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Here are tips gleaned from roughly 10 years spent building websites and optimising them for high sales before the search engine submission process.

The home page content needs to be "catchy". You've got approximately 5 seconds to draw visitor's attention to the content of the site. When I enter the site, there has to be an incentive for me to stay.

Your home page should tell the story, preferrably in the headline and first paragraph. The rest of your web page should provide the detail. As I said, you have a matter of seconds to grab your visitor's attention. Do not blow it with a weak opening.

A good home page answers all of the "W" questions:

- who (is the site for),
- what (do you offer),
- where (your geographic area),
- when (if it is time-related, ie. an event),
- and why (why choose your services),

providing the visitor with useful information about your organization, product, service or event. If you look at your home page and it does not make you want to stay on the site, you need to rewrite and redesign it.

Another letter? "C" for example... because a home page should be

- catchy (draw attention),
- clean (both in design and code),
- content-rich (no need to explain),
- and convincing (when it comes to make a sale)

How to do it?

The great thing about this day and age is that you can have a website in no time. You can do it yourself or have someone else do it. But you should start with "How" questions first:

How do I want my business represented?
Professionally, honest, just like everyone elses, etc.

How will it be created?
Will you learn what it takes to create it, will the person you have creating it know what you want them to know, or will you just cross your fingers and hire the neighbors 15 year old.

How will it be marketed?
This depends on the geographic profiling. Whether you want it marketed locally, within your country, or world wide.

How is the market online for my product/service?
Do the research before the site goes live, just remember the internet is always changing and tomorrow may look better for your market.

The further you go, the more questions arise. Answer them well and you will have a great sales tool!