Home Page?

hi. i would say on your homepage;

-welcome paragraph to your site with a brief description what you have to offer. if you use keywords in your welcome speech then link these to the page, for example if you say 'we offer clocks, candles' then make sure clocks and candles are linked to their landing page within your paragraph
- Good quality images but not to many
- social links/widgets like Facebook and twitter icons to your social sites
-Payment icon like paypal or credit cards

Id say main URl to your homepage and you can link to your blog from there

Just couple ideas

I think it depends what sort of site it is. If its a blog then it should be dynamic with your latest posts. If it's an ecommerce store it should have products probably your most popular or best selling products. If it's a website regarding your services maybe have a little about you or your company and what you offer. Always make sure the visitors can get to all of your otherpages very easily, good navigation on your site is key.

It depends entirely on what you are trying to achieve with the website. If you could tell me a little more about the type of website you are operating I could offer some more specific feedback but here's some general tips...

If you want the user to only do one thing on your homepage (e.g. sign up for a newsletter or buy your main product), then that needs to be the sole source of attention on the page. For example, if you want them to sign up for your newsletter then the homepage should simply outline the reasons why they should sign up and then display the sign up form. You don't want any other links, categories or menus distracting them from signing up to your newsletter.

If you want to use the homepage to showcase lots of things (e.g. a regularly updated blog or a store with lots of products), then you can have a bit more going on on your homepage and include other links, categories, menus etc. However, even if you are showcasing multiple things, I'd still have a focal point on the page such as featured products or posts which is larger than the rest of the content and draws the visitors attention. Otherwise the visitors may not know where to click and click away in their confusion.

Hope this helps,

Tom