Your Start Page, or Welcome Page, is the portal to everything else your website has to offer. It gets first-time visitors started on the path which will lead them to your end goal. It assists them in finding the information they’re looking for in a way that’s quick and easy. The main purpose is to state who you are and to connect your visitor with the next page they should visit on your website.

Start Page Content Must-Haves

Clarity – Since the goal is to make navigating your site easier, your Start Here page must have clarity. It should welcome the visitor and tell them clearly that this is the page for getting started, and where to go next.

Your Objectives – Your Start Here page should state the objectives of your website in order to tell the visitor what they can expect. For example, if you’re selling products, tell the visitor that this is their one-stop shop for what you’re selling. Tell them how they can use your website and emphasize its unique benefits.

Your Target – The Start Here page should not only set expectations, but also describe who this website is for. Your website is not for everyone, and the visitor needs to know whether it’s for them or not at the outset. It may seem like you’re losing visitors by weeding them out in this way, but the people you’ll lose would’ve left eventually when they figured out that it wasn’t for them.

About Your Visitor – Like your About Page, make it all about the visitor. Even if you mention your offer or your products, ultimately focus on the benefit for the visitor. Describe how it helps them, being careful not to spend too much time on specific products.

Logical Organization – Make your Start Here flow logically and naturally. Lead the visitor to the pages or information they’re looking for. You can put it into a logical order by putting yourself in the shoes of your visitor. What information are you looking for first, next, and so on? Imagine it as a flow chart that leads the visitor to the action they need to take in order to realize their goal for visiting the site.

Call to Action – Now that you have provided the visitor with basic information, tell them what they need to do in order to get what they came to your site looking for. You can frame the action as what to do next; for example, “Check out our blog,” “Sign up here,” “Have a look at our product catalog,” and so on.

Tips for Creating an Effective Start Here Page

Feel free to put multimedia on your Start Here Page as well as the other pages. An introductory video is good here but you should also have text content to help new visitors navigate your site.

You can also put social proof here, although it’s not necessary. Testimonials and reviews work well on the sidebar of the Start Here page. Make sure they don’t distract from the main purpose of the page, which is to provide navigation help.

Many sites use the Start Here page as a place to show off their best content. You can put links here to your most popular or most useful blog posts, articles, and other content.

Be careful to not duplicate too much of what’s on your About Page. The About Page is more factual and more focused on your offerings (but framed in terms of benefits to the visitor). The Start Here page’s sole function is to help visitors.

Here are examples of good Start Here pages: