Is the homepage the most important page?

I’ve been doing a bit of UX reading in my spare time and one thing that I keep coming up against is the concept that the homepage is the most important page (in some opinions) and the fact that that is one of the biggest myths of UX design (in other opinions). Some people seem to think that all info needs to be within 3 clicks of the homepage, while others say that it should be immediately visible when you get to a site.

What’s your take?

My opinion is that nowadays every page practically can be shown as homepage as a lot of visitors come from search engines. So I think that homepages are no more important and can be replaced by landing pages. What about 3 clicks and all information at once I think there can’t be such directives for all websites. All decisions must be made with keeping in mind your content and your visitors.

I think they are both myths!

Analytics are real eye openers, and the landing pages (at least in my experience) tend to be the content heavy pages that live higher up the google index! The Home page does still have a rightful place though, hitting “Home” at the top should give you the introduction to the service, and it will probably forever be the home of businesses carousel obsession.

I think the three/four clicks thing is something that has been passed on too - Not this report, but a quick google “3 click myth” found this: http://www.intrateam.com/da/blogpost/3-click-myth-intranets-debunked - naturally I think testing users, tree tests, etc. are good ways to make sure that your IA isn’t all messed up - but from what I’ve experienced and read, I think as long as the user gets what they want, within a reasonable time, and don’t feel lost while on the path - then it seems that clicks are not a concern.