Why Everyone Thought the Homepage Was Dead

For years, bloggers, marketers and techies were ready to declare the homepage dead. It sorta made sense at the time. People didn’t seem to be getting to websites by going to the homepage anymore. Instead, they were getting there through blog posts, social media and paid online ads. So, the thought went, why bother spending lots of time and money on something so few people actually visit or care about anymore?

In 2013, Columbia Journalism Review presented a startling statistic: less than half of visits to nytimes.com started on the homepage. The idea that the homepage was becoming more and more obsolete was beginning to become a factoid many blindly accepted, and businesses started putting their primary attention onto social media and other online avenues instead.

The Comeback: “The Revenge of the Homepage”

But recently, the homepage has started to seem like it might matter again. In 2022, The New Yorker published a piece called “The Revenge of the Home Page”, writing about how The Verge rebuilt their homepage, adding a more social media-like structure of “short posts and visual highlights, similar to tweets, that provide dozens of updates a day in real time.” While some thought this change was ridiculous, the result was a 47% increase in visits from loyal users. Other sites saw similar results by treating the homepage as a place to start engagement instead of just an obligatory bit of busy work. It turns out that people weren’t avoiding homepages. They were just avoiding bad homepages!

Why Visitors Check the Homepage

At Wild Iris Marketing, we’ve seen the same situation on our clients’ sites. Whether someone finds your business through a Google search or social media ads and posts, they often follow up by visiting the business’s homepage. It’s the digital equivalent of walking through the front door of a home you’re interested in purchasing after looking at the photos on Zillow. They’re there to ask questions. Is this a real business? Can I trust them? Do they actually have what I need? And if those questions don’t get answered clearly and quickly, visitors leave. That’s the brutal reality of first impressions.

What Your Homepage Does for Your Business

What many businesses miss is that your homepage isn’t simply a welcome mat. It gives your customers an entryway, a place to see that you’re legit, and a path to your offerings. Traffic may sometimes enter your site through interior and landing pages, but the homepage remains one of the most revisited. For new visitors who are actively evaluating whether to reach out or hire you, it’s often a make-or-break moment.

A Good Homepage Builds Trust and Improves SEO

The homepage does more than just present information, it frames the entire user experience. When it’s done well, it gives people confidence in who you are and what you do. It helps orient them within your site, quickly figure out the next logical step, and follow it as effortlessly as possible. When a homepage is done poorly, customers hesitate, get confused, or just assume that your business doesn’t quite have its stuff together.

Importantly, your homepage can also impact your results with search engines. Google bots often crawl it first, learning about your purpose and offerings, and this helps establish topical relevance across the rest of your website. If your homepage is vague, confusing, or just has meaningless, trite content, it can affect how your entire site is perceived by search algorithms.

How Have Homepages Changed?

What does a good homepage look like these days? It doesn’t need to be flashy. Gone are the 90’s with their flashy gifs and gimmicky graphics. A home page needs to be clear. When a visitor arrives, they should immediately understand what your business offers and who it’s for. That also means no superfluous taglines or abstract slogans, just straightforward and concise language. “We help homeowners repair and replace their home exteriors, doors and windows” is worth much more to Google and your customers than a paragraph of prettily worded prose. You’re not trying to win a poetry contest. You’re trying to gain trust.

Once a customer understands what you do, they should be able to easily take the next step. That might mean learning more, booking an appointment, getting a quote, or calling you. You don’t need to offer everything at once, but you do need to guide people toward what makes sense for them. That’s where calls-to-action (CTAs) come in. These should be simple, conversational, and aligned with the visitor’s potential needs.

From Pretty to Productive

Consider the previous example of a business that works with home exteriors, doors and windows: Wild Iris Marketing worked with a local company who does just that. Their previous homepage had been designed more for aesthetic value than for customer trust and conversion. It looked pretty at first glance, but there were no clear calls-to-action to contact the company or learn more about their offerings. The layout looked good and the content sounded nice, but they actually provided no value for SEO, and thus the real purpose of the homepage was lacking completely. Content was quite literally written to make the design work, not the other way around. SEO and User Experience (UX) were actually being compromised as a choice for the sake of appearance! 

After a redesign based on the actual needs a homepage should address, the customer’s placement in Google results was much higher and we found significantly more conversions from visitors. Your homepage doesn’t need to be pretty (though we do that too), it needs to make your business more successful.

Your Homepage Should Reflect YOU

Another thing that can help a homepage is humanity and connection. Potential customers want to see that there are real people operating the business behind the website. They enjoy things like a short intro from the founder or owner, team photos or employees on the job that don’t look like stock photos, or even a brief, candid note that shows your personality. These touches matter, especially for small businesses and service providers. They’re the difference between being “just another business” and being “someone I want to work with.”

Common Homepage Mistakes to Avoid

There are still plenty of other homepage missteps that can undermine even the best intentions. Carousels that rotate too quickly, buzzword-heavy headlines that could apply to any company, and navigation menus that feel overwhelming and poorly organized can be UX disasters. This includes poorly planned and written copy. A homepage that starts with five paragraphs of vague and misguided attempts at keyword inclusion before ever actually saying what the business does is not a positive. It’s a negative that can cost you customers. Clarity always has to come first.

What About Those Landing Pages and Blog Posts?

This might all bring a question up for you: what about landing pages and blog posts? Are they still important?

They’re absolutely important! That’s part of why we’re writing this blog. They bring people in, they educate, and hopefully they convert a visitor into a customer. But they don’t do it alone. The homepage remains a kind of…well, “home.” The place visitors return to when they want to step back, get the big picture, and make sure you’re the one they want to do business with.

Homepage Design Strikes Back

In the end, your homepage is the friendly greeting the customer gets when they walk through your business door. It needs to guide, educate, and direct, and it needs to do it in a glance. That’s a lot to ask, but a good homepage is one of the most important investments to make for your digital presence.

If your homepage is unclear, generic, or trying too hard to impress without really offering anything, it’s probably not working for you. But with the right structure and direction, it can become one of the best salespeople you have.

Are you ready for a homepage that drives conversions, builds trust, and helps you connect with customers? We’re ready to help you! Let’s chat.