Most company home pages try to say everything. Company history fits on there, certifications, news items from 2021, three photos of the building and a slogan about quality. After five seconds the visitor still does not know the most basic thing: whether they are in the right place.
A home page is not a catalogue of the company. It is a junction, and its only job is to send a person to the right place before they decide to leave. This article is about what belongs on it, in what order, and why that order.
Short answer
- Three things belong above the fold and nothing else: what you do, who it is for, and what the visitor should do next.
- The order of the sections follows the order of questions in the visitor's head, not the structure of the company or the order of its departments.
- The most common mistake is not the design. It is a home page that talks about the company instead of the customer.
- Nine sections cover anything. A site with fifteen usually has not decided which three matter.
- You can test it in five seconds for nothing. The method is below.
The first screen: three sentences, not three paragraphs
On the first screen a visitor is not looking for information, they are looking for confirmation that they are on the right site. They decide within seconds and they decide on three things.
- What you do. Specifically, not in industry terms. “We build steel framed halls turnkey” is an answer. “Complete solutions for your industry” is not.
- Who it is for. Either the wording makes it obvious or it has to be written down. A site for manufacturers looks different from one for households and the reader has to see that immediately.
- What to do. One main button, not five of equal weight. A second, softer one is fine, such as looking at the work.
What does not belong: a welcome sentence, a slogan with no content, a carousel with five messages and a video that plays by itself. The carousel is especially treacherous, because it tends to be how an internal argument gets settled: when four departments cannot agree, each gets a slide and nobody sees any of them.
Nine sections and an order that makes sense
The order is not arbitrary. Each section answers the question that surfaces in the visitor's head at exactly that moment. Swap the order and people read the answer to a question they have not asked yet, so they skip it.
| Order | Section | The question it answers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | First screen | Am I in the right place and what am I meant to do? |
| 2 | Proof | Can I believe you, or is this just a website? |
| 3 | What you offer | Do you do the exact thing I need? |
| 4 | Who it is for | Do you take on companies like mine? |
| 5 | How it works | What am I getting into and what happens next? |
| 6 | Case studies with a result | Have you done this for somebody like me? |
| 7 | Price, or at least a range | Am I in budget or is this out of reach? |
| 8 | Frequently asked questions | What is the thing I am embarrassed to ask? |
| 9 | Closing call to action | Fine, how do I get in touch? |
The essentials for each section
Proof directly below the fold. A row of customer logos is the weakest proof there is, because a logo claims nothing. A sentence with a number is stronger: how many jobs, how long, what result. Stronger still is a sentence from a customer with their name and company.
What you offer is a junction, not a catalogue. Three to six tiles, each with one sentence about who it is for and a link onward. Describing a service on the home page means writing it twice and doing neither properly.
Who it is for is the section almost everybody omits, and it saves the most time on both sides. An honest “we do not do this” deters bad enquiries, a saving nobody measures and everybody feels.
How it works reduces risk. On a job worth tens of thousands the main worry is not the price but the uncertainty. Four steps with timings do more than another paragraph about quality.
Price. There is always a reason not to state it, and it always means more meetings with people who cannot afford you. Where a figure is impossible, a range works, or a starting point, or a worked example.
A headline saying “Serving you for 25 years”, a carousel of three photos of the building, news from two years ago and a “More information” button leading to the contact page. After five seconds the visitor does not know what the company does.
A headline saying “Turnkey steel framed halls in six months”, one sentence on who it is for, a button for a no obligation enquiry, and directly below the fold a customer sentence including what the hall cost. In five seconds the visitor knows whether they are in the right place.
The five second test
The cheapest and most merciless check I know. It takes five minutes, needs no tool, and finds exactly what other tests miss.
- 1Find three people who do not know your company, ideally from outside your field: a neighbour, a friend, somebody from another company. Family does not count, they know what you do.
- 2Show them the home page on a phone for exactly five seconds. No introduction, no explanation, no scrolling. Then cover the screen.
- 3Ask three things: what does this company do, who is it for, and what were you supposed to do there. Write the answers down verbatim and do not help.
- 4If two out of three miss the field, your problem is the headline. It is not the design or the photo, even though it looks that way.
- 5If they get the field but not who it is for, you are missing a sentence about the target customer. That is the cheapest fix in the whole test.
- 6If nobody knows what they were meant to do, you have too many buttons, or the main one looks the same as the rest. One primary, the others quieter.
- 7Repeat the test after the fix with three different people. The first three now know what is there, so next time they will answer better than the truth.
The honest part: what nobody reads on a home page
These sections end up on company sites out of habit, take up room and go unread. They are not wrong, they just do not belong on the home page.
- Company history since 1993. That belongs on the about page. The home page gets at most the number that follows from it.
- News, unless it appears at least monthly. An empty news section is worse than none, because a last post from two years ago says the company has stopped.
- Certificates as images. Customers know everybody has the certification. What they want is what it gets them.
- Mission and vision. Nobody reads them, and in no research I know of do they appear among the reasons somebody made an enquiry.
- A photo of the building. One of the most common photos on company sites and one of the least useful. People buy what you do inside, not the facade.
And one thing that does belong on a home page and is almost never there: the answer to why anybody should pick you. Not as a slogan, but as three concrete differences against what your competitors do.
How we handle it
- The home page is built last. First it has to be clear what the site must do and for whom; only then can anybody decide what goes at the top. Starting with the home page is dressing a shop window for a shop with no stock.
- Content above the fold does not wait for JavaScript. On the first screen we animate movement only, because a browser does not treat an element at zero opacity as painted and the headline would arrive late.
- We run the five second test before launch, not after. When it fails, the headline changes, not the photograph.
- We put prices on the site and recommend clients do the same. Our own price list is public, including where we start.
And the honest other side: a home page on its own rescues nothing. If the problem is that nobody visits the site, or that the company offers nothing different from its competitors, rearranging sections will not fix it. Rearranging sections raises the share of visitors who get in touch, not the number who arrive.
Frequently asked questions
What should be on a company home page?
Nine sections in this order: a first screen with what you do and who it is for, proof, an overview of the offer as a junction, who it is for, how the work proceeds, case studies with a result, a price or at least a range, frequently asked questions and a closing call to action. Nobody should be missing the first six; the last three can be dropped depending on the field.
What belongs above the fold?
Three things and nothing more: what you do, who it is for and what the visitor should do. On a phone the first screen holds roughly a headline, two sentences and one button, so write to that. Welcome sentences, empty slogans and carousels do not belong there.
Should prices be on the home page?
Yes, at least indicatively. There is always a reason not to state them and it always means more meetings with people who cannot afford you. Where a figure is impossible, give a range, a starting point, or a worked example of a finished job.
Do carousels work on a home page?
Usually not. People see the first slide and the rest move on before anybody reads them. Worse, a carousel is often how an internal disagreement gets settled: when departments cannot agree, each gets a slide. A message that matters belongs fixed on the first screen.
How much text should a home page have?
Enough for each section to answer one question in one to three sentences. Detail belongs on inner pages. When a home page tries to describe a service in depth, the same thing gets written twice and neither version is done properly.
How do I check whether the home page works?
With the five second test. Show it for five seconds to three people who do not know the company, then ask what the company does, who it is for and what they were meant to do. If two out of three miss the field, the problem is the headline rather than the design. The test can be repeated after every change and costs nothing.
Summary
- A home page is a junction, not a catalogue. Its job is to send people onward, not to close the sale on the spot.
- Above the fold: what you do, who it is for, what to do next. Nothing else.
- Section order follows the order of questions in the visitor's head, not the structure of the company.
- Customer logos are weak proof. A sentence with a number is stronger; a sentence from a customer is strongest.
- The “who it is for” section is missing almost everywhere and saves the most time on both sides.
- A price range saves meetings with people who cannot afford you.
- The five second test is free and finds what other tests miss.
Want to know how yours does
Send us the address of the site. We will run the five second test with three people from outside your field and write back what they said, plus the three things we would change on that page first. No invoice.