Staples has 163 links on their home page. Wal-Mart has 173. However, this is not an approach your small businesses should take on its home page. 

The purpose of these sites is not to educate the consumer about the companies. Anyone visiting Staples.com or Walmart.com knows
exactly what these companies and sites have to offer and what they
stand for.

When it comes to your small business Web site, you only have a few seconds to engage people who probably have no idea what you’re all about and little incentive to find out. They have their own needs and they just want to know if you can help them.

The less you say on your home page–the fewer goals, the fewer links, the better chance you have to connect with the visitor who’s considering making a buying decision. If you have ten offerings on your home page it doesn’t matter if one of them matches up with a visitor’s needs. Most people will feel overwhelmed and go somewhere else.

One of the most difficult decisions in building a site is not color or photos, but what not to promote on the home page. As a site owner you may want to capture every possible scrap of business. However, you do yourself a disservice by throwing everything against the wall of your home page to see what sticks.

Remember: every Web page on your site is an opportunity to be found at the search engines; every page is a landing page. If an offering is a second-tier offering, you can still optimize the page(s) that describe it and attract prospects who are interested in those products.

Rich Brooks
Small Business Web Site Designer