What Should You Have on Your Homepage

Your homepage is the front face of your website. It is THE part of your website that is going to be seen the most. Due to this, special emphasis needs to be placed on what are you going to show on your website. Does care need to be put into your choices as this will be, in many cases, your digital first impression.?

The three questions  

In the first few seconds, your homepage needs to answer three basic questions, who, what, and how. You need to have clearly stated who you are. You need to have your homepage needs to quickly articulate what you do and what you want your viewer to do.  And just as important, your site needs to answer how they can get a hold of you. 

For example, let’s say you want to create a non-profit that helps underprivileged school kids get free tutoring lessons so they can excel in their classes.  Your homepage needs to have the name of your organization, the fact you help underprivileged school kids get free tutoring lessons, and what you want your viewer to do or get from your website. 

For non-profit sites specifically

In the case of non-profits, I think one more question that really needs to be addressed on your homepage and that is your why. Why does this nonprofit exist and why should I, the viewer, care?. This does not need to be an entire story on the homepage, but a quick summary. Just enough to get your potential view interested and wanting to learn more about you.

I feel it is also important to point out that as a non-profit you are always seeking donations. Because of this, a link or button ( what is also known as a call to action) to your donation page needs should be on your homepage. In many cases it should be above what is called the fold, meaning before your viewer has to scroll down to see the content. 

Buttons and links are your friends

Your homepage is your summary of who you are and what you do. Do not try to cram everything on your homepage. Instead, use read more links and buttons to other pages as ways to direct people to the information they want without having to go through what they don’t want to view. 

Quick, concise answers to questions you probably learned in school, who, what, when, and where (if you are having an event or drive) and how. Creating short answers to these questions, with links to expanding answers will help in creating a homepage that grabs the viewer and leads them on a journey of why they are they and what you want them to do.