In the center of the page you’ll typically find one or more columns that contain content. Generally there is a larger column, and one or two smaller columns – often called a sidebar.
The sidebar generally contains information about upcoming events, recent updates to the website, or various other pieces of information which is related to the website, but not necessarily content which the website owner deems as important, or that they just want to get your attention about. It will often provide links to more detailed information.
There may be more than two columns, but if you get too many columns it becomes hard to read and therefore difficult to use the website. The more difficult the website is to use, the less likely people will use it.
Home Page Variants
Home pages are often different from other pages. Many times they won’t have a sidebar, while all of the other pages will. They may not have any real content, and instead the website might use the home page to launch you toward preferred content.
Consider, if you would, websites like Amazon or a news organization like CNN or Fox News.
Amazon, as a retailer, will show you daily specials, and prime deals. They also will show you a large amount of personalized selections if you’ve shopped with them before based upon what you’ve looked at and/or purchased from them in the past.
News sites will often list a lead article nice and large, but then have links to other articles, generally based upon some popularity formula. This is why articles about a movie star might show above that of what might traditionally be considered “news” instead of “entertainment”.
Depending upon your website, you may opt for a similar concept to your home page, and use it more as a launching page to other content. However, for this to be effective, you generally need a decent amount of content to begin with. A small four or five page website generally doesn’t have enough content for this to work.
The Main Content Section of your Web Page was originally found on Access 2 Learn
