Your homepage is rarely the page that closes the sale. It is the page that decides whether anyone keeps going. People land on it from your Google Business Profile, from your van, from a friend’s recommendation or from typing your name into a search box. Within a few seconds they want to know they are in the right place and where to go next.
That makes the question of what to put on a homepage less about creativity and more about order. Below is the structure that works for most small and medium-sized businesses, whether you fix cars, sell cakes or offer legal advice, with what each section has to achieve.
The opening screen: what, where, and what next
The part of the page visible before any scrolling, on a phone, is the most valuable space you own. It needs three things: a headline that says what you do and who or where for, a supporting line with your strongest specific reason to choose you, and one primary action, such as “Call now”, “Book online” or “Get a quote”.
Keep a second, softer action if you need one, for example “See prices” beside “Book a table”. Do not give five. Sliders that rotate between messages tend to hide the one message that matters and slow the page down, and a large hero image that takes seconds to load counts against you in Google’s Largest Contentful Paint measure.
The homepage sections, in order
| Section | What it must do | Common mistake |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Opening screen | Say what, where and for whom, with one main action | A slogan or “Welcome to…” instead of a description |
| 2. Proof strip | Show review rating, accreditations or notable clients straight away | Burying all proof on a separate testimonials page |
| 3. Services or products | Summarise the main offers, each linking to its own page | Listing twenty services with no links or detail |
| 4. Why choose you | Three or four specific, checkable differences | Generic promises such as “quality” and “value” |
| 5. How it works | Explain the steps from first contact to finished job | Leaving people to guess what happens after they enquire |
| 6. Examples or work | Real photos, projects, menus or case studies | Stock photos that could be any business |
| 7. Reviews in detail | Two or three full reviews that answer common worries | Anonymous one-line quotes |
| 8. Area, hours and contact | Where you work, when you are open, how to reach you | Hiding this in the footer only |
| 9. FAQs | Answer the questions that stop people enquiring | Questions nobody asks |
| 10. Closing call to action | Repeat the main action with a reason to act | Ending on the footer with no prompt |
Proof early, not at the bottom
Most homepages save reviews for the end, where fewer people ever reach. Put a compact proof strip directly under the opening screen: your review rating and count if it is decent, accreditation logos that customers recognise, years trading or a well-known client. It answers the first unspoken question, which is “are these people real and any good?”.
Then use fuller testimonials further down, chosen because they deal with specific worries such as price, mess, punctuality or nerves. A review that says “they explained everything and the price didn’t change” does more work than five that say “great service”.
Services: summarise and route, do not explain everything
The homepage should not try to be every service page at once. Give each main service a short card: a plain name, one line on who it is for, and a link to its own page where the detail lives. This keeps the homepage scannable and sends Google a clear signal about what each deeper page covers.
If you have many services, group them. A garage might group into servicing, MOT, repairs and tyres. A clinic might group by condition. A shop might show its main categories and a handful of best sellers.
How the structure shifts by business type
The ten sections above are a starting point. What goes near the top depends on how your customers buy.
- Emergency services (locksmiths, drainage, boiler repair): phone number and “available now” message dominate the opening screen, with a sticky call button on mobile.
- Considered purchases (extensions, kitchens, legal services, B2B): proof and process move up; people want to know how you work before they talk to you.
- Booking businesses (salons, clinics, fitness, restaurants): the booking button leads, with prices and availability one tap away.
- Shops: the opening screen shows products, not paragraphs, with delivery and returns information visible early.
- Larger firms: routes for different audiences, such as “for homeowners” and “for developers”, help people self-select.
What to leave off the homepage
- Long company history. A sentence is enough; the about page can do the rest.
- Auto-playing video with sound. It annoys people and slows the page.
- Rotating sliders. Most visitors only ever see the first slide.
- Social media feeds. They pull in slow third-party code and often show old posts.
- Pop-ups on arrival. On mobile, Google has long discouraged intrusive interstitials that cover content.
- Every single service in full. Link to service pages instead.
- Vague mission statements. If it would fit any business, it does not belong.
Writing the homepage for search as well as people
Your homepage usually ranks for your business name and your broadest search, such as “electrician Exeter” or “Italian restaurant Bath”. Give Google clear signals: a page title that states the main service and place, a headline that says the same thing in natural words, your address and phone number as real text rather than an image, and links to each service page using descriptive words rather than “read more”.
Resist the urge to stuff every service and town into the homepage. A long list of place names at the bottom of the page helps nobody and reads like spam. If you serve several distinct areas or offer several distinct services, each deserves its own page with genuinely useful detail, linked from the homepage. The homepage then becomes the front door that routes each visitor, and each search, to the right room.
A homepage checklist
Getting this order right is one of the first things we work out with a client at Nerdsharks, because it depends on how their particular customers decide. The structure above will get most businesses most of the way.
- Headline states what you do and where, in plain words.
- One primary action is visible without scrolling on a phone.
- Phone number is tappable on mobile.
- Proof appears within the first scroll.
- Each main service links to its own page.
- The “how it works” steps tell people what happens after they enquire.
- Opening hours, service area and contact details are on the page, not only in the footer.
- The page loads quickly on mobile data, with the main image properly compressed.
- The page ends with a clear call to action.