Home Page Question

[rgordimer]

I'm not sure this is a Search Engine Optimization question but while working on this subject we were discussing people coming into the home page and how long they should stay. Does anyone know on average how long someone should stay on the home page? I wouldn't think it would be long but I would love to get some research that shows optimum time. I would appreciate any help anyone can provide.

Thanks.

[AussieWebmaster]

average times are per visit or per page... the best is per visit... how long on home page depends on what is on the page

[rgordimer]

I'm more concerned with average time on the home page. Our organization is B2B but we don't sell anything on the site, its more of a long term sales cycle. The home page is just for them to figure out where to link to for more information inside the site. Does that help or make sense?

[AussieWebmaster]

Not really.... the homepage is a bunch of links to different information options and you want to know if they take too long reading do you lose people?

use time as an indicator of need to simplify content on homepage?

[BasicECommerce]

You shouldn't be too concerned with time spent on your homepage. The homepage is like your store front, its supposed lure people inside to where the goods/services are. You should be more concerned about how long they spend on the page that has the important B2B information and positives for them to be certain if they're reading your copy. If that information is on the homepage, I would suggest revisiting your site's structure.

[rgordimer]

I actually don't want them to stay on our homepage too long but our CEO wants to put information that he thinks will be useful on the home page yet most everyone else does not. So I'm trying to show he doesn't want more info on the home page.

[AussieWebmaster]

then suggest an AB test of his idea and the regular homepage for people who stay at site and people who leave

[BasicECommerce]

Originally Posted by AussieWebmaster

then suggest an AB test of his idea and the regular homepage for people who stay at site and people who leave

Couldnt have said it better. There's nothing better to help show a CEO the light than objective data. An AB test will bring actionable results rather than acting on 'I wants'.

[rgordimer]

Thanks for the suggestion.

[undercoverseo]

I would be more concerned about the bounce rate from the home page. Rather than their duration. Unless your homepage has everything you need to say to a potential client, you'd want them to at least navigate further into the site.

[Ron Jones]

Good SEO will help visitors find the exact content they are looking for on your site without always going to your homepage first. So these "landing pages" are a kind of homepage themselves and should also be measured.

You could also consider usability testing with some select customers and see how long they stay on the homepage and other important pages. Along with AB testing this is great info to help state your case to your CEO.

[NewKidOnTheBlock]

My 2 cents:

1)

I'm more concerned with average time on the home page. Our organization is B2B but we don't sell anything on the site, its more of a long term sales cycle. The home page is just for them to figure out where to link to for more information inside the site. Does that help or make sense?

That's basically a reply to the question you asked. Everybody hates that reply (so do I:-)), but 'it depends'. Average time on the home page data wouldnt be of much use. You would have to find data on B2B businesses that don't sell anything on the site, but make use of it as the long term sales cycle and are in your industry so that the data would be helpful. Very hard if not impossible to find, I assume.

2) Why do you think his idea of putting important information on the homepage would be a bad one? It sounds like a good idea (a good idea to A/B test!) to me.

I would decide where to put the important information according to two factors:

1) Which pages get how many percent of your website's traffic (either directly from off-the-site OR pageviews)? Put the important information where most people will see it!

2) Is the information related to what people are searching on those pages.

If your homepage gets 60% of the page views and the important information is of interest to those visitors that see the homepage (whether they come from search or from an internal page), then it would make sense to test the idea of putting it there. (However, I'd still A/B test b/c it's easy and cheap to do and you never know: maybe having more information there will cause the bounce rate to go up or something crazy - people's actions are random sometimes )

P.S.: Web analysts generally consider time-on-site / time-on-page as not so insightful metrics, but that you should rather look at bounce rate, etc..

[amitbhalla12]

Yeah it is totally depends on your page that how much it is informative. For example someone wants to search something on your page. If he gets right Categories on your page content so he would like to spend more time or your page

[akashdwivedi]

Great discussion so far.

Visitors visit website through different ways for different information and if a home page is able to attract them and let them stay for long time then it has to created in that way. It should have some information of all the services you are providing.

If the visitor is coming through search engine then he must be served with his required information and if he is serious in his requirement he will definitely stay for some more information.

If the site is too big and providing lots of services then its better to categorize the services and promote them separately.

You are welcome to visit our website with the similar nature: amcheck.com


All the best
Akash