by Fred Waters

If there were a list of priorities to achieve success with your web site, I would rank number one, defining your "Unique Selling Proposition". Having determined what distinguishes you from your competition and how you can benefit you customer, you need to shout it out on your home page.

Since I sell Internet marketing services, I review numerous web sites throughout the course of the day. I am constantly amazed on how few adequately define their USP on their home page. If you know anything about the nature of an Internet surfer, you are aware that they have the attention span of a five year old on Christmas morning. You have a matter of few nanoseconds to capture their interest before they hit that infamous "Back" button.

Some companies attempt to capture your attention by elaborate graphics with dizzying animation. Not only can this result in tiresome download times, but can have a negative effect on search engine relevancy. I don't care if you have spinning globes (the ultimate cliché) or prize-winning graphics. Unless they reinforce the value you can provide me as a potential customer, they are useless. Slick looking graphics do serve a purpose of giving a site a professional look, but they should service a secondary role to the USP as stated in your headline and subsequent text.

Another popular Internet faux pas, is to make your visitor dig into your site to figure out what your USP is. I recently had a company contact me through email and asked me to review their site and make suggestion for marketing. It took me three clicks, that's correct three click, to figure what they were selling. If I wasn't interested in them as a possible client I would have been long gone. Their first page was a splash page with the following text,

"Business Software for the 21st Century
Thank You for choosing XYZ Company.
You've just made an important business decision.
One that will lead your company into the 21st Century."

"Business Software for the 21st Century", what does that mean. Since we are barely a year away from the 21st century I hope it would be, otherwise it would be outdated in a short period of time. They thank me for choosing their company, but I haven't really chosen anything, I just want to know what they do.

The next page has the following, "In the face of growing competition and a more demanding consumer, you must be able to deliver the products and services your customers want, when they want it. XYZ gives your company the competitive edge today, tomorrow and beyond." This statement can apply about 95% of the business software that exist.

I click on the side bar hyperlink "Introduction" and it gives me two additional choices of hyperlinks. Finally, I click on "About XYZ company" and through persistence learn what their 21st software does.

My recommendation to this company was not to spend any money on marketing, that it would be a waste. They first need to have a home page that clearly states how their software can either make my company run more efficiently, make me money, make me healthier or improve my sex life. And if they can do all of the above that's even better.

Visitors to your site want benefits and solutions. The goal of your home page should be to define that information as prominently and efficiently as possible. That would include a headline that stimulates a response followed by one or more short paragraphs that define your benefits. By following this strategy you should be able to improve your conversion from visitor to client.