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What Web Designers May Not Know About Links

A Successful Home Page is a Link Rich Page

Recently I read an article about the rise and success of link rich home pages over the past several years. After reading through it and processing the information, I thought it would be a good idea to highlight some of the ideas that were brought forth in that article. It’s especially useful for web designers because we are in the business of building successful websites for our clients. So, this article and the following discussion about it could really be classified as one of those ‘magic lanterns’ I referred to in an earlier article. I don’t think that David Ogilvy will mind if we adopt his term for classifying this useful information.

Mr. Spool, the author of the original article used Dove soap’s home page as a ‘link poor’ example. He then alluded to how well their site map was arranged so that visitors could “find their way” to the information they were seeking. In essence he was saying that Dove’s home page should be more like their site map page. We have previously emphasized over and over again the need for simplicity in a site’s form and function. While the suggestion of creating a link rich home page may seem to go against that concept, it doesn’t have to at all.

“Nobody starts their design with the objective, ‘We need our home page to be as complex as we can possibly make it.’ On the contrary, everybody wants to build simple designs. Yet, somewhere along the line, simplicity translated into ‘Provide as few links on the home page as possible.’”

This quote sums up the problem well. It also targets exactly what we need to do to make a site successful for the end users. This is another one of those cases where we need to make sure that our focus is on what is best for the site users. It’s a complex negotiation between pleasing the client you are designing the website for while at the same time ensuring that the end user has a website that will work well for them too.

News websites have long understood the need to provide multiple links on their home pages. The majority of news sites are loaded with links designed to deliver in-depth information to users. CNN, Fox and many major newspaper sites have hundreds of links displayed on their home page. Is it too many? Take a look at the sites listed below and check out their standings.

*The Bureau of Labor and Statistics website isn’t a news site. However, it is a good example of a home page that is comprised entirely of links. While this site is very narrow in its appeal, it is heavily used as you can see from its rankings.

Judging from the rankings shown above for these link rich sites, it’s a good choice to include many links on your homepage. However, my advice would be to take a look at the manner in which links are displayed on these sites. They are done tastefully. So essentially what I’m saying is that you can still maintain the simplistic design approach while at the same time creating a ‘link rich environment’ which will perform well for the end users of the website.

This is also good reference material for you to use when discussing site creation with a potential client. Please feel free to use the information in this article to point out the need to create a great looking, link rich home page on your client’s website. Hopefully this information will help them understand just how important it is for them to allow you to create a home page that will grab a user’s attention and provide them with a wealth of information at the same time in an easy to use, easy to navigate format.

If you have other examples of good, link rich home pages for other websites, please let me know. I’d like to take a look at them and possibly review them here in the blog.

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