Use Page Zero to Boost Your Business How a simple web design technique can increase consumer confidence and sales.	Visited: 1483 5.0/5.0 (1 votes total) Rate: Select 1 - Terrible 2 - Poor 3 - Average 4 - Good 5 - Outstanding
by Fawad Ahmed September 21, 2006

In an increasingly competitive internet world, it's getting more difficult to make your web presence felt. You have to use every marketing tool available to draw the visitor in to your site, to stay longer, and purchase more. One simple method is what I like to call "Page Zero." You may also know this as the index or landing page. But there is more to Page Zero than just an entry point into your website. Done properly, Page Zero can be a powerful branding tool, improve SEO, enhance your web design, and best of all boost sales.

Page Zero as a branding tool

Increasingly, retail sites are using a shotgun approach on their first page. Many have their first page incorporated into their shopcart template. Products of many different categories are displayed on the first page. The store name and logo are often strung up along the top. Now that's a branding opportunity missed! This approach is better suited for news or blog sites which are built around lots of content.

If you are trying to sell something, your first page should enhance your brand and instill your service into the consumer's mind. Take a look at www.movado.com, or one of my favorites, www.mrpwebmedia.com for good examples. The logo and service offered are front and center. Although not too many of the products offered are shown, there is no mystery as to what the site is about. The colors and presentation make a powerful impression and draw the consumer in. Subsequently, page one and beyond carry the logo and brand forward.

Page Zero harmonizes SEO and Content

One of the dilemmas of internet marketing is the harmonization of SEO and content. If you are selling apples and oranges, its difficult to optimize your index page for fruits, apples, and oranges is it not? The result would be a rather unattractive lengthy entry page. Enter Page Zero. Your Page Zero should focus on fruits. The beauty of this approach is efficiency. Remember that keyword density is critical in SEO. If you have all of 10 words on your Page Zero, and one of them is "Fruits", that's a 10% keyword density. Combined with good external and internal linking strategy, you can rise quickly in search engine rankings.

Page Zero enhances customer experience

Kim Roach's article, "See Your Website Through Your Visitors' Eyes" was a truly revealing piece. Visitors scan your website in an unsettling frenzy, from top down, left to right, captions, pictures, etc. There's a lot of misguided energy there that you should try to funnel into your sales point. Your Page Zero should contain minimal but powerful content that grabs the viewer's attention. A simple picture or a catchy color scheme can do the trick. See www.zarmina.com for an example. The visitor is then much more likely to trust your brand and spend more time on your subsequent pages rather than rushing off to your competitor.

In summary, people do judge a book by its cover. You've got only seconds to make a strong impression and capture visitor attention and their business. A Page Zero is easy to implement and can boost your bottom line.