The WordPress Home Page

The WordPress home page is the first thing a visitor sees when coming to a website. The home page needs to be descriptive and leave little doubt to what the website is all about. It sounds simple, yet there are many things to consider when designing a WP home page.

Designers can run into issues when trying to decide what to support. It is impossible to know the needs of every user who buys a theme. A lot of research must happen to see what is already being developed and sold, as well as what new functionality is needed. Another thing many developers do is look at what is already selling and improve on that design.

WordPress Home Page Design Issues

Some design issues that often plague theme creators are supporting too much functionality or not adding enough functionality. There is a fine line between supporting “anything and everything” versus supporting what makes sense for the user who is going to use the theme. If a theme is created specifically for a blogger, then it would not make sense to have a ton of affiliate layout features in the home page.

A big mistake is adding too much into a theme. This can create a support nightmare and also clutter up the theme. I know of a developer who made the mistake of doing this. Every time he wanted to update the theme, his code changes broke a lot of the features.

WP Home Page Design Tips

When addressing the home page, a lot of designers look at what others have done. They see what is working, what is not working and then begin with what they hope will be pleasing to the user. Things like content or video support and other unique functionality, should all be geared to supporting a solution for the end user.

An example: If the theme is geared to presenting video, then the  home page may support a video player with a feature section. If the theme is created mainly for text, the home page may contain a unique presentation layout.

The home page is also going to set the tone for all other templates in the theme. Take your time in designing the home page. Adding all the right details here be the foundation for all other WordPress templates.

Please click on the Google +1 button or LIKE if you enjoyed reading this article on SimpleStrategicMarketing.com Thanks!

I hope you enjoyed this article. Please share this article by clicking the "LIKE" buttons above :)

Filed under: WordPress Design