Nowadays, building a website goes far beyond developing the website architecture, user-flow and pages. It’s been a few years now since web 2.0 first appeared, and its user-generated content has deeply impacted online strategies. In the coming years, website thinking will be focused around a digital ecosystem where users can engage in conversation by exporting content and carrying on a digital presence well-beyond the current reach of today’s websites.
With more and more consumers using RSS feeds and accessing websites through indexed pages on a search engine, is the “home” page still relevant? To survive and have a presence online, brands need to interact with consumers by either answering specific needs or sharing information, tips or tools. In this context, is a brand name alone sufficient to ensure digital success? Considering that most users enter the web through Google, they are not necessarily accessing brands via their proprietary websites. For example, if a user looks for “Spring/Summer 09 Fashions” on Google, should she click the link that directs her to a brand site or the one that appears first in the search results? Otherwise asked, is it more relevant over the long term to manage content on brand websites or to align brand visibility to online usage?
This uncertainty is why I believe brand stories need to be “portable” to extend their reach, and portability goes well beyond corporate sites. To have a true impact on business results, companies must be managing and planning all of the information circulating online and ensuring sufficient presence. Increasingly, consumers will interact with brands through links published on Facebook, on blog posts, through emails, etc… Facilitating content access and sharing through relevant “portable”brand stories is what will anchor brand presence online and differentiate brands from the competition.
And digital extends beyond the computer screen; with today’s technology, content can be accessed from many devices. Users browsing on their iPhones will browse sites differently than on their computers and will prefer to find linked content rather than search from a site’s home page to gratify their immediate needs.
I believe that the “home page” is obsolete; instead, each page on a website will become a home page in and of itself. The brand’s storefront will be its portable content available throughout the site and beyond, whether it be a picture, a description, a widget or a comparison tool. Usage data has shown that most users bypass the home page to access directly relevant content.
So how is your home page impacted? What are the new expectations? If we look at the most successful online stories – Facebook, Youtube, Google, Amazon, eBay, Zappos, there is a trend where home page design is giving way to a set of links. So what’s next? Stay tuned….
Post by Isabelle Quevilly, Mar 9th
Tags: home page future
