Chase Boulay · September 24, 2026

What Belongs at the Top of Your Homepage

Pull up your website on your phone. Don't scroll. Just look at what's on the screen when it loads.

Now answer three questions using only what you can see. What does this business do? Where is it? How do I reach them?

If you had to scroll for any of those, your homepage has a problem, and it's the most common one I see on small business sites across Rhode Island. The top of the page, the part people see before they scroll, is the most valuable real estate on your whole website. Most owners fill it with a logo, a slogan, and a slideshow. Here's what should be there instead.

The First Screen Answers What, Where, and How to Reach You

A person landing on your site from a Google search is deciding, in a few seconds, whether they're in the right place. They don't know you. They don't read. They scan for three things.

• What you do. Not your business name. What you actually do, in words a stranger would use. "Auto repair and inspections." "Barbershop." "Residential roofing."
• Where you are. The town at minimum. "Cranston, RI." Someone searching from Westerly needs to know in one glance whether you're forty minutes away.
• How to reach you. A phone number they can tap. A button that does one thing.

If all three are visible without scrolling, the visitor relaxes. They're in the right place. Now they'll scroll and read the rest. If any one is missing, a lot of them hit back and try the next result.

What to do: Write one sentence that says what you do and where. That sentence, or something close to it, is your headline.

Your Business Name Is Not a Headline

This is the mistake I see most. The top of the page is a giant version of the business name, maybe with the logo, maybe with a tagline like "Quality You Can Trust." That tells a stranger nothing.

If your shop is called "DeLuca's," a person who's never heard of you doesn't know if it's a restaurant, a bakery, or a plumbing company. Your name goes in the corner, in the navigation, where names go. The big text in the middle of the screen has to say what you do.

"Family-owned Italian restaurant on Federal Hill" beats "DeLuca's" every time as a headline. The name is already in the logo. Use the headline for the thing people are searching for.

One Line That Says Why You

Right under the headline, there's room for one short sentence that gives the visitor a reason to pick you over the next result. Not a slogan. A fact. "Same-day appointments, walk-ins welcome." "Family-owned, on Broad Street since the eighties." "Free estimates, licensed and insured."

Pick the one thing that's true about you and matters most to a new customer. If you can't think of one, ask your regulars why they keep coming back. Whatever they say first is probably your line. Just make sure it's real. A made-up claim on the first screen is the fastest way to lose the trust you're trying to build.

The Phone Number Goes Up Top. Every Time.

For a local business, the phone number belongs in the header, visible on every page, tappable on a phone. Not in the footer. Not only on the contact page. At the top, where the person who's ready to call can find it without hunting.

On a phone screen, that usually means a small bar across the top with the number in it, or a "Call" button that sticks to the screen as they scroll. Either works. What doesn't work is making them scroll to the bottom or tap through to another page. Every extra step loses some of the people who were ready to call right then.

I've written a whole post on why click-to-call is the most important feature on a local site. The short version is that a lot of your customers would rather call than read, and your homepage should make that easy.

One Button, One Job

Under your headline, there should be one clear thing to do. Call. Book. Get a quote. Order. Pick the action that matters most for your business and give it one big button.

What kills homepages is offering five things at once. "Learn More." "Our Services." "About Us." "Gallery." "Contact." The visitor doesn't know which one to pick, so they pick none. One button with a clear verb on it, and the phone number next to it, is the whole first screen.

If you have two genuinely different customers, say a restaurant that does both dine-in and catering, you can have two buttons. Not five. And one of them should still be bigger than the other.

What to do: Count the buttons and links visible on your first screen. If it's more than two, cut it down.

A Real Photo Beats a Slideshow

Rotating image sliders are everywhere on small business sites, and they don't work. People don't wait for slide three. On a phone, the slider is often slow, the text on it is unreadable, and it pushes everything that matters below the fold.

One good photo does the job better. Your storefront, your dining room, your crew on a job, you at the chair. Something real that shows what the visitor will get. It loads faster, it doesn't move around, and it doesn't hide your headline behind a fade transition.

If you only fix one thing on your homepage, replacing the slider with a single real photo and a clear headline is a strong candidate.

Don't Bury the Basics Under a Video

Full-screen background videos look impressive on a designer's monitor. On a customer's phone in a parking lot with two bars of signal, they're a loading spinner. And while the video loads, the visitor can't see your headline, your number, or your button.

If you have a great video, put it further down the page where people who are interested can play it. The first screen should be light, fast, and readable in one second. That's part of a bigger point about how your site behaves on mobile, which is where most of your visitors are.

Hours and Address Can Live Right Under the Fold

You don't have to cram everything into the first screen. The rule is that the three big questions get answered up top, and the next most important things are one small scroll away.

For most local businesses, that means hours, full address with a link to directions, and a sentence or two about what makes you worth choosing. Then services, then reviews, then the rest. If someone is checking whether you're open right now, they should find that in the first two thumb-scrolls at most.

Check It on Your Own Phone, Not Your Desktop

Everything above assumes a phone screen, because that's where most people will see your site. A homepage that looks great on a big monitor can be a mess on a phone, with the headline pushed down, the button off-screen, and the phone number lost in a collapsed menu.

Test on your actual phone. Then hand it to someone who's never seen the site and ask them the three questions. If they can answer all three without scrolling, you're done. If not, you know what to fix.

The Bottom Line

The top of your homepage has one job: tell a stranger what you do, where you are, and how to reach you, before they scroll. Use a plain headline instead of your business name, put a tappable phone number in the header, give them one clear button, and replace the slideshow with a single real photo.

Get the first screen right and people stay to read the rest. Get it wrong and they never see the rest at all.