Ask yourself-
• Does your homepage accomplish what you want it to?
• After seeing your homepage, do your visitors go deeper into the rest of your site? ...or do they assume that this is not what they are looking for and move on to other sites?
• How appealing is your home page?

When we’re asking about homepage effectiveness, we like to make the following analogy. A website is like a magazine sitting on a newsstand. It's surrounded by other magazines and the only voice it has is its front cover. Every potential buyer coming to that newsstand will initially only sees that cover. If that front cover is eye catching, if that front cover has appeal, then a potential reader will pick it out of the rack and quickly scan the content, focusing on those articles that originally caught his/her attention on the front cover. During this process, the potential reader will evaluate the contents against the front cover, making decisions about whether the content lives up to the billing it received on the front cover. If after skimming through the content, the level of interest is still there, then the potential reader may decide to buy a copy.

This in a nutshell, is the way the typical internet surfer views your site. It typically starts with a query on their favorite search engine, which brings up a list of possible matches (the newsstand). If one of the entries on that list catches the surfer's attention, then that will merit a prompt look at your home page. These first couple of seconds is the most critical in terms of the surfer/site relationship. Either they decide to switch to another or to go on. So the Home page is a platform for the viewer as a decision making platform, unless you go for advertise your site at different media. If the home page catches the surfer’s interest, he/she will look inside. If not, he'll move on to another site almost faster than your server can log the hit.

Three things always keep in mind
New visitors coming to your site via a search engine are usually looking for something specific. If the link that brought them to you accurately summarized your services, then the home page should be an extension of that presentation. An effective home page needs to accomplish two goals.

First, it needs to introduce and develop your site's theme or purpose. It needs to answer the question "what is this site all about"? Development of a theme is the most important element of a strong home page because the theme is the element that defines your site's purpose and content. Your home page is the first "look" your visitors see about your website or business and is often the determining factor as to whether a visitor stays or leaves. If the theme is developed and presented well, your visitors will know immediately if they came to the right place. Not all visitors will want exactly what your site has to offer. However, for those who do, it is critical to make sure they realize that your site can satisfy their needs. For new visitors, your home page should answer the following questions:
• What is this site all about?
• What does this site offer?
• How close of a match are my needs with this site's offerings?

Your home page is the most important page on your site. It is the first page your visitors see. For this reason, we strongly believe that when designing a home page, you should try to answer the question "What is the single most important thing that I want new visitors to my site to know about my site (or business)?" Your home page should be built around the answer to that question.

After you've established your theme or purpose, the second most important goal of an effective homepage is to present your site's position statement. A position statement will tell your visitors what you can do for them. It gives them an idea of the benefits and/or services you offer with a focus on value. Somehow, you need to convince your visitors that your site is better than all the other sites that have the same theme. The key word is "value". Your home page needs to clearly define whatever it is that makes your site better than the rest of the pack.

And the finale, size of the home content. Here we are asking you to look after the home contents are compressed mode. Sounds hieroglyphics? Let’s explain, when you are building graphic artworks or blocks of eye-catching Flash animation (There are people who love to show their skill with silly yet unnecessary animated objects & they learn animating objects rather to use them in appropriate manner inside the HTML body) they for reason slog down your visitors page download. And reasonably you are losing your viewer to welcome them back to your site once again. Always think in viewer’s perception, wither they going to make that comment only for once or they’re going to tell someone else about your site. One viewer is always having the potentiality to grab you other potential visitor. Remember the mass of file sizes getting to be burden to the viewer. Before putting some image content inside your page, learn through what format & how to use effective graphic artworks.

Next the challenging part is that you need to accomplish all of the above in the top 5 inches of your homepage. Why the top 5 inches? Because regardless of your visitor's browser and screen resolution, that is the only area on each page that you are guaranteed your visitor will see. If the top 5 inches don't convince your visitor that your site is the one he is looking for, he will probably never see the rest of your site.

You're now ready to start designing your home page. As you create your home page layout, try to keep the above information in mind. The key word for homepage design is "Effectiveness". In order to be effective, it needs to grab your visitor's attention.