• Don't clutter your pages with too many logos--for example, logos for the children's, teen, women's, sports, and other ministries. It ends up looking like a bunch of ads.
• Don't repeat items on the homepage--for instance, a navigation bar link plus a graphic link for the same thing. People do this to draw extra attention to something. But it just clutters the page and reduces the impact of other individual links.
• Don't include an active link to the homepage on the homepage. On other pages of the site, you might use the logo as the homepage link. But on the homepage itself, don't make the logo an active link. If it's a link, people expect something to happen. They don't expect to stay in the same place. An active link to the current page is just confusing ("Did I, or didn't I, go to a new page? I can't tell.")
• Don't use a bunch of text entry boxes. You need a search box. But you can probably do without text-entry boxes for a guestbook, logging into the site, finding the weather, searching Amazon, and other applications. Text boxes, as well as drop-down menus, tend to grab people's attention.
• Don't clutter the homepage with information about the software you used to create the site ("Made on a Mac"), behind-the-scenes technologies, and other credits. Users don't care. Bury that information on some interior page, if anywhere.

Avoid Animations on the Homepage

An animation calls attention to itself, saying, "I'm important." But on the homepage, every element should be important. Let readers find what they're looking for without being distracted by elements shouting, "Hey, look at me!"

Experienced users ignore animations because they associate them with ads. So don't animate a logo or something else that is important. Rather than attract attention, it might deter attention.