A homepage has to help people recognize where they are and find a useful way forward. It does not need to reproduce every section of the organization’s internal structure. A prospective customer may be evaluating the work, while an existing customer needs help with something specific. Giving both the same long introduction can delay both tasks. Begin deciding what comes first by considering why people arrive. Decide what will help visitors recognize the business and which links will take them to the help they need. Keep enough explanation to make each choice predictable, then let the destination do the detailed work.
Organize the opening around the visitor’s task.
A prospective buyer and an existing customer may arrive at the same homepage for different reasons. One needs to understand the offer; the other needs support. A clear route for each can be more useful than a long introduction that assumes every visitor is new. An illustrative equipment supplier might lead new buyers to products and existing owners to support. The support route should lead to help, not to another sales introduction. A product route should help a new buyer compare actual options. The homepage is doing its job when these different visitors can recognize a suitable next step.
Choose the few journeys that matter most, then give each enough context to be recognizable. Measure the page by whether people reach the right place, not by whether every department appears above the fold. Helping people find their way makes them feel welcome. A department’s desire to appear prominently is not the same as a visitor’s need. Decide what appears first according to what visitors need to do.
Put it into practice.
List the most important reasons people arrive and match each to a real destination. Lead with the work, information, or task that best helps visitors understand where they are. Use link labels that tell visitors where they will go. Remove repeated introductions that do not help someone choose. Test the complete journey from the homepage to the destination; a concise opening is not useful if it sends people into a vague or unrelated page.
Who arrives here, and where are they trying to go?
