Homepages

What They Are

Having an effective homepage is one of the best practices for managing your agency’s website. A homepage serves as the front door of your website. You should design your homepage to feature the public's most requested information and services and to serve as a top-level directory to access the primary sections of your website.

Why They’re Important

The homepage is the main tool for sending your visitors in the right direction.
Government websites need to focus on helping the public find the services and information they want and need most.
Research shows that more than half of all web users evaluate websites based on homepages alone. If you have an ineffective homepage, many visitors will immediately be turned off and may never come back to your site.
Web visitors want fast, efficient service. On homepages, they expect to find what they’re looking for with little or no scrolling.
Web users are impatient. They don’t want to be distracted by text or graphics that don’t help them find what they want or that increase download time.
Even if your website is targeted to specialized audiences, your homepage needs to communicate basic information to the general public. Citizens--as a whole--are an audience for federal public websites, funded by taxpayer dollars.

Specific Legal, Policy or Other Requirements for Doing This

OMB Policies for Federal Agency Public Websites (OMB M-05-04) require agencies to (#1A) “disseminate information to the public in a timely, equitable, efficient and appropriate manner,” (#2A) “maximize the quality, objectivity, utility, and integrity of information and services provided to the public,” and (#4A) " establish and maintain communications with members of the public and with State and local governments to ensure your agency creates information dissemination products meeting their respective needs.”

Getting customers to the information they need right from your homepage helps ensure that you're providing timely, efficient, and useful to information to the public.

The OMB Policies also specify a number of required links for all homepages.

How to Implement

Assess Audience Needs: There are many ways to determine how to organize and design your homepage, based on audience needs:
- Customer satisfaction surveys;
- Focus groups;
- Email, phone calls, letters, and other contact with the public;
- Talking with intended audiences;
- Talking with other web content managers; and,
- Analyzing web reports, including search terms and statistics.
Read more about assessing your audience's needs
Test with Users: Usability testing can help you organize your homepage in the most effective way.
Most Requested Information: The most requested information should be featured prominently, including online services and forms used by the public.
Photos and Graphics: Homepages should not feature photos of executives or employees of your organization. Those photos may be appropriate on the "About Us" or "News" page.
Be Clear about the Purpose: Even if the public is not the primary intended audience of your website, the homepage should provide an easy-to-identify section where the purpose of the website and the value to citizens is explained in terms they understand.
Required Information: Per the OMB Policies for Federal Public Websites, the following are required information you must provide on your homepage or link to from your homepage. (For example, you could provide the information on a page that you link to from the homepage, such as your “About Us” or “Contact Us” page):
- Your agency’s strategic plan and annual performance plans
- Descriptions of your agency organizational structure, mission and statutory authority
- Information made available under the Freedom of Information Act
- Specific website privacy policies (see Section III, E, of OMB’s guidance memo)
- USA.gov (formerly FirstGov.gov)
- Summary statistical data about equal employment opportunity complaints filed with the agency and written notification of “Whistleblower” rights and protections as required by the No Fear Act of 2002
- The agency point of contact for small businesses as required by the Small Business Paperwork Relief Act of 2002
- Other cross-government portals or links required by law or policy

Examples

U.S. Postal Service has a well-organized, uncluttered homepage that focuses on the top services and needs of its visitors.
MedlinePlus.gov (National Library of Medicine) has a simple, clean homepage that serves as a directory to the key sections of the site. It includes professional graphics that complement the content rather than distract the user from finding what they need.
USDA uses its homepage to highlight dynamic content such as the latest news, announcements, and most requested services. It also provides easy access by topic and audience.

Resources

Many federal public websites follow this best practice. This practice is part of the guidelines and best practices published by the Interagency Committee on Government Information to aid agencies' implementation of OMB Policies for Public Websites.

Page Updated or Reviewed: January 12, 2007