When you spend as much time on the Web as we do, you get to see the best and the worst of Web design. Unfortunately, even many good websites make critical mistakes in homepage design and usability. Follow the guidelines below to avoid six common homepage pitfalls.

Address the users' goals with concise orientation.

The history of your company and other corporate details do not belong on the homepage. Store these things under "About" or "Company".

Excessive amounts of text will usually be ignored. It's extremely important to be concise and get straight to the point. Also, avoid the use of jargon.

It is often impossible to determine what a company does by reading their homepage. This is unacceptable. Prominently located on your homepage should be a brief statement that explicitly summarizes what you do, the value you offer to your users and how your services differ from your competitors'.

Provide clear calls to action.

Users of your website always come with a goal in mind - for instance, to find information or make a purchase. Emphasize the areas of the site that satisfy these needs by providing distinct, descriptive, actionable links.

For tech-savvy users, allow quick access to the content they're looking for by providing a site search tool. Include an easily-accessible sitemap as well, if your site has a lot of pages.

Allow returning registered users to immediately log in by having the cursor default to the username box. Do not require users to click a "login" link to a separate page before they can input their login information.

Make navigation straightforward and simple.

Some users can't access Flash or JavaScript navigation. Others find it difficult to maneuver through drop-down or fly-out navigation. It's best to avoid the use of Flash for navigation. Don't show more than one level deep if using drop-downs.

The meaning of icons is not always immediately evident to users, so avoid using icons in place of textual navigation links. If you wish to use icons, include corresponding labels that are clearly visible.

When labeling navigation links, it is important that they clearly imply the type of content behind the link. For instance, if your site is primarily dedicated to a product and has a navigation item called "About", it is not clear whether this is about the company or about the product.

Don't get too fancy.

Animation is often mistaken as an advertisement and ignored by users. Use animation very sparingly.

Sound or video that plays automatically leaves users frantically searching for a way to turn it off - they'll probably close the page before they find the off button. Always make sound an opt-in choice.

Users won't wait for a flash presentation or "splash page" to load and play through. Including a "skip intro" link only reinforces the irrelevance of the content. Avoid this Catch-22 by avoiding splash screens altogether.

Target your advertising.

Advertisements that are unrelated to the page content or the target user's interests, that obstruct one's view of the page, move, blink, dance across the screen, look like system dialog boxes or expand on mouse-over are all major deterrents to users. If your site contains advertisements, they should be unobtrusive and properly targeted.

Prioritize your content.

Don't clutter your homepage by including a sample of every type of content within your site. Too many options from the first point of contact can be overwhelming and could cause users to give up before they reach their goals.

To show a more active web presence, ensure that your homepage content is not outdated. If your latest news item is several months old, don't feature it on the homepage.

Sometimes pages are designed in such a way that users don't realize there's more content below the fold. Be sure to design your homepage to indicate that users may want to scroll down.