/U/Blog

The homepage is the most important page of your business’s website. It is the virtual shop front to your business, providing your customers a first impression of what you have to offer. You only have seconds to grab your customer’s attention so it is key to make sure that they can find what they’re looking for quickly and easily.

8 essential items and design features to include on your homepage

While you’re free to be creative with the design of your homepage, there are some standard items that a user will expect to see when they arrive at your website.

Branding

Branding can be in a name, sign, symbol, slogan, words or design, or a combination of these elements, that identify the products or services of your business and help you stand out from your competitors.

• Ensure your brand is easy to see on your homepage and include your business logo and headline at the top of the page. A headline tells your visitors what your business has to offer.
• Create a great headline for your business by writing down the key points you want to communicate about your brand. Keep the message clear and simple. Don’t forget, your brand is your promise to your customers so make sure you can deliver what you promise.
• In order to keep your brand consistent, make sure that the look and feel of your website is similar to the look and feel of your printed materials and branding (e.g. brochures, menus, advertisements, letterheads).

Contact Information

• Make sure your customers can find you or get in touch with you by having your contact number, address, email address and/or contact us form easily accessible and visible on your website’s homepage.
• If you have a physical shopfront, make sure you include the hours and days of the week you are open, and provide an online map directing customers to your business.

Site Search function

• Add a search function on your homepage to help users find information on your website.
• Place the site search box in the middle or to the right of the header where users are more likely to find it.
• Colours and boarders can help the site search box stand out on the page.

Call to action (CTAs)

A call to action is an image or text that prompts your user to take some form of action.

• What do you want your users to do on your site? Do you want them to place an order, subscribe to a newsletter, register for an event or request a quote? You can use CTAs to direct your audience to areas of your website where they can perform an action, whether it is to sign up, register or subscribe.
• Ensure the CTA stands out from the other content on the page. You can have it in a colour that makes it stand out from the colour scheme of your homepage.

Site Navigation

A good site navigation will help customers to find the different areas in your website.

• Include a clear and simple site navigation bar to link to the different pages on your website. If your website is very detailed, you may just link to the primary pages.
• Place your site navigation bar either at the top of the page or down the side of the page so it’s easy for customers to find.
• If your site contains a large number of pages, you may look into using a drop down menu for your navigation bar.

Images

• An image or short video on your homepage that clearly shows what you offer can make your site more attractive to your audience, enhance the user experience and help with the overall branding of your business.
• Don’t use images just to fill white space, make sure the image matches the content on the page. Users pay close attention to images that are relevant.
• Make sure your images and videos are of high standard as the quality of the images can affect how your users perceive your website.

Typography

Typography is the visual component of the written word, the art and technique of arranging print.

• Use a couple of fonts that are consistent with your brand’s voice and tone. Too many different fonts and sizes can make your website look cluttered causing confusion.
• Be consistent and use the same font and typeface in both your digital and printed material so customers immediately recognise your brand.
• Make sure there is a strong contrast between the colour of your text and the colour of the background, so the text is easy and comfortable to read and meets accessibility standards.
• Making your text in italics or bold can also cause your content to be difficult to read on some screens.

Content

• As website users generally scan pages, your content needs to be easy to read and direct.
• Use short paragraphs on your homepage and try to bring your message across with as little words as possible. A short paragraph on your homepage summarising your business and products and services can help grab your customers’ attention.
• Make sure your content is relevant, and speaks the language of your customers.
• Keep the important content near the top of the page so the information isn’t lost on smaller screens.

Build a great first impression

Make your first impression count! A clean and appealing web design, which is easy to navigate and highlights the key points of your business, can better attract customers than a website full of irrelevant information. If your audience can’t identify what it is your business can offer, they won’t stick around.

Find out more…

• Head to Queensland Government website for tips on how to create a website.
• Check out the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0
• Get Practiceplus to build your website

In  a  June  21,  2017  French  Technical Interpretation  (2016-0678361E5,  Seguin, Marc), CRA opined that a  deemed gain  due to a limited partner’s negative adjusted cost base  (under Subsection 40(3.1)) could  not  be added  to  that  limited  partner’s  capital dividend  account.  CRA  opined  that partnership  income  generally  retains  its  nature  and  character  when allocated out to partners.

DEBT FORGIVENESS – TIERED PARTNERSHIPS

When  a  commercial  obligation  is  settled  or  extinguished  for  an amount less  than the  principal amount  of the debt, Section 80 applies the  debt  forgiveness  rules.  CRA  notes  that  the  forgiven  amount  is applied to reduce “tax balances” or is included in the debtor’s income under Subsection 80(2) or (13).

Section 80 requires that the forgiven amount be applied in the following order:

• non-capital losses (Paragraph 80(3)(a));
• farm losses (Paragraph 80(3)(b));
• restricted farm losses (Paragraph 80(3)(c));
• allowable business investment losses (Paragraph 80(4)(a)); and
• net capital losses (Paragraph 80(4)(b)).

After the mandatory application of the forgiven amount, the debtor may elect to apply the remaining forgiven amount to reduce the capital cost of  depreciable property  (Subsection 80(5));  cumulative eligible capital  (Subsection 80(7));  resource expenditures  (Subsection 80(8)); capital  properties  (Subsection  80(9));  certain  shares  and  debts(Subsection  80(10));  certain  shares,  debts  and  partnership  interests (Subsection  80(11));  and  current  year  net  capital  losses  (Subsection 80(12)).  If  there  is  still  a  residual  balance,  half  of  the  amount  will  be added  to  the  taxpayer’s  income  (Subsection  80(13)).  The  rules  are modified slightly for partnerships.

In  a  March  22,  2017  Technical  Interpretation  (2016-0666481E5, Gibbons, Jim), CRA considered the impact of the debt forgiveness  rules on a forgiven amount in a tiered partnership.  While general comments were  provided,  CRA  specifically  opined  on  the  implications  where  a bottom partnership (BP) is wound up into the top partnership (TP) in the  same year a forgiven amount is included in the BP’s income(Subsection 8(13)).

CRA  noted  that  the  BP  would  have  a  deemed  year-end  immediately before the time it ceased to exist.  Therefore, the BP’s income  inclusion would occur in the deemed fiscal period, and, as a partner of the BP, the TP could deduct an amount in respect of the relevant limit which would then be deemed to be a commercial debt obligation that the TP issued  and  was  settled  at  the  end  of  the  BP’s  deemed  fiscal  period (Subsection 80(15)).  The TP  could then apply the forgiven amount  to their own tax attributes (under Subsections 80(5) to (10)).

CRA also noted that the forgiven amount  could only be  applied  against the adjusted cost base of the TP’s interest in the BP if the BP and theTP were not related  (e.g. the TP only had a minority interest in the BP) under Subsection 80(9).

The balance of any forgiven amount, after applying Subsections 80(5) to (10), would be included in the TP’s income (Subsection 80(13)) and allocated to its members.

As  the  TP  would  be  deemed  (Subparagraph  80(c)(i))  to  have  issued  a commercial debt obligation that was settled at the end of the BP’s deemed fiscal period, Subsection 8(15) would also apply to the partners.  Thus, the partners would be able to claim a deduction  (Subparagraph 80(15)(a)) up  to  the  relevant  limit  which  could  then  be  treated  as  a  forgiven amount and applied against the taxpayer’s own tax attributes