What makes a good homepage?

Your homepage has seconds to answer three questions. What a good homepage does, what to cut, and why your website probably says too much.

Your homepage is usually designed by committee. Every department wants a slot, every service wants a mention, and the result tries to say everything to everyone. Visitors don't read that. They scroll, get tired and leave.

A good homepage has a simpler job. It answers three questions, fast.

What is this?

A stranger should know what you do without scrolling. That sounds obvious until you read your own headline. "Empowering tomorrow's possibilities" could belong to a bank or a brand of yoghurt. Say the plain thing first, then be clever.

Is it for me?

People look for themselves. Use the words they'd use, name the problem they came with and be clear about who you're not for. Trying to appeal to everyone feels, to each person, like appealing to nobody.

What do I do next?

Pick one main action and make it obvious. Four equally loud buttons leave people to work out your priorities for you. Decide what you most want a visitor to do, then design the page around that.

If everything on the page is important, nothing is.

What to cut

Carousels nobody clicks. Mission statements nobody asked for. Stock photos of people laughing at laptops. Long lists of services that belong on another page. If removing something wouldn't change a visitor's decision, it can go.

How to test your homepage

You don't need a research budget to find out if a homepage works. Show it to someone who doesn't know your business for five seconds, then close it. Ask what you do, who it's for and what they'd do next. If they can't answer, the page isn't doing its job, however good it looks.

Then look at what people actually do. Your analytics will show where visitors go from the homepage and where they leave. Speed matters too: a slow page loses people before they've read a word, so keep images and video as light as you can. Change one thing at a time, so you know what made the difference.

Then make it feel like you

Clear isn't the same as forgettable. Once the page answers the questions, give it a reason to be remembered: a line, an image, a small moment of craft. Check it on a phone first, because that's probably where most people will see it.