How to determine the order of homepage sections?

Feedback & Problem Solving
#1

Hi there,

I am currently putting together a homepage design and can’t work out the best order to put sections in.

I currently have;

  • Main banner
  • Welcome text
  • News
  • Search bar (although this is also in a site wide header)
  • Business categories
  • Latest business listings
  • Featured business

Is there a method of deciding the order or sections?

I am wondering if I should swap the business categories, latest listings and featured business? I’m guessing a featured business should have a higher priority than latest listings?

Any suggestions would be great, thanks!

#3

Hi @toolman !

I’m going to try to give a framework to help you figure out the order of the content, as you are the one who understands your domain the best :slight_smile:

The order of the homepage content depends on who will be using your site (and their goals) and what you are trying to achieve (your business goals).

Perhaps it might help to identify what actions you would like your user to take. For example, would you like them to make a purchase? If not a purchase directly on your site, what would be the next step that your target user can take to benefit from your services?

You can then reorder your homepage sections to make that next step easy. If the featured business or the business listings would help in convincing your users to take that next step, then perhaps those would be better to show first. If the search feature is robust and would be the best way for your users to navigate and get to the info/action they (and you) want, then that would be the section to highlight.

At the end of the day, I don’t think there’s a formula to what order sections should be in. The only way is to try, test and iterate away!

I hope this helps!

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#4

Thanks for the reply. That is very helpful.

I would like my users to be able to find details of businesses. I still wondering if I should have the search and categories (1 section) above the featured business and then latest listings under that. I am thinking the featured business would prefer to be higher up the page if they were to pay for this part of the page.

#5

When in doubt, ask your users! If you haven’t already, you can try card sorting. It’s my usual approach to navigation organization.

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#6

Thanks for the reply.

I think my navigation is in place, it’s just the order of sections on the homepage.

With a card sort, would ask the users to order the sections that they think should go in a particular order or ask them to order what they would like to find on the homepage without giving them the sections?

#7

If you feel confident in your section titles, by all means just have them sort those out.

#8

Took the words out of my mouth (or fingers).

1 Like