What Should a Homepage Include? A Designer's Checklist

A homepage needs to tell a stranger, within the first screen, what you do, who it is for and what to do next, then back that up with proof and a clear path to the right page. Everything beyond that is optional, and adding more sections rarely rescues a homepage whose first screen is unclear.

I have been an Art Director at adidas and Director of E-commerce and Digital Marketing at Roots, and I now lead design at Embark. Below is my checklist, in the order I would check it, because order is the part most homepage guides leave out.

What does the first screen of a homepage have to do?

Visitors decide fast. Jakob Nielsen of the Nielsen Norman Group, writing about a Microsoft Research study of more than 2 billion page dwell times, found that users often leave web pages within 10 to 20 seconds, "but pages with a clear value proposition can hold people's attention for much longer." That article is from 2011, but the lesson still holds: the first screen has to earn the next few seconds.

So the first screen, before anyone scrolls, has three jobs:

1. Say what you do in plain words. "Family law in Barrie" beats "Guiding you through life's transitions".
2. Say who it is for, so the right visitor recognises themselves and the wrong one leaves quickly.
3. Offer one clear next step, such as book, get a quote or see pricing. One primary action, not four buttons of equal weight.

If your first screen does these three things, you have done most of the work.

The homepage checklist, in order of importance

1. A headline that says what you do. Plain and specific, in one short line. Test it by asking whether a competitor could use the same line. If they could, it is not saying enough.
2. A supporting line on who it is for and why you. One or two sentences: the audience, the outcome, and what makes you different.
3. One primary call to action. The step you most want a ready visitor to take, repeated further down the page.
4. Proof. Client names or logos you have permission to show, short testimonials with real names, reviews, case studies or numbers you can back up.
5. What you offer. Your main services or products, each with a sentence and a link to its own page. Not every service at equal weight; lead with what you most want to sell.
6. How it works. Three or four steps from first contact to result, so the next step feels low risk.
7. Who is behind it. A real person, with a name and a face. In a service business, the person doing the work is part of what someone is buying.
8. Answers to the objections that stop people. Price, timing, location, "is this for me". A short FAQ often does this well.
9. A closing call to action. For the visitor who read everything and is now ready.
10. Simple navigation. Five or six labels people already understand, such as Services, Work, Pricing, About and Contact, with the primary action repeated as a button.
11. Footer basics. Contact details, location or service area, and links to your key pages.

That order is my professional judgement, not a law. But if a homepage gets the first four right, it usually works, and if it gets them wrong, nothing lower down rescues it.

What should a service business homepage have?

Local service businesses, such as clinics, salons, gyms, trades and law firms, should add:

• Where you work. Your town or service area in the headline or the line under it.
• How to book. A booking link or a phone number that works when tapped on a phone.
• Prices, or starting prices. Even a range removes a big reason not to call.
• Reviews. Real ones, ideally pulled from Google, with names.
• Details that match your Google Business Profile. The same name, address and phone number everywhere. That consistency also matters for AI tools, as I explained in how to get your business recommended by ChatGPT.

If you sell products, I compare the platforms in Shopify vs a custom website.

What should you leave off a homepage?

• Rotating sliders. Each slide competes with the others, and a visitor who does not wait sees only one message.
• Vague slogans that could belong to any company.
• Every service at equal weight. Pick the two or three services you most want to sell and give them the space.
• Stock photos of handshakes and laptops. They signal that there is nothing real to show.
• Walls of text in the first screen. Save the detail for the pages that need it.

How do you know if your homepage is working?

Pick the one action that matters most and measure it. For most businesses that is a booking, a quote request, a call or a purchase. Then try two simple tests:

• The five second test. Show the homepage to someone who does not know your business for five seconds, close it, and ask what you do and who it is for.
• The phone test. Open it on your phone, on mobile data, and try to take the main action with one thumb.

If either test fails, start with the headline and the first screen. Rewriting the first screen is usually low risk for search, as long as you keep your page title and the words people search for you by; I covered what does carry risk in does a website redesign affect SEO.

How we approach homepages at Embark

Our own homepage opens with a small label, AI-hybrid design studio, above the headline "Premium design, shipped at the speed of AI." By my own competitor test the headline alone would not be enough, which is why the label names what we are. The one filled button on that first screen is Start a project, in the navigation. Further down, the page lists our starting prices instead of hiding them, because price is one of the questions that stops people acting.

If your positioning is not settled, that comes first; it is part of our Brand Foundation, from $5,000 USD. If your positioning is settled and the site itself is the problem, see our website design options. To compare how other studios would approach it, use the questions in my guide to hiring a web design agency.

Or start smaller. Our free website audit reviews your homepage's information architecture, visual hierarchy, calls to action and trust signals, and sends you a recorded walkthrough, usually within 5 business days. It is the fastest way to see your homepage the way a stranger does.

Sources

• Nielsen Norman Group, How Long Do Users Stay on Web Pages? (Jakob Nielsen, 11 September 2011)
• Embark Studio, Free website audit and Brand Foundation