What should I have on my homepage?

[RyanReese]

I plan on having a header, logo, ads, then search bar.

Middle content area shall be left side navigation bar (home, about me, contact, running, rubiks cubes, blog, random stuff (not in that order)), and then a content area.

I know exactly what shall be on the other pages, obviously. But what should I include on my homepage? I can't have that section be blank. Unsure of how to approach that. I know I can have it be whatever I want, obviously, but I just can't think of anything really to put there.

Then a footer.

[osamatun]

every website, you need some the same part for all page such as a header, slider, footer. The content you can change for specific page

[bo5ton]

It depends on the context of the site... Is it a online store for example? If so, you would have a big 'SPECIALS' on the home page - it's hard without context...

[RyanReese]

It's just a personal website that I'm going to have stuff on, uh, for example, mostly a blog site, but I'll have random tutorials on there and stuff for rubiks cubes.

I'll also have a page for random awesome stuff I find on the internet. Mainly it'll be about running and my workouts, plus articles about running itself.

[r937]

my web site is substantially the same (minus the ads)

what i put on the home page is a description of and link to all recently posted entries in the other sections

simple, yes?

[RyanReese]

Yes, but wouldn't that defeat the purpose of the blog?

Unless I limited it to like...the last 5 posted, restrict the amount that shows?

[bo5ton]

Yep, I would have small excerpts of say your last 5 or so blog posts.
Your homepage should basically be your 'feature page' which shows what your site is about, why it's special and what people can expect to get out of the rest of your site in a small amount of time.
I would have a header, a tagline or summary about the site, and then some excerpts from your posts.
That's my opinion anyway.
You want to grab and hold onto their attention. Attention spans are limited these days.

[bailbondsguys]

It's best to avoid having ads on your home page to help ensure you have the best possible search rankings. Have a logo, images, text, 1 H1 tag (only 1 per page) and sub h2 tags. Also make sure your images on the home page are named as keywords before uploaded and have an alt tag as well as height and width tags on the image link.

[jameskingama]

Maybe your plan is smart enough and try to avoid a lots of advertisement because it makes irritate to your visitors. You can also include your latest promos or latest updates.

[RyanReese]

Yeah I decided on the last 5 blog posts I have made. Thank you everyone .

The only ads I'm going to have displayed on my page, is one banner at the top of the page. I don't plan on making a huge bundle off my site, it's just for my personal fun use .

[mkpent]

Be interesting to see how many desingers pay attention to Googles new rules on the lack of text content above the fold

[r937]

...Googles new rules on the lack of text content above the fold

got a link to these rules?

i want to see how google defines the "fold"

[mkpent]

Post from the Google Webmasters blog last month http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...provement.html

[r937]

Post from the Google Webmasters blog last month http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...provement.html

thank you

they didn't actually define it, but to anyone who takes the time to read the entire article, it should be obvious

We understand that placing ads above-the-fold is quite common for many websites; these ads often perform well and help publishers monetize online content. This algorithmic change does not affect sites who place ads above-the-fold to a normal degree, but affects sites that go much further to load the top of the page with ads to an excessive degree or that make it hard to find the actual original content on the page. This new algorithmic improvement tends to impact sites where there is only a small amount of visible content above-the-fold or relevant content is persistently pushed down by large blocks of ads.

[Shyflower]

Be interesting to see how many desingers pay attention to Googles new rules on the lack of text content above the fold

got a link to these rules?

i want to see how google defines the "fold"

Post from the Google Webmasters blog last month http://googlewebmastercentral.blogsp...provement.html

Any more discussion of Google or SEO will close this thread. Quite frankly, this forum does not care about SEO. This forum is dedicated to content for people, not for bots. You are all welcome to visit the Internet Marketing Forum to discuss SEO.

[RyanReese]

For those who never check the domain section of this site, I need help finding a domain name.

I was thinking RyanThomasReese.com
I was going to do RyanTReese.com but I was pointed out it's like Ryan Treese. Trees.

Ryanreeseruns.com?

Can't think of any good domain names . RyReese.com? Ry being a nickname.

[TehYoyo]

I don't know if this thread is closed (I could answer your question about a good domain name, but you seem to have found one), but I'd like to stick in my input.

Introduce yourself! Tell people who you are, what you do, and what you can do. One thing that I hate is when I click a link or visit a site and I'm lost about the sites purpose or direction.

Hope that helps.
~TehYoyo

[amilyjoe]

Your website should have symmetry throughout all web pages. To make your website more attractive your home page should be creative. Place all the things like header, footer, logo, slider, seach bar etc that you want to put in other web pages too, besides this you can give a brief introduction part of your website in front page.

[twistfix]

it really depends ont he website to be honest. i think you have a good start. make sure to have a blog or a news section as well

[carlhenson]

Since this is a personal website, you can choose to display your last 2 recent posts and then list an excerpts of at least 5 older posts below the 2 recent posts. Excerpts will provide the readers some idea with regards to the content of those pages and they will most likely visit those if it sparks some interest in them.

[RyanReese]

Since this is a personal website, you can choose to display your last 2 recent posts and then list an excerpts of at least 5 older posts below the 2 recent posts. Excerpts will provide the readers some idea with regards to the content of those pages and they will most likely visit those if it sparks some interest in them.

Thanks for your input, I've chosen to display the 5 post recent blog posts (very short excerpts from them)

[samanime]

For your domain name, you want something that is easy to remember.

For personal blogs, I would just go with ryanreese.com if you can. If you can't, I think shortening to ryreese.com would probably be the next best. It's easier to remember a name than a name and an initial.

[RyanReese]

I chose ryanreese.us

The guy who has had ryanreese.com has had that forever. When this domain expires ill be taking ryreese.com.

[Shyflower]

I chose ryanreese.us

The guy who has had ryanreese.com has had that forever. When this domain expires ill be taking ryreese.com.

Why not get it now so you know it will be available when you want it? A lot of websites have several domains and redirect one to the other.

[seanbv]

I plan on having a header, logo, ads, then search bar.

Middle content area shall be left side navigation bar (home, about me, contact, running, rubiks cubes, blog, random stuff (not in that order)), and then a content area.

I know exactly what shall be on the other pages, obviously. But what should I include on my homepage? I can't have that section be blank. Unsure of how to approach that. I know I can have it be whatever I want, obviously, but I just can't think of anything really to put there.

Then a footer.

A big issue I have seen with websites is that I don't know what the website is about when I get there. There is a lot of nice information, but sometimes there is no specific details as to what the main goal of the website is. I know this is something simple to most people, but obviously very important. I like your navigation ideas; having a left nav bar leaves you room to expand later on. Maybe create some sort of call to action for people to click on that is obvious and also makes people want to look at it. Just a thought.