Homepage is the page at the root of a domain or subdomain, for example https://example.com/. Google defines it that way in its documentation on site names: the home page is “the domain or subdomain level root URI.” In most sites it is the main entry point and the hub that links to the main sections.
What matters for the homepage in SEO?
- Crawlability. Google states that the home page must be crawlable for features such as site names. If it is blocked, they may not work.
- One version.
httpandhttps,wwwand non-www can all return the same homepage. Google’s site-name documentation says that if duplicates exist, the same structured data should be used on all of them. The better fix is to redirect to a single version. - Links to key sections. Google describes that it discovers new pages when it extracts a link from a known page, for example a category hub page that links to a new blog post. A homepage that links to the main categories gives crawlers a start.
- Structured data. For the
WebSitemarkup that supports site names, Google requires placement on the homepage. - Title and branding. Yoast recommends aiming the homepage at the brand name rather than many generic keywords, since dedicated pages exist for those.
Example
HTML
<link rel="canonical" href="https://www.example.com/">
On a site served from https://www.example.com/, this tag on https://example.com/ and on https://www.example.com/index.html points both to the preferred homepage URL.
Common mistakes
- Several reachable versions. Variants such as
/index.htmlor a non-preferred host stay accessible without redirect or canonical. - Navigation only through scripts. Google can generally only crawl links that are
<a>elements with anhrefattribute, so menu links built only with script events may not be followed. - Homepage blocked or noindexed after a launch. A staging setting carried into production is a common cause in practice (assessment).
Sources
- Site names in Google Search – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- In-depth guide to how Google Search works (URL discovery) – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Make your links crawlable – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- SEO Starter Guide – Google Search Centraldevelopers.google.com
- Homepage SEO – Yoastyoast.com
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