What a Homepage Needs

en 2026-09-30 7 min read

A homepage's first screen has to say what you do, who it is for, why a visitor should believe you and what to do next, before anyone scrolls. A homepage costs whatever the site around it costs, from a EUR 600-900 single-page landing where it is the whole site to a EUR 1.500-3.500 business website where its job is to send each visitor to the right one of 4-7 pages, and more at step 04 when it leads into a login or a checkout.

A homepage is not a brochure. A brochure is read front to back by someone who already picked it up. A homepage is opened by people arriving with different questions, and it has to route each of them to an answer.

What the first screen has to answer

• What you do. In the words a customer would use. "Bookkeeping for freelancers in Rotterdam" can be checked against what the visitor came for. "Numbers made simple" cannot.
• Who it is for. The kind of customer, the area, or both. A visitor who is not your customer should be able to tell straight away, which saves time on both sides.
• Why to believe it. One piece of real proof close to the headline: work you can show, a qualification that applies, or a fact about the business that is true and checkable.
• What to do next. One primary action, named for what happens: "Book a call" or "Request a quote". A quieter second link can serve visitors who are not ready yet.

A simple test: cover the logo and ask someone outside the business what you do, where, and how to contact you. If they cannot say, the first screen is decoration.

What earns a place below the first screen

Each section below the first screen should have one job. If it has nothing true and specific to say, leave it out.

What can go

• The slider. A carousel shows one message at a time on a timer, so you do not choose which message a visitor arrives on. Pick the one that matters and hold it still.
• "Welcome to our website". The visitor knows where they are, and the sentence takes the space the headline needs.
• The mission statement and the company history. Both belong on the about page, if anywhere.
• Every service in full. A line and a link each. The detail lives on the service pages.
• A news block that has gone quiet. A "latest news" section whose newest item is old makes the site look unattended.
• Stock photos of handshakes and laptops. They show nothing about your work. Photos of your real work do.
• A pop-up on arrival. It covers the first screen you just worked on.

Why the homepage is not the only front door

A visitor from a search can land straight on a service page and never see the homepage. That changes two things. Every service page needs its own heading, proof and next step, and the homepage does not have to carry the full story of every service.

The Pages tab in the Search Console performance report shows which pages get clicks from Google search, so check it before spending on a homepage redesign. If the homepage has to be the whole site, single-page vs multi-page covers when that works.

What moves the cost

The step follows what sits behind the homepage: how many pages it routes to and what those pages do.

• Step 01, EUR 600-900, 1-2 weeks. The homepage is the whole site: first screen, service, proof and contact form on one page, with analytics.
• Step 02, EUR 900-1.500, 2-3 weeks. A homepage that routes to one or two further pages, with a contact flow and a basic CMS.
• Step 03, EUR 1.500-3.500, 3-6 weeks. A homepage that routes to service pages across 4-7 pages, with booking or a contact flow.
• Step 04, EUR 3.500-7.500, 6-12 weeks. A homepage that leads into a login, a dashboard or a checkout.

The full ladder, including step 05, is on packages.

How a homepage gets made

1. Write the first screen in words. Headline, one supporting line, the proof and the action, before any design. Design first vs content first explains why that order matters.
2. List the routes. Who arrives, and which page each of them needs next.
3. Choose the sections. Only the ones from the table above that have something true to say.
4. Design around the words. Layout, type and imagery built for the content you have.
5. Check it on a phone. The first screen on a phone is smaller than on a laptop, so confirm the headline and the action both still show.

The build then runs to the week range of its step. The facts behind the words are the part that waits on you.

When to spend less

If the site works but the homepage is vague, rewrite the first screen on the site you have. A clear headline, one real piece of proof and a visible action take thinking, not a rebuild.

If you sell one thing, a single-page landing at EUR 600-900 is a homepage that does the whole job.

And if the homepage only feels dated while enquiries still come in, do not buy a bigger build yet. Look at which pages bring people in first, because the page that needs work may not be the homepage at all.

Questions buyers ask

Should the homepage show prices?

A price signal helps when you can give one honestly: a range, a starting figure, or a link to a page that has them. Even a line saying what sets the price tells a visitor what to expect. Our own prices are on the packages page.

How long should a homepage be?

Long enough to route every kind of visitor you want, and no longer. A business with one service can say it all on one page. A business with several needs a section that routes to each service, not a paragraph about each one.

Do I need a video or animation on the first screen?

Only if it shows something words and a photo cannot, such as how a product works. A background video adds weight the page has to load, and it takes the place of a sentence that could answer the visitor. If a video earns its place, it can sit lower on the page, after the first screen has done its job.

Is the homepage the page that matters most for search?

Not necessarily. A search for a specific service is matched more closely by a page about that service than by a homepage covering everything. The Pages tab in Search Console shows where your clicks from Google go today, which is a better guide than an assumption.

Send us your current homepage and what you want a visitor to do on it, and we will say what the first screen is missing: get in touch.