thread Re: What content should you have on your homepage? in Online Store

What content should you have on your homepage?

AdamB — Tue, 18 Nov 2025 22:46:15 GMT

One of the most important pages of any website is the homepage. It’s the first page any visitor will see, and it heavily influences whether or not a person will continue looking at your site or if they leave. And even more importantly, it can affect whether someone makes a purchase or not.

Small, medium, or large?

First things first, let’s talk more broadly about your homepage. Just how much content should you have there? There’s no quick answer to this question. Instead, take a mobile-first approach. This means approaching your design as though all your visitors will be using mobile devices. As you build your homepage, check it out periodically on your own mobile device. How long does it take you to scroll through everything; how quickly does it load? The answer to those questions will tell you when you have reached an appropriate amount of content.

Chunkify Your Homepage

Our brains absorb information best through a process called “chunking.” You can make the most of this on your homepage by separating your content into individual sections. To further amplify this effect, use different backgrounds in alternating sections (such as black for one section, white for the next, then black, and so on).

Site Navigation Seven

Short-term memory in humans can generally hold about 5 to 9 items total, with 7 being the magic number. This means that ideally, you won’t have more than 7 different links in your site navigation. If you want to include more than that, consider using submenus. Be sure to limit the number of items in a submenu, too.

Above the Fold

The “fold” is the point at which you have to scroll to see more content. Anything above the fold is what you see when the page first loads, and anything below the fold is only seen once you scroll. It’s a unique term for a unique situation!

You have about 500ms before a visitor forms an opinion about your site, so above the fold content is your biggest opportunity to grab their attention. Choose an eye-catching-image, and add a CTA (call-to-action) button. This makes your above-the-fold content action-oriented, and more likely to get a visitor to do more than just read.

No really, Adam, what content should you add?

In keeping with chunking, you can add small bits of information from the rest of your website. For example, featured items and categories, stories, customer reviews - these are all content that can provide a lot to look at without being overwhelming. If you use Instagram, then adding the Instagram section is also a fantastic addition. The content of that section will be dynamic and different every time someone visits your website.

You should also think about what customers may want to quickly find, such as a contact form for easy communication and a map with your location address and hours.

Put Your Best Footer Forward

Last but not least, let’s talk about your footer. Despite the importance of above-the-fold content, your footer is also very important. 22% of visitors will scroll straight to the bottom of your site, so building a solid footer is important. Include links to your social media profiles if you have them, and add links to important pages of your site.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

Thevioletfox — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 16:32:13 GMT

I'm working on making my homepage more CHUNKY 🤣

Thanks for the awesome info, @AdamB !

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

Minion — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 21:45:42 GMT

High-5 At the last pun. 🤣, Very good info here to anyone building or tweaking their website.

Google page speeds kill me on the layout shifts for website,(84) but mobile (97)is fine, So i'm not touching that anymore and my OCD will have to deal with orange score on website

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

JUYBoutique20 — Thu, 16 Dec 2021 22:28:26 GMT

Great advice....Thanks

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

pessosices — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 20:16:03 GMT

This is a fantastic guide, thanks so much @AdamB !

Im definitely going to do a deep dive in soon and revamp my homepage a bit with these tips. Thanks again!

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

EnchantedFibers — Fri, 17 Dec 2021 21:52:02 GMT

Thanks for sharing.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

MyVintageVinyl — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 00:39:45 GMT

I agree completely!

Square should heed this advice from their community manager. Here is where I go off topic...

The Square User Community should be able to choose and arrange our own widgets on our Square for Retail Dashboard. Why does "Popular topics from the Seller Community" rate above the fold when I need to scroll down to see my "Top categories by sales" and "Top items by sales"?

Respectfully...

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

cashaber — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 02:17:49 GMT

This is true but your 50ms to form an opinion is incorrect. A visitor to your website takes about 7 secs not 50ms (The human brain can not comprehend that quickly) to decide to stay on your page or move on to another. A Call to action being a link or displaying "Call Now, Learn more" etc... requires your visitor to. be attracted to your site in the first place. A Call to Action link would be the second thing to display after you have caught their interest .

Btw that link you have in the 2nd paragraph does not work. Interest lost!

This would be better described as Catching your visitor(s).

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

AdamB — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 06:13:47 GMT

Thanks for catching that - it's a typo and should be 500ms. Do you have a source for your 7-second figure? I'm more than happy to update and include that if you have something I can link to for further reading.

Which link are you having trouble with in the second paragraph? Is it the one about chunking, or the one about adding sections to pages of a Square Online site?

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

AdamB — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 06:17:10 GMT

Solid feedback, @MyVintageVinyl. A customizable dashboard would be pretty helpful for sellers and save a lot of time.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

keicollective — Sat, 18 Dec 2021 22:42:32 GMT

All your links worked for me! (I'm using Chrome and logged into the community if that helps ya troubleshoot)

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

AdamB — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 16:26:28 GMT

Thanks for checking and confirming the links, @keicollective!

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

tanyamwillis — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:27:12 GMT

Your welcome.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

cashaber — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:33:32 GMT

well this report says a potential customer will take 10 -20 seconds but here is the link

https://www.originalbox.co/blog/average-time-spent-websites

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

cashaber — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:42:44 GMT

A broken website links that dont work or take a long time to load (your home page too) will also give visitors a bad impression.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

cashaber — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:44:05 GMT

your right there is too much umm shall I say crap on the Square Dashboard.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

tanyamwillis — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 22:58:11 GMT

What is OCD and why is the layout shift important? What is the score suppose to look like on the layour shift for the wbesite?

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

tanyamwillis — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 23:01:26 GMT

What did you get out of the advice that was typed? I want to know what was really said of the statement to you.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

tanyamwillis — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 23:03:44 GMT

I am doing the same thing but in time not this year of the beginning of the next year. I am resting a bit then I am going to sworm at it. Then I am going to help some people develop there business up to sworm as well.

Re: What content should you have on your homepage?

tanyamwillis — Mon, 20 Dec 2021 23:07:33 GMT

Do you have any sales at all and how do you go about getting your clients? By email, calling, texting, Facebook or what?