If you haven’t yet explored the idea of building user friendly websites, it is vital that you understand that there are all sorts of different things to consider here. If you want to get fancy and employ methods like the Taguchi Multivariate testing, etc you can. But it’s best to start simple and small and then work your way up. This is how you find out which knowledge you need so that you can go get it. Once you do that, then you start at the beginning with making the easiest changes.
The one and only thing traffic wants to know after arriving on your home page is what’s in it for them. You won’t capture every visitor’s heart, but a well crafted home page will get a percentage of them. So what you need to have for them are solutions, and this can take many forms. Your content really should only be one click away but definitely less than three. Users who have to click too many times will get fed-up pretty fast and they’ll be gone forever. The search form on your site is used a lot more than most webmasters realize, so you should not remove it as some people do. Either way, they are always on the home page, at least, but you’ll just have to check your theme default values. Including items that are just a convenience is very important for creating a positive impression. Be sure you test yours just to make sure it’s working properly, and you’ll also find that you can customize the search results page. You have to be thorough with your site at all times just for the sake of catching any problems if they arise.
Always have some kind of offer on your home page, at least, and you do not always need to have it in the main content column. There are really quite a few ways and places to do this, and perhaps the best approach is to test it out. So think about what your market wants, and be willing to test out different offers and even ad formats. The usual place for subscribing to your list is on the top right, but what about trying a different approach with placement? Avoid GIF animations and the like, and just experiment with various designs for banners and graphics.
People should never have to struggle on your site to find what they want, and that’s the whole point about this. Getting all this right will take some time, but it’s an ongoing work in progress. if you want your site to improve all around, then this is one of them best ways for that. Don’t do what so many others do which is nothing – you have to build your business.