Unlike a service page, the homepage receives people wanting different things, so the top has to identify the business and send each visitor onward. Trying to sell one thing there fails the majority who wanted something else.

Why the homepage is a different problem

A service page has one audience with one intention, which makes it easy to write.

The homepage does not. On the same afternoon it receives somebody with an emergency, somebody comparing quotes for a planned job, an existing customer looking for the phone number, a supplier, and somebody who is not going to buy anything.

Writing the top of that page as though it were a service page means choosing one of them and failing the rest.

Which is why the homepage's opening job is routing rather than persuading. Identify what this is, then send each person to the page that was written for them.

The three things the top has to do

Say what the business is and where. One line, in the words customers use, with the area named. A visitor who cannot confirm they are in the right place leaves before anything else matters.

Carry the immediate action. For most local businesses a tappable phone number, visible without scrolling.

Offer the routes. The three or four things people actually come for, as clear paths rather than as a menu they have to open.

That third element is what distinguishes a homepage from any other page and is the one most commonly missing.

The headline

Descriptive rather than aspirational, which is the opposite of what most homepages do.

What works: the trade and the area, stated plainly. Roofing and roof repair in a named place tells a visitor everything they need in the first second.

What fails: slogans, mission statements, and anything that could belong to a business in a different trade. Building better futures identifies nothing.

The test is whether somebody could tell what you do and roughly where from the headline alone with the rest of the page covered.

Whether the image earns its place

A question worth asking rather than assuming.

A large image at the top is conventional and it is not obligatory. It costs load time, it pushes content down, and on a phone it frequently occupies the entire first screen.

It earns its place when it shows your actual work, your crew, or your premises, because that carries information. It does not earn its place when it is stock photography or an abstract background, which occupies the most valuable space on the site to communicate nothing.

A homepage that leads with a headline, a number, and four clear routes, with a modest image beside them, frequently outperforms one built around a full-width photograph.

The routing block

The element worth designing carefully, since it does most of the work.

Three to five entries, named for what the visitor wants rather than for how you organise services internally. Emergency repairs, planned work, commercial, and get a quote is a routing set. Residential services, commercial services, and about us is a menu.

Each should go to a page written for that person, which means the routing exposes whether those pages exist. Frequently they do not, and building them is the actual work.

The patterns that fail

The slider is worth naming specifically. It exists because a business could not decide what to lead with, and the decision it avoided is precisely the one that matters.

What belongs below

Once the routing is done, the rest of the homepage supports it.

Evidence, meaning reviews and photographs of real work. What makes you different, stated as facts rather than claims. The area you serve, named specifically. And the contact details again at the foot.

The about material belongs low, because the people who want it have already decided to keep reading.

The check

Photograph the first screen of your homepage on a phone and show it to somebody who does not know your business.

Ask what the business does, where it works, and what they would tap if they had a problem. If they hesitate on any of the three, the top is not routing, and that is a content decision rather than a design one, which is the same first-screen discipline described in designing for people who do not scroll.

Frequently asked questions

Why is the homepage different from a service page?

A service page has one audience with one intention. The homepage receives emergencies, planners, existing customers, and suppliers on the same afternoon.

What should the top of the homepage do?

Say what the business is and where, carry the immediate action such as a tappable number, and offer clear routes to the three or four things people come for.

What makes a good homepage headline?

The trade and the area, stated plainly. The test is whether somebody could tell what you do and roughly where with the rest of the page covered.

Does the homepage need a large image?

Only if it shows your actual work, crew, or premises. Stock photography or an abstract background occupies the most valuable space on the site to communicate nothing.

What is wrong with a rotating slider?

It shows most visitors something they did not choose and few wait through it. It exists because the business could not decide what to lead with.

How should the routing block be written?

Three to five entries named for what the visitor wants rather than how you organise services internally. It also exposes whether those pages actually exist.

West Coast Media Solutions Inc. provides web design, web development, hosting, digital marketing, and business consulting to organisations across Canada, drawing on more than twenty-five years in the field.

Homepage built around one message for five different visitors?

We turn the top into routing, which usually reveals which pages you are missing.

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