The Home Page Is Dead and Microsites Are the Future

On Clickz.com, Jennifer Wolfe (she was a keynote speaker at NamesCon) has a post out today talking about how the home page is no longer the defacto page for drawing in prospective clients and that being found thru mini/mico sites will become more prevalent to being found on the internet.

When you are looking for something, how often do you go to the home page, only to find yourself frustrated in searching through pull-down menus and using the search function within the site? You turn to Google or Bing or begin a more focused search in hopes of finding the specific page to help you find what you seek. Most home pages for companies are the entry point to thousands of sub-pages, often giving little attention for how users actually navigate.

She cites examples where when looking to book a room with The Marriot, that because she didn’t know the address of the hotel she was wanting, that she used Google maps to find it which in turn led her to a competitors site whereby she booked her room there. She also points out other issues on big corp websites such as Microsoft and Chanel. Further, she points out how the new gTLDs can be used as to enhance the consumers digital experience when looking for a specific product or service.

Brand gTLDs don’t need to and shouldn’t redirect their home page. They can use this as an opportunity to reinvent the entire online digital experience, unchaining it from the home page concept.

Brand gTLDs are ideal for utilizing microsites because there are endless possibilities of digital addresses directly tied to the brand name as the top-level domain. This becomes a better authentic experienced tied to your brand in your own digital space.

Read the whole story here.