Think very carefully about what happens when a new visitor stumbles onto your site. The first thing anyone would do is try and get an idea of what is going on. They want to know what your website is about and how it’s going to help them. After that they will probably spend some time looking through all the articles and if they don’t find what they are looking for it’s very unlikely they will come back. How easy is it to find the best articles on your site?

Unless You've Got A Better Idea

There is a way to help them locate all of the amazing articles but it will involve including a ‘start here’ page in the navigation bar. Once they see it they will click through to what should be your most popular page on the site after the homepage, but that is only if you design it correctly so it has everything they might want. It’s so important that we’re going to look at some things you need to consider when you’re designing your own page if you want to see great results.

Say hello

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Building a relationship with everyone who comes to your site is crucial because once people become loyal readers they will tell everyone about you. Saying hello could be the thing that makes them think you’re a great person. You can also talk about how you are so happy they have found you and in a few sentences sum up what you are hoping they can get out of your site. As soon as you treat them as an actual person you will find they are more likely to read until the end.

A brief overview

If your domain name doesn’t tell them much about what your site is about then this is the perfect place to explain it to them. Some people find it very hard to take everything the site is about and sum it up in a few words to use as the tagline, so having a couple of paragraphs to explain stuff is great. What you’re going to write here will be different depending on which niche you’re in, but you’re just trying to educate the unfamiliar as to what your niche is about.

Split it into different sections

There is no way you can just give someone a hundred links and expect them to read every one. That is something 1% of the people will do, but the others will probably click on one or two before leaving. The topic you speak about will be broad and you should easily be able to split it down into more than one related group. Then just briefly explain what each group is about and stick in a few of your favorite articles that you know will help people.

Look for feedback

You already know the page will get a lot of new visitors and most of them will have burning questions to ask. It’s the perfect place to mention that your email is always open and if they want to find out something you will personally email them back. This is great for helping your relationship with newbies, but it will also allow you to listen to everything people want to know the answer to. It’s like doing market research without leaving your site.

Get them to opt-in

A newbie needs to be taken on a journey through your niche so they can learn as much as possible. The quickest and easiest way to do this is by sending them emails. It means getting them to sign up at the earliest opportunity will help you in the long-run. In case you didn’t already know, if you plan on making a considerable amount of money from your site the best way to do that is by offering them products through email.

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Todd Ramos is Founder and CTO at PenTech consulting. A web developer in his early days, he has moved on to establish one of the first seo companies in CT, apart from his professional indulgements he also likes keeping himself up-to-date with the latest happenings in the SEO industry.


    3 replies to "Design A ‘Start Here’ Page That Delivers Great Results"

    • Sonali

      These are some awesome tips!

      Thanks for the great article.

    • Anirvan Majumdar

      Hi,
      Thanks for the share.As the start page brings the main business to the company,so its designing must be done properly.

    • Luke

      Very interesting knowledge!
      If fail on this page I suppose you don’t stand a chance.
      Thanks

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