There is a big shift in web design going on and it is changing the way I think about web architecture. I was in a client meeting last week discussing the messaging of a site redesign that covers several product categories, a number of vertical markets and multiple languages. The challenge is that a searcher entering this site is likely to only be interested in one of the options. The client is a language services company. A searcher may be interested in technical document translation for biotech in Mandarin and French. If they come to the site’s Home page seeking this information they are going to have problems because you can’t offer all these options on one page without creating confusion and the resulting likelihood that you will lose them. Or can you?
What happened in the meeting was interesting. Rick, my client, is a good web designer who understands these issues. He put a graphic up on the screen that he had built to help him sort out the way to organize his Home page. It was a Site Map. No marketing message, just a treed outline of the site done in text. It was not his intent that this would be his Home page but as we discussed it, it made real sense to reconsider the whole concept of Home pages- why not use a Site Map as your Home page content?
For the visitor the benefit is obvious: A simple, easy to read guide to the entire site. Just skim and click to get your answer. For the company the benefits are huge: At one glance you see the range of services and experience and you capture the visitor’s attention by making it dead simple to navigate to the exact info they need. No confusion, super usable, great from a SEO point of view.
The next level is where it gets interesting. Each page linked to from this Site Map is now a Home page for that subject matter, the top level of a microsite devoted to Translation> Biotech> Technical Docs> Language Choices. This would be built on a database that pulled the information from each ‘bucket’ into a page customized for the visitor. If it wasn’t exactly what they want they can get back to the Site Map with a single click.
This model, if constructed properly, would be extremely search friendly both for organic and PPC. It changes the static corporate web site into a dynamic information source (with lots of call-to-action sales built in). But what about branding you say?
Who cares? The top level domain has the brand (if it doesn’t then that domain and the brand need to be resolved now). The visitor isn’t seeking a brand experience, they are seeking a specific solution as evidenced by their search terminology. I’d also argue that the breadth shown on the site map is a brand-reinforcing message in itself. As a user I like the direct approach that skips the marketing message on the Home page which is all too often a distraction rather than an enticement.
I’m going to be having a serious discussion with my designer this week about our impending redesign of our corporate site. I think killing the home page in favor of the user might be a very good idea.