One of the most important things for any website is its first impression. You've no doubt heard about the research that shows that most people give a website approximately 3 seconds of their attention before striking out for greener pastures if nothing holds their attention. While I personally don't put too much stock in this particular statistic, it does serve to prove a point...

People have a wide range of options to chose from when it comes to online services, products and content. It also costs them very little effort to hop from one website to another in search of the best content, service or product. As a result, the web development and design worlds are perpetually up in arms about how to make websites stand out from the crowd - how to capture the reader's attention just long enough for them to take the bait, as it were.

You need to do this too; but, there's a right way and a wrong way to go about it. The following list provides the main points to consider when deciding what to add to your front page (bear in mind, I'm not talking about graphical design so much as what information and content to show and how it should be arranged both to suit your offering and to make things predictable and easy for the user):

It's important to consider a few of these points ver closely. In particular, what you show on the front page should be a distilled version of what the user can expect from the rest of the site. This is easier said than done. A good thought exercise to help achieve this is as follows:

If you can do this well, it shows you understand your own offering properly. It might sound a bit strange to suggest that people don't understand what they are offering, but try it - it can be quite tricky.

Another important thing to remember is to present information that is representative of what the user will expect. Research shows that users who struggle to find their way around a fast site, often perceive it to be slower than a website that is intuitive but actually slower. There's also nothing more frustrating than a site that doesn't do what you expect it to do. In other words:

So, the task before you is to build an accurate expectation of what your website offers in an elegant and error free way. This must also be conveyed in a simple and concise manner.

There's a rule that states that information should be presented in three different levels to cater for the majority of user types - this applies predominantly to services as opposed to say, a blog. Basically, it states that some people are early adopters and only need a short, basic message and away they go. Some people are slightly more cautious and like to find out a bit more before expending effort on something new, and finally some people want to know everything before making a move. Presenting content in this way means a tiered approach that shouts the main idea but also provides nearby links to a bit more information and additionaly, usually towards the bottom of the page, has links to comprehensive, in-depth content.

From bitter experience, I try not to type a single bit of content before I understand exactly what I want to show on the front page. The end result almost always differs from what I have in mind at the start, but at least I start from a position of relative strength, and this saves time and effort in the long run.