The homepage vs. landing page split: What each page must do (and what to stop asking it to do)

There is a big difference in how businesses use their home page versus their landing pages. Both have similar roles to some extent, but how they accomplish things is totally different.  

But it is worth defining what a landing page is. At the most basic level, it is a focused, purpose-built webpage designed to turn visitors into action-takers, to move them from curiosity to intent.  

Unlike a general homepage that covers many things at once, a landing page is created around one clear goal — whether that’s booking a call, downloading a guide, signing up, or making a purchase.  

It removes distractions, speaks directly to a specific audience or problem, and guides people toward the next step with compelling messaging, trust signals, and a strong call to action. In short: it’s where curiosity becomes transaction.In order to successfully move users through the marketing funnel, both your home page and any landing pages need to be used effectively; as opposed to trying to use one to accomplish multiple objectives.  

Below are the specific responsibilities of both the home page and landing page.  

 

What a Homepage Must Do 

 

Give Your Visitors an Idea About Your Brand & Its Value Proposition. 

Your homepage is most likely a visitor’s first impression of your business. It needs to be able to effectively tell your brand story and its core value proposition in as little time as possible in a way that is both engaging and easy to understand. Quality visuals and consistent branding messages give your website credibility from the start. 

Creating a well-designed user experience (UI/UX) for your home page will allow your visitors to quickly understand who you are and why you exist. It also puts them on your pre-determined path for what you want them to learn and what you ideally want them to do next. So in essence, it is mostly about creating brand awareness and starting a journey, and less about pure selling  (even for ecommerce brands). 

 

Create Easy-to-Use Navigation. 

A visitor to your home page can come to your site with a variety of intents (i.e., learning about your products, viewing your blog, seeing your products or services etc.). For this reason, your home page should provide easy navigation to all areas of your site. 

Some of the ways to create this easy navigation include menus, a search box and links to important sections of your site (i.e., “About”, “Services”, “Store locations”, “Contact”). 

A home page makes it easier for visitors to find the content they are looking for and satisfy the multiple goals they may have, rather than forcing them to take a specific action. 

 

Answer Key Questions Right Away. 

In the 2-3 seconds a person typically spends on your site before deciding whether or not to continue exploring, they need to know who you are and what you do. 

Your home page should answer those questions by providing the information needed to understand your basic value proposition. Ways to achieve this include using a strong headline, subtitle, and prominent image (or other media element). 

 

The goal here is to quickly communicate your purpose: If visitors cannot get a sense of your purpose without scrolling or clicking through your site, evidence shows they will most likely leave. 

 

Create Trust and Legitimacy. 

Home pages mostly have trust-building elements such as customer reviews/testimonials, customer logos, awards or short descriptions of your products/services. These features help visitors feel confident about the quality and legitimacy of your product or service. 

First impressions of a website are almost exclusively based on the design of the website and how easily they can navigate it. A clean and modern home page design (with sufficient white space surrounding the content) tends to appear well-organised and professional and invites confidence in the visitor to learn more. 

 

What Landing Pages Must Do: Focus on a Single Clear Objective. 

 A landing page should be absolutely committed to a single goal: getting visitors to sign-up, buy something, download something, etc. All the components of the page (headline, copy, imagery, and the form or button) should all point to that one goal. 

A single goal-focused strategy (one of the hallmarks of landing pages) can help with conversions. 

 

To get a high level of performance, it will take removing distractions from the page (i.e., eliminate any additional navigation links or other non-related offers). Visitors’ eyes should automatically go to the offer/signup form. 

 

Have a Single Message Directed At Your Audience.  

Landing pages are usually designed around a particular campaign or group of people. The message should mirror what the visitor clicked on (ad, email, etc.) to get there. 

For example, if an ad offered a free ebook titled “5 Tips for X,” the headline on the landing page should say exactly the same thing. When you keep the message focused, you can increase the likelihood of keeping the visitor interested in what you are saying because they see how relevant it is. 

In most cases having only a little copy helps people stay focused; but make sure it is effective and commuicates your intent. It is also important to leave sufficient  white space between the key elements so they do not compete for the visitor’s attention. 

 

Ensure Clarity Immediately Above the Fold.  

With landing pages, the most important information and the call to action button should be available without having to scroll. This means you need to write clear headlines and place a prominent form or button in the viewer’s browser window immediately. 

Ensuring that the most important information is available above the fold (with no need to scroll) can help you capture their interest instantly.  Our guide to designing above the fold also recommends using simple headings and images that support the offer, so visitors do not have to look for the reason behind the page. 

 

Use Proven Elements to Build Trust.  

Although a landing page is minimal, establishing trust is still very important. Try adding at least one or two of the proven trust factors (such as a short customer testimonial, a security badge, or a reference to a major publication) near the call to action button to help build confidence in visitors to encourage them to complete the desired action. 

However, you can choose to limit the number of long-form testimonials or company histories you include on the landing page since they are secondary to the one click you want. Ultimately, a good landing page is clean, uncluttered, and optimised to encourage conversions. 

 

Stop Expecting the Homepage to Do Everything 

The purpose of your home page is NOT to function as a landing page or a sales funnel. Some common pitfalls are; treating the home page as if it has to convert each visitor on the spot, Or expecting the home page to have enough information from multiple campaigns to support all messaging at once. 

What we mean by way of example is: 

 

Do not expect to put a different call to action on your home page for each campaign.

Instead ofsending campaign traffic directly to your home page (where each visitor will be presented with a multitude of options and links) you should direct campaign traffic to targeted landing pages that are designed to support a single objective. 

 

Do not layer multiple offers or pop-ups on your home page.

Overloading your design with too many promotions will dilute your messaging and confuse visitors. Use good amounts of white space and a strong hierarchical system on your home page to draw attention to your most important content. 

 

Do not treat your homepage like a one-page micro-site.

When you want visitors to submit forms, or download items, create a dedicated landing page. Your home page can then serve as a resource by linking to these additional resources. 

In short, use your homepage for discovery, and let it help build your brand and lead users further into your website. As stated in Hostinger’s User Experience Guide, “the home page serves as an aid to brand awareness, site exploration, and multiple user goals,” but a landing page is always singularly focused on one specific goal. Blending the two will likely weaken your messaging and harm your conversion rates. 

 

Stop Overloading the Landing Page 

It is also important that your landing page doesn’t ask it to perform all of the functions of a homepage. This means a landing page shouldn’t be responsible for telling the whole story of your brand or acting as an overall directory of your website.  

Summary of common mistakes that marketers often make are: 

 

Including full menu options in the primary navigation. 

Leave the full site menu off of your landing page. While even simply including header logos or links (Home, About, Blog, etc.) may distract from the primary purpose of the landing page, you don’t need to provide all navigation options to users; a logo is enough to send them back to your main site are when necessary. Your only goal is to drive visitors down a single path to your call-to-action. 

 

Wrong landing page content. 

Your landing page is not where you should put the company history (“About Us”) or where you should list every product you sell. All information that you add to a landing page should support only one offer.  If a visitor wants to learn more about what you are offering, there should be a way for them to get to your site through a small link. 

 

Using multiple offers

Try to resist the temptation to show other special deals or to allow visitors to sign up for another opportunity while they are on your landing page. One page, one offer. If you have multiple offers, create multiple landing pages to represent each.  

 

Consider doing A/B tests of different elements on the page, instead of trying all things on one page.

A considered A/B test will allow you to better understand what the key drivers for site engagement are (or are not) and allow you to improve your pages in general.  

 

Use Each Page for Its Role 

Ultimately, it is crucial that a homepage serves to introduce a visitor to your brand by welcoming them, explaining who you are, and directing them to what they’re looking for. A Landing Page on the other hand is meant to provide visitors with an easy-to-follow single step to conversion. The key is to allow both to do their job and when successful, your marketing efforts will be much more efficient. Homepages should be designed to attract and orient, while Landing Pages should be designed to convert and inform. Designing your pages based on purpose means you can eliminate confusion and produce better results. 

If you need expert advice on your landing page or your home page, contact us.