!, MSN/Live, Ask or any of the other public or private search engines, the vast majority of new traffic you receive is probably going to originate from a search engine. Even if they arrive at your site from a link on someone else's site, they probably started out searching for something.

Of the remaining 20%, a significant portion of this traffic is going to come to you via a link on someone elses site.

Here's my point. In both of the above cases --which is probably going to make up over 90% of your overall online traffic-- you are not in control of what each visitor considers your home page! The search engines may list an interior page as the best fit for a search phrase someone typed in. Another webmaster may link to something other than your home page if they found it particularly useful.

Those are both good things, however it means you really need to understand and accept that you have no single Home Page. Since Real People are going to consider the first page of your site they see to be your "Home" page, in many, many cases are what you consider to be your home page simply does not match up with the user experience of the real people you're trying to attract.

This is why you're going to hear me say over and over again that you need to have a way to measure the data (Web Analytics) and a sound methodology to determine what's happening, why it's happening, and develop an action plan to take advantage of this newfound knowledge and approach.

How you do this is different for every site, every market and every situation. However if you can simply embed in your memory that there is no single Home Page of your site in the Real World, you'll be miles and miles ahead of the competition. Because once you do you'll find it much easier to discover that one user or type of user who searches for "phrase abc" may land on pageabc.html of your site, which another another user typing in a search for "phrase xyz" gets shown your pagexyz.html. They're both home pages in the Real World.

Once you grasp and accept this concept you'll also be able to understand what they want, what will be their hot button, which leads to how you may want to construct your page or the words you want to do in order to encourage them to take the action you want them to take.

So there you have it. You have no home page. You have several, or in many cases several dozen. Work on them from this new perspective and you're guaranteed to see your profits grow.