Making store page home page

[Helz]

Hi

I want to make my 'store top page' as my home page, can anyone tell me how I can do this?

Thank you

[Jenny]

You can edit the acatalog path out of the database in Setup2. You cannot use the network settings function after that, as it freaks out. Basically the site moves up one level so you loose the traditional home page. Not recommended or supported by actinic. Jenny

[Duncan Rounding]

Put a permanent redirect from domain root to ...acatalog/ or preferably why not create a brochure homepage. Most visitors will probably come from SEs directly to other pages anyway.

[Jenny]

Some people like to have the 'acatalog' totally removed. A preference I suppose.
Jenny

[Helz]

Hi Jenny and Duncan

Thanks so much for your help, Ive had a go and decided to leave it where it is!Dont have the knowledge you guys do and it looks ok where it is!

Thanks again

[Jenny]

You do need to have "Microsoft Access" to do it. If not confident then as you say leave alone.
Jenny

[Helz]

I think thats probably best Jenny!

[RuralWeb]

preferably why not create a brochure homepage. Most visitors will probably come from SEs directly to other pages anyway

This is the option I would suggest as you will then be able to optimise the index page correctly. The acatalog page is not really that good for SEO.

[jxm28788]

I want to make my 'store top page' as my home page, can anyone tell me how I can do this?

...or preferably why not create a brochure homepage. Most visitors will probably come from SEs directly to other pages anyway.

In that case, is there a way of making the 'store top' links point to the brochure home page?

I mean in most stores the 'top of the store' is the homepage so having a separate homepage and 'store top' just seems a bit bizarre.

[Duncan Rounding]

In Design View, click on those link and manually change the code to go to the page you want.

[leehack]

In that case, is there a way of making the 'store top' links point to the brochure home page?

What would be the point of that, surely it would be far more sensible to have a simple 'home' link like every site should and do away with store top button. Maybe drop the 'store top' label and think of 'shop' instead, becomes a bit more logical then. Or 'Home' and 'View Products'.

I mean in most stores the 'top of the store' is the homepage so having a separate homepage and 'store top' just seems a bit bizarre.

Most cases of what? you're very wrong here, perhaps a little tunnel visioned to your own situation/requirements. 'most' is a crazy word to use here when the reality is that the 'vast majority' of actinic sites have both a site home page and a shop home page. There's a reason for having an index.html file at both folder levels, as there is a very good site structure reason for having a defined site home page at root of the site and also an 'online shop' or shop home page for entering the shopping side.

Often the best sites are not just setup as market stalls with products everywhere you look, there is a clear distinction between info and selling pages, the hard sell doesn't occur on every single square inch available. Not having a home page at site root is a mistake, period. If you can accept that point, then when working with the actinic structure you also have to accept that there has to be a shop home page.

The most successful (multi millioners) actinic sites almost always have both (i say 'almost' for the one vague example someone will pull out).

[jxm28788]

Most cases of what? you're very wrong here, perhaps a little tunnel visioned to your own situation/requirements. 'most' is a crazy word to use here when the reality is that the 'vast majority' of actinic sites have both a site home page and a shop home page.

ok, I could quite possibly be wrong here. I was talking about all the online stores that I use, most of which aren't actinic, and my perception is that the home page is the store top. Maybe that's because I'm not really paying attention and they've done it so sutbley I'm just not noticing they have both.

But just having a quick look around - Amazon only seems to have a home, and apparently no concept of a 'store top' as far as I can see; play.com the 'store top' is the home page.

Maybe the majority of actinic sites have both, but is that simply because it's like that by default and it's not obvious how to change it?

The most successful (multi millioners) actinic sites almost always have both (i say 'almost' for the one vague example someone will pull out).

I only want to merge them because I don't really 'get' why I would have 2 and what I would put on each. Can you provide some good examples of successful actinic sites that have both?

I think the problem here is that I understand what a home page looks like, but I have no idea what a 'store top' is supposed to look like. Perhaps if I see what the difference is I can see how that would fit my sites.

Thanks.

[leehack]

What happens on a site home page can be very diverse across sites. It's an entrance to the store, usually a striking image of some kind or a slideshow nowadays. It can have a link through to a special offer, detail some new products or best sellers, link through to any part of the store that you want to give some focus or attention. Twitter or facebook feeds are also quite common. Seasonal offers, excerpts from an interesting article with a link through to full article. Loads of stuff can happen on these pages, here's a typical example of a home page - http://www.clubhousegolf.co.uk/

A shop home page is almost always an image based navigation to the top level sections (TLS) in an actinic store. So the same links you see in the left hand sidebar, with an image based nav to help people who shop using imagery. Typical example - http://www.clubhousegolf.co.uk/acatalog/index.html

It's quite common to not have a link to the shop top in for example the main navigation, but almost always the very first link in a breadcrumb trail points to it. The point is even if you do not directly link to it in the main navbar, the page still exists. A link to the shop home page is called loads of different names - products, departments, shop top, shop home, view products, products, start shopping etc. to name a few.

There's a distinct use for both pages usually, i always view a site home page as an entrance into a store, an introduction to some info if relevant and a general place to return to if a user gets stuck or wants to start again. Hard to explain it in words, but its a bit like entering a department store, i don't want to trip over products within the first 50cm of entering, nor do i want multiple sales assistants shoving products in my face before my eyes have even taken in where i am. In a simple sentence, a home page should look to help or introduce, not hard sell, there is plenty of time for that.

Important to note that its around 35% of users that do not go to a home page nowadays as via seo they go to direct pages, which is cool because that's what they want. A home page is a nice gentle entrance to a site for people not sure what they want or new to a site amongst other things.

For security on a server, it's also important to have an index.html file in each folder.