On many sites, it's impossible to lead visitors straight to your primary goal on the home page. Getting visitors to take your most-desired action often means you have to use your home page to channel them down a certain path. You have to guide visitors through a set of choices before they can actually complete the action you want them to take.
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Of course, the practical question is, "How do I entice visitors to choose?" Remember these 4 tips:
1. Be vigorous. Use contrasts in color and size to help attract attention to the main options. Use clear, dynamic language to describe the different choices. Don't take your vigor to extremes, however. You don't want to look like you're begging visitors to choose an option.
2. Keep it short and simple. If the focus of your main page is to get visitors to choose one option, get them to do that first. Then delve into more depth on the next pages. Important note: Long copy is not bad in itself, even on the main page. However, it's used for a different purpose.
3. Don't make it TOO short and simple. Visitors need enough information to make an informed decision. They ought to know precisely which category they fit into, so the choices should not be vague. Simply having three buttons in the middle of your home page without any explanatory copy doesn't cut it.
4. Prioritize options. Your main page may require 15+ links, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't prioritize them. If visitors see too many choices that are all ranked equally, they won't be able to evaluate them all and won't feel motivated to pursue any of them. Generally, you should have 2-4 main options that stand out in importance over all the rest.
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