And so, after a busy six-month gap, I'm giving blogging another go. And I think I've got a clearer idea of what I can and should be writing here to make it worthwhile for people to read. (Which is something that a lot of bloggers forget about.)

My current bugbear is websites which have a front page that announces, in h2 or h3 text:

Welcome to the Department of XYZ

There is a uniformity here; perhaps it's a tradition or an old charter or something. Without collaboration, people across the University (and beyond) feel the need to stick a cheery halloo on their site's home page.

You might say, well why not? It's friendly. It's welcoming (obviously). It invites people in. The thing is: people don't want to be invited into websites. They want to walk straight in, find what they're after and walk out.

If you go shopping, to Tesco or Marks and Spencer or wherever, do they have a big sign at the entrance saying 'Welcome to Tesco' or 'Welcome to the Leicester branch of M&S'? Tell you the truth, I don't know without checking. Maybe they do, but the point is that whether they do or not is irrelevant. It doesn't affect whether or not you shop there. Nobody would ever be offended by a shop which didn't have a welcome sign. Because, you know, that's most shops.

There is only one shop I know of that has employees actually standing at the entrance welcoming shoppers and that's the Disney Store. And you know what? It's irritating and in fact slightly creepy. I don't want to be welcomed when I go into Tesco or M&S or the Disney Store. I want to buy a tin of beans or some underpants or a Finding Nemo colouring book and get the hell on with the rest of my shopping, thank you very much.

A website is very much like a supermarket (and, for the record, not like a little corner shop or specialist hobby shop where you do expect to be welcomed). It's a place where people go to get things done quickly and efficiently, not somewhere that people go for fun or relaxation. You don't need to welcome them.

This may seem a fuss over nothing, but there are two ways in which 'Welcome to the Department of XYZ' is actually counterproductive.

It counts against you in Google

Everyone wants to do well in Google ratings. You want people looking for your department to find the front page of your department. Well, Google looks at the page title, then at headings and subheadings on the page. So your front page should be called 'Department of XYZ'. If you call it 'Welcome to the Department of XYZ' you dilute your message - and if you just call it 'Welcome to the Department' you shoot yourself in the foot with both barrels.

A case in point: google the phrase "welcome to the department" and our Department of Geography is fifth on the page (the Government's Department of Health comes top). But google "department of geography" and we're ninth.

And it gets in the way

One of the golden rules of web content is: anything which isn't useful information is getting in the way of the useful information. Stick 'Welcome to the Department' at the top of your page in big letters and people's eyes are drawn to it - but it doesn't tell them anything. You are wasting people's time. People don't like to have their time wasted.

Even as an opener to body text, it's a bad idea. Consider these two options:

Welcome to the Department of XYZ. We provide undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

The Department of XYZ provides undergraduate and postgraduate courses.

Both convey the same information but the second version does it in one sentence. In the first version you have to read two sentences before you get any useful information. These things do matter.

I think one reason for the popularity of 'Welcome to the Department' is the prevailing belief that writing a website is like writing a brochure, so that the front page is like the introduction. Your front page is not an introduction. Websites don't have or need introductions. Apart from anything else, many people visiting your website via specific Google searches or direct links will never go anywhere near your front page.

Your front page is a portal to the rest of your site, a way to point people to the things they're actually looking for as quickly as possible. Visitors do not want to spend any time on the front page; they want it to either have what they're looking for (contact details, latest headlines...) or clearly indicate how to get to what they're looking for.

They don't want to be distracted by extraneous, if polite, waffle.